Son of a Witch: Volume Two in The Wicked Years (Wicked Years, 2)

At the beginning of the book, Liir is found unconscious by stagecoach driver Oatsie Manglehand and is brought to the nunnery to recuperate. The head nun recognized Liir as being the same boy that had gone off with Elphaba many years before. While at the convent, Liir was cared for by Candle, who played a string instrument that caused memories of the past to surface. Thus, we find out much of what happened to Liir from the time he left the convent, as a boy, and the time he returned unconscious. From the first book, we know that Liir had remained with Elphaba at Kiamo Ko, the home of her lover, Fiyero, with Fiyero's family; they remain after the family is kidnapped. At the end of the first book, Elphaba has been killed inadvertently by Dorothy. This leaves Liir to fend for himself and to try and discover who he is, since Elphaba has not told him anything, because she, herself, is unaware of all the circumstances of Liir's birth. Interwoven with Liir's own story are the politics and religions of Oz. There has been much fighting among the different groups of Oz, because the Wizard has instigated suspicions between the groups, so he could go in and acquire the resources of those areas. The book is a page turner because you want to find out what has happened to Liir and how the politics of Oz affects the trajectory of Liir's life after he leaves the convent upon his recovery. Throughout his various wanderings and work situations, Liir looks for Nor, one of Fiyero's daughters, whom he bonded with at Kiamo Ko. If she were still alive, she could be in the Southstairs prison, a horrible place from which very few escaped, and many were never seen again. This creates suspense as to if Nor is still alive and where she is. Many characters come and go throughout the book, each filling in a part of Liir's background and leading him to his eventual path in life.

I view this book, as well as "Wicked", as Maguire's experiments with the genre. How else to explain his insistence on dangling plot threads and geographic scrutiny?

While I would give the previous book about three stars (I did find the story kind of fascinating in its own way, and I identified with Elphaba as a sympathetic character), "Son of a Witch" gets no more than two stars because it is, in its entirety, quite boring.

The characters themselves, I just could not care about. Nor continued to be absent, Candle had promise but was mostly inexplicable, and Trism's motivations were confusing. Even Liir, who should have been interesting by virtue of maybe being Elphaba's son, was just...boring. The plot contained some action - the descent into dank, vile Southstairs; a dragon attack as well as retaliation; hiding away with Candle, and all that great sexual tension - but Maguire ruined it with all kinds of pace-killing filler: Liir's meandering thoughts about his stultifyingly aimless life, description after description after description of the geography of Oz, the whole of which Liir had to have covered eight times during the course of the book. So when potentially thrilling things started to happen, it was all I could do to try to read through them because I simply did not care what happened.

At times I did wonder, as other reviewers have implied, if he was meeting a word count, or being paid by the word. It would explain a lot. I otherwise cannot wrap my brain around why he would go on for pages about the most mundane, unimportant things, all the while teasing the reader toward answers and climaxes that never arrive.

Getting back to my idea of Maguire's experiment. At least in his Oz books (the ones I've read), he refuses to give the reader closure on a large number of things. I think it's his way of giving us biographies of Elphaba and Liir that are true to life. In real life, we suffer the enduring absence of people we care about, with little hope of recovering them; characters drift in and out of our experience; questions go unanswered; lives go unfulfilled. We wander aimlessly so much. And yet this is what we don't want from our fiction, we want answers, we want resolutions, and Maguire does not give us that.

So, while I can commend his bravery in publishing what to many are unsatisfying stories for the sake of a literary ideal, in the end "Son of a Witch" was as plain and dull as a piece of cardboard. I got so frustrated halfway through I just wanted to stop - but I guess I'm too nice, and didn't want to return this book to its owner unread, and lie about it.

Please do not let this book (or "Wicked") turn you off to "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" or "Mirror, Mirror." Those books contain answers, resolutions, beautiful language, exquisite settings. I think they're masterful. I guess Maguire simply has something else in mind whenever he wanders into Oz.

There are a fair number of negative reviews about this book but I'm inclined to think that many of these readers judged it for what it is not. This is not a trade paperback that wraps itself neatly around a simple plot and yields a satisfying, if not happy, ending. It is, I think, an attempt at a serious novel. I'm not sure it succeeds in that aim but it at least tries. Accordingly, it should be judged by the standards of a real, live grown-up book and not a fantasy of the pulp fiction variety.

Maguire offers no easy answers, no neat solutions. His characters do not behave predictably, as trade paperback characters are expected to do. Instead, like real humans, they vacillate, ruminate, backtrack, contradict themselves, contradict their contradictions, and generally present the reader with a murky mess to untangle.

I agree with the critic who recommended a re-read of Wicked before taking on Son. For those who read it thoughtfully, rather than as an adventure story or an unrequited romance with a tragically flawed heroin, Son will offer additional food for thought about fundamental issues of good and evil, moral relativism, and the capacity of the human soul for redemption.

It helps, also, to read Baum's books with some attention to their underlying sociopolitical themes. Maguire touches a number of these in ways that are a great deal more meaningful if the reader begins with some background knowledge. Those who read Baum's Wizard to the mental accompaniment of "Ding dong, the witch is dead" may miss these connections (which, admittedly, are sometimes a bit ephemeral) but more thoughtful readers will not.

it would be a mistake to overrate either Wicked or Son. This is probably not literature that will be assigned reading in a hundred years and no one is likely to nominate Maguire for the Nobel in literature. It is, however, an engaging read...but only for a serious reader. This is in no sense children's literature, not because of the violence but because a measure of maturity is required to grasp its themes.

I really enjoyed Wicked, and when I saw that there was a sequel I got really excited. I didn't really know what kind of storyline could be created with Liir, so I was very curious to see where Maguire was going with this. I have never been so let down by a book in my entire life. The whole book seemed pointless to me because it didn't go anywhere, and everything Liir set out to do was never accomplished. The ending was also terrible. I don't even want to read the third book because this one was so bad. Do not buy this book! If you must read it get it from a library, don't waste your money.

Didn't really enjoy the first one but it was much better than this one. Story is just plain boring.

'Son of a Witch' is Gregory Maguire's follow-up to the marvelous novel 'Wicked', which reinvented the fantasy world of Oz and its characters. It is a very interesting, and sometimes engrossing, book, but it does fall a bit short when compared to its predecessor. The book focuses on Elphaba's son, Liir, as he is involved in a complex story which involves his own awakening as a person as well as his interaction with his surroundings. During the book, we meet many very interesting characters and learn about Oz and its society.

What could have been done better? First of all, the book seems to have a lack of focus, going from place to place and time to time. It's often difficult to figure out where you are and when you are. Second, the story itself focuses more on Liir's journey than his relationship to the entire Oz mythology. As you read this book, you will feel as though you are moving through time with Liir, and every once in a while, you get a little bit of anchoring back to the overall Oz mythology. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it sometimes makes you think...why is Maguire covering this bit of material? Why should I care about these characters? What does this have to do with the overall Oz mythology? If you can get past these questions, then you will not be bothered by the book's tangential approach at all; however, if you were looking for a solid continuation of 'Wicked' with a strong focus on the overall story of Oz, I don't think that you will get this here.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable read and very interesting. As another reviewer said, this one will deserve a second read sometime to delve deeper into the characters we meet. I will have to wait until I finish the other 2 books before going back for a second helping, though! Enjoy!

I'm not sure exactly what other customers are reading, but I found this book interminable wit but a scant few highlights. Yes, I get the themes of finding yourself and forgiving yourself but this book is SO boring. I'm pretty sure I spent the longest time reading this book, wondering why I was continuing at all. From the longwinded descriptions(do we REALLY need 1,000 detailed descriptions of the Kells?) to the story that sometimes gets interesting for a few pages then slides back into it's neverending descriptions of events that most authors would spend a line or two on. Not sure why he wrote this as it really adds nothing to the mythos of the world he borrowed and made his own. VERY dissapointed.

Saw Wicked in theatre and wanted to read more of the story but the book it very hard to follow. I only read the first chapter.

I give this book 5 stars. All these books written by Maguire all go beyond other authors on this format.

I didn't enjoy this series. The characters didn't interest me & the story was hard to read. It was tough going.