Anyway on February 13th, a flood hit my school (again!). The 3rd graders were having tryouts when it came. At around 8 am, the water had started flowing into my school's field, and at 10.30 it flowed through the corridors. Not long after that, the water got into classrooms in the 1st floor (included mine....). The 2nd&1st graders then were instructed to go home so the 3rd graders could continue working on the tryout in their classrooms. After that, we were instructed to go home immediately (YESSSS)! But (of course) I didn't miss this rare opportunity to take few pictures ;p
there were a lot more photos in my friend's phone but she's deleted them :(
anyway,
I'm actually here to give you a review of a novel. Remember when I promised to give a review about Divergent book? yeah........ that's not happening. It's an adventurous fiction novel so I guess there's not much to talk about. In fact, I've got another book that's more worth reviewing (I think).
WICKED:The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published in: 1995
Cover illustrator: Douglas Smith
Language: English
Genres: Prose literature, fantasy, parallel
Number of pages: 538
Let's firstly talk about its physical appearance. What grabbed my attention first were definitely the green pages. They make the book stands out of any other books. And it makes me feel cool to read a green book, hahaha. It is really light in weight so it fits in your hands or in your bag.
In the first page, you'll find a mini map of the land of Oz, the place where the book takes place.
The book tells about the life of Elphaba. She was a girl who was born with literally green skin and teeth like shark. She was born a loner. She had a massive allergy to water so she had never taken a shower. She received really little attention from her parents in her childhood. She was always misunderstood, even after she died.
Elphaba grew up to be a smart, independent, and witty woman. She was aware of political issues in the land of Oz. One of the most prominent political issue in the book was the existence of Animals, with capital "A". These Animals were basically human beings inside animal bodies. They spoke, thought, walked, and worked like human. But people started to disrespect them. People started to treat them as regular animals. Elphaba was there, she gave everything she got to defend these Animals. People saw her as an evil, horrible, and hideous woman. But in the end, we would understand and pity her because she actually had a nice heart.
Another minor characters in the book included: Galinda, Elphaba's roommate in university. She'd become The Good Witch; Nessa, Elphaba's sister. She'd become The Wicked Witch of the East; The Wizard, a tyrannical leader in Oz who hated Elphaba so much he wanted to get rid of her; Dorothy and her companions, who wanted to kill Elphaba; Fiyero, whom Elphaba had an affair with; etc.
Now let's talk about the moral lessons. The first and most important moral lesson is looks don't determine who you are. Elphaba was described as ugly but she actually was nice. Another moral lesson is people's judgement can affect someone's personality. Elphaba once had a nice heart. But people judged her as ugly, evil, self-righteous, dangerous, etc., so in the end she became what people had judged. This book also tells us that everyone in this world is normal human beings with human nature. So if you have an enemy or hater, just remember that they have their own reason why they've become such a bad person. So don't judge people too quickly. Another moral lesson of the book is people with completely different personalities can be lifelong friends, just like Elphaba and Galinda. As long as you keep being yourself, you will find your best friend forever.
What about the positive points of the book? Firstly, the backgrounds, such as cultural, political, and social, are described clearly in the book. Secondly, the story is relevant to our real life and realistic, because we wouldn't find a person in this world that's completely good or completely bad. Thirdly, the plot is interesting, because Maguire told some irrelevant stories at first. But we must remember every detail because in the end, these detail will blend together and give us a shocking conclusion. The last positive thing is it has interesting characterization. The characters are not explained really clearly in the book. I think Maguire did that on purpose, because he didn't want us to really feel the storyline, but to really feel the good and bad characters.
What about the negative points of the book? I think the first one is the language. The book uses classic British with some classic poems and idioms, and I had a slight problem reading the book, not sure if the language is actually difficult or my English is not good enough. Secondly, it contains some sexual scene. It's not really that much, but it's pretty disturbing for children. Another negative point is there are still some missing explanations, because after I read the whole book, there were hundreds of questions in my head that remain unanswered.
Overall, I recommend this book for adults and teens, but I do not recommend this book for children.
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That's all!!! This is the first time I post my book review on the internet, so if there's something I can do to improve my reviewing skill, please tell me!
dadah <3
btw do'a in gue lagi ujian praktek ;)
