I really loved this book. My experience with the book preceding it, Wicked, was more complicated: I found its prose to be dense and lush yet often off-putting, plot points at times inscrutable, and ultimately left the completed book with mixed emotions. I knew I'd read something vital, lively, intelligent, but oh so gloomy and needlessly convoluted. Much of that carries over to its sequel, but oddly relieved of much of the baggage of Wicked, Maguire is able here to tell a story about a new character, one unfamiliar to those of us with Oz experience, and somehow that makes all the difference. Yes, the book is still dense, gloomy, and often needlessly convoluted. But I found this one to pack quite an emotional wallop. Its final pages had me weeping, a rarity. Those who loved Wicked may or may not feel the same about its sequel, but for me it is the better book hands-down.