Where to Start with Gregory Maguire: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Gregory Maguire — whether to begin with Wicked, Son of a Witch, or Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. A complete reading guide.
Gregory Maguire (born 1954) is the American novelist whose Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) — a revisionist retelling of L. Frank Baum’s Oz from the perspective of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch — became the basis for one of the most successful Broadway musicals ever produced and established him as the leading practitioner of revisionist fairy tale fiction for adults. Maguire’s method is to take a villain or minor character from a familiar story and reconstruct the world from their perspective, revealing how easily heroism and villainy are determined by who controls the narrative. He has applied this approach to Oz, Cinderella, Snow White, and other sources; his Wicked Years series remains his essential work.
Where to Start: Wicked (1995)
The essential Maguire — and one of the most influential fantasy novels of its generation. Elphaba Thropp is born green. Her father is an Eminence, a political figure in Oz; her mother is flighty and disappointed. Elphaba grows up strange, politically serious, and increasingly unable to accept the world as it presents itself.
At Shiz University she meets Glinda — beautiful, popular, blonde, and initially contemptuous. They become roommates by accident and, slowly, something like friends. Oz is ruled by a Wizard whose regime is built on the oppression of the Animals (talking animals who are being systematically stripped of their rights and their voices); Elphaba becomes a radical, a terrorist, and finally the Wicked Witch of the West.
Maguire’s argument is that history is written by the victors and that the categories of good and evil are determined by power rather than morality. The novel’s Oz is politically specific — the Animals’ oppression reads as an allegory for racism and totalitarian control — and Elphaba’s radicalism is presented sympathetically while the costs of it are not minimised.
The 2003 Broadway musical compresses and sweetens the novel considerably. The novel is darker, more morally complex, and more politically direct than the stage version; both are worth experiencing.
Son of a Witch (2005)
The second Wicked Years novel — Liir, Elphaba’s son, in a war-torn Oz. Darker and more violent than Wicked; the political allegory becomes more explicit and the world-building deeper.
A Lion Among Men (2008)
The third novel — the Cowardly Lion’s story, spanning decades of Oz’s history. Maguire’s most historically ambitious entry in the series.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (1999)
Maguire’s best non-Oz novel — a revisionist Cinderella set in seventeenth-century Holland. Darker and more psychologically sophisticated than the Oz books; the best standalone introduction to his method.
Reading Gregory Maguire
Begin with Wicked — it is his essential novel and the starting point for the series. If you want to continue in Oz, read the Wicked Years novels in order. Read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister if you want his best non-Oz work.
For the full Gregory Maguire bibliography, reviews, and biography, visit the Gregory Maguire author page on Editors Reads.
Affiliate disclosure: Links to Amazon on this page are affiliate links. We earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where should I start with Gregory Maguire?
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) is the essential starting point — Maguire's revisionist retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the perspective of Elphaba, the green-skinned girl who will become the Wicked Witch, tracing her childhood, education, and political radicalism in Oz before Dorothy arrives. The musical adaptation (2003) became one of the longest-running Broadway shows in history; the novel is darker, more political, and more complex than the stage version.
What is the Wicked Years series?
The Wicked Years is a four-book series set in Oz: Wicked (1995), Son of a Witch (2005), A Lion Among Men (2008), and Out of Oz (2011). Each novel follows a different character from the original story or Elphaba's descendants through different periods of Oz's political history. The series is best read in order; Son of a Witch follows Elphaba's son Liir, and the later books expand the political canvas considerably.
What is Son of a Witch about?
Son of a Witch (2005) is the second Wicked Years novel — following Liir, Elphaba's possible son, as he wanders a war-torn Oz trying to understand his origins and his inheritance. Darker and more violent than Wicked; the political allegory of the Oz novels is more explicitly present in the sequels, and the world-building becomes richer and more complex.
Are Maguire's non-Oz books worth reading?
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (1999) — a revisionist Cinderella set in seventeenth-century Holland — is generally considered Maguire's best non-Oz novel, darker and more psychologically sophisticated than the Oz books. Mirror Mirror (2003) reworks Snow White in Renaissance Italy. Both demonstrate that Maguire's revisionist approach works beyond Oz, but Wicked remains by far his most famous and most accomplished work.
