Thanks to my friend for getting me an arc, you've won friendship!

I do not understand why we needed this book. Wicked covered Elphaba's childhood sufficiently. Nothing more was needed. I was curious when this was announced if it would contribute anything of value to the novel's canon. After reading this, I have concluded it doesn't. I keep thinking why this was written and I think I have an idea. This book is written for people who have seen the films, but don't want to read the 400-page behemoth that is Wicked and have the film's versions of the characters spoiled.< I will be rereading Wicked and this when the full version releases in March, but as of right now I feel like Elphie takes a different tone towards Elphaba. She is no longer Elphaba as she was in the books. This book felt like it was kinder towards its characters, which supports my idea that it is a prequel to the film in spirit, forcibly bound to the lore of the original book to "justify" it.

Magurie's writing style is best when he's doing plot. The first 1/3rd of this book is hard to get through even as a seasoned Maguire reader. Nothing much happens. Every little thing that was mentioned in Wicked gets its own chapter and explanation, yet it takes the tone that we've read Wicked and understand these things to be a fact. Like Elphaba's sharp baby teeth. I don't blame anyone for DNFing it at that point, I was tempted. It does get better when things start happening and Elphaba starts doing things, though I wouldn't say the book ever picks up at any point. That's not the way of the author.

I found the short sentences and short chapters hard to read. All the full stops made the page feel so long, and then you'd get to the end of the chapter a realize you'd only read a couple of pages and were making no progress in the book. I always find Maguire's books slow, but this one felt exhausting despite being so short. A frustrating paradox that had me putting down this book quite often. It also failed to grab my attention most of the time. This book is quite mute in the way all prequels are. It is hard to build tension when we know where the characters must end up. Not only that, but we already know the results of many of the events. This isn't bringing anything new, it's expanding on events, characters, and things we know about. This isn't a book covering things that happened before the book Wicked began, as the book Wicked begins in the same place this one does: the circumstances of Elpahaba's parents and her unfortunate birth. This only elaborates further and ends before any of the real exciting parts of the story happen.