Who can say if we’ve been changed for the better, but, because we listened to these audiobooks, we have been changed for good!
Before we get into our favorite listens, let’s discuss why Wicked has taken over your screens with its pink and greens. It’s not just a musical, after all, it’s a literary movement all on its own!
Published originally as Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire in 1995, this iconic story kicked off a series of new POVs we never knew we needed. Beyond the gingham clad perspective of Dorothy and her band of merry misfits, we can start to see the real cracks in the Emerald City’s facade, revealing much darker truths inside.
Inspired by the chilling headlines of the 1990’s Gulf War, Maguire wanted to explore the idea of someone being “born bad.” Could someone really possess no qualities or depth behind their evil cackle and sickly green skin? In The Wizard of Oz, the argument was, of course, yes and that you should vilify and fear that person. In fact, the “Wicked Witch of the West” wasn’t even given a name beyond this menacing moniker, forcing the audience to only see her as such.
But Elphaba Thropp had another story to tell, and she was going to tell it whether you liked it or not.
Want to hear Elphaba’s story directly from the Wicked Witch herself?
Enjoy RB Media’s brand new recording of Wicked, narrated by Cynthia Erivo, out now everywhere you like to listen!
Elphaba’s Journey from Compliance to Resistance
When we meet Elphaba, she’s born with skin the color of “froggy, ferny, cabbage” and from an extra-marital affair right under the nose of her Munchkinland father. Her sister, Nessarose, is also born without the ability to walk, making their shared childhood one of assimilating as best as they could while never truly “fitting in.” Ever the dutiful sister, Elphaba does her best to comply with her father’s wishes and honor her deceased mother by protecting wheelchair-bound Nessarose. No matter what she does, though, she never seems to garner favor from her family and community… who may be more wise to her origins than they let on.
As Elphaba joins the ranks of Shiz University students, her “otherness” is still staunchly in focus, and she’s devastated when she’s denied a room with her sister. Worse still, she’s forced to bunk up with none other than the pretty, perfect Galinda Arduenna Upland. This seems like a nightmare scenario for Elphaba, but this unlikely alliance and her distance from her toxic family allows her to come into her own. She once thought the Emerald City and The Wizard who ruled it were the pinnacle of society, but now her green-tinted glasses are starting to fade. In fact, as she begins to see how her Animal professors are mistreated, she decides being an outcast in this society may not make her the “wicked” one after all.
This journey from faith in powerful institutions to discovering deep corruption and shattering idealism is similar to that of Yang Mina’s in Kylie Lee Baker’s latest release, narrated by Mirai. Coupled with a dash of forbidden love and familial loss, this timey-wimey novel shares a lot of themes with our favorite technicolor musical…
Yang Mina, descended from a Japanese dragon god, was born with the power to travel through time, and has spent her life training to take her place in the Descendants, a secret organization whose purpose is to protect the timeline. But since moving to Seoul, everything is falling apart.
Mina has discovered that the Descendants are corrupt, that her sister has been erased from existence, and that she can’t pass Calculus, which puts her mission to kiss the cutest boy in her year at risk.
One Short Day in the Emerald City
While the original Wizard of Oz book and film was a thinly veiled critique on the American Industrial Revolution, Maguire used his pen to dissect the more global issue of otherness, classism/racism, and the false promises of those in power. When Winnie Holzman produced the stageplay, Wicked, she kept that message at the forefront, creating scenes at the same time breathtaking and disturbing in the best of ways. This allegory is sustained in the latest two-part film adaptations we’re enjoying today, bringing a new generation to the glowing, green light of the “real” Emerald City.
But that light is just that, really, a flash — a bit of smoke and mirrors to make the people of Oz feel like prosperity and success is right there at their fingertips. As Animals and Ozians alike have their dignities and rights stripped from them, the cold reality of who The Wizard really is and what he stands for becomes harder and harder to ignore. Instead of a benevolent and magical leader, this talking head is better described as a “corporate authoritarian” with complete control over his verdant empire. No longer wishing to be his “grand vizier,” Elphaba turns her heel and commits fully to being wicked through and through.
This reminds us of another story about a young woman and motley crew destined to restore equality and order in their corporate authoritarian society. Written by Lena Gibson and narrated by Rusty Mewha and Angelina Rocca, this dystopian tale kicks off a futuristic yet all-too-realistic view of what life could be like in this kind of world…
Life in SoCal in 2195 is controlled by a corporatocracy. Elsa scavenges twenty-first-century trash, living on the edge of starvation in this ruthless world through her grit and instincts. When she unearths a metal tube containing maps to six Doomsday seed bunkers and a silver key, she dreams of renewable sources of food and a life based on more than subsistence, but GreenCorps will stop at nothing to acquire her find.
Accused of theft and beaten half to death, she escapes with a handsome train hopper.
Fans of critiques on the early (and current) American empire will also enjoy Sheldon Costa‘s debut novel, narrated by Jonathan Sleep. This speculative western is “dark, vivid, and strangely hopeful” much like the story of Elphaba and her unlikely friendship with Galinda, turned Glinda, in the Emerald City…
Alone in a frontier town in the nineteenth-century Pacific Northwest, Gentle Montgomery is grieving his best friend. Liam was an alchemist, killed when he tried to capture a creature that shouldn’t exist: a giant salamander that drives men mad. When Gentle’s nephew, Kitt, arrives at his doorstep, the two set out together to track the monster down so they can use its blood in an alchemical formula that will bring Liam back to life.
Reality Can Be Crueler Than Fiction
Like a lot of successful fiction, Wicked and the rest of the “Wicked Years” series titles, explore very real themes that affect us and the ones we love every day. Perhaps the reason why this two-part silver screen debut has been so popular isn’t just because of all the pink and green slathered promotions, but the connection we naturally have with these diametrically opposed women who had “wickedness thrust upon them.”
The most timely message can be found in the very American, but also global stigma against immigrants. Like the Emerald City, America is a fantastical blend of colors, cultures, and beliefs that make it bloom with vibrancy. Unfortunately, some Ozians and Americans have trouble seeing this beautiful truth and, instead, see people from outside of their accepted culture as dangerous or even monstrous.
For example, when Galinda and Elphaba first meet, they both judge the other based solely on appearance and assumptions. One is an odd, green outcast with no interest in fashion while the other is a pompous, perfect bubble-head who cares only about her appearance. These surface-level judgements prevent them from seeing each other for who they truly are until both are vulnerable enough to allow the other in. Galinda begins to understand Elphaba’s staunch rejection of her glitzy view of the world once she opens her eyes to how it’s impacting her fellow students and Animal teachers. Elphaba, too, starts to look past the bubblegum pink facade to see a young woman who’s been reduced to “just another pretty face” instead of a talented sorcerer in her own right — a victim of the same environment she thought she fit in so well.
We have several audiobooks that explore what it’s like to be treated as an other in a country that should have accepted you with open arms. In these next two titles, you’ll meet real people who lived through rejection, isolation, and even extreme violence just because they didn’t fit into the perfect American ideal.
While Rachel Phan narrates her own childhood experience as a “restaurant kid” trying to force herself into a box she never chose, Bench Ansfield (aided by Sarah Naughton’s narration) reveals the unsettling reality that even American-born citizens can fall victim to violence because they aren’t accepted as equals to their own neighbors…
When she was three years old, Rachel Phan met her replacement. Instead of a new sibling, her parents’ time and attention were suddenly devoted entirely to their new family restaurant. For her parents, it was a dream come true. For Rachel, it was something quite different. Overnight, she became a restaurant kid, living on the periphery of her own family and trying her best to stay out of the way.
While Rachel grew up, the restaurant was there—the most stalwart and suffocating member of her family.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning!” This phrase was supposedly uttered by announcers during the 1977 World Series as flames rose above Yankee Stadium, and it became a defining expression of a turbulent time in American history.
Throughout the 1970s, a wave of arson coursed through American cities, destroying entire neighborhoods home to poor communities of color.
As personal fans of Wicked — the novel, the play, and now the films — we could go on forever, but we know you can’t stay in the Emerald City with us forever. As you travel back home with your branded popcorn bucket and drink cup in hand, we hope you also take with you a connection to those special characters, and the stories in these audiobook recs, that you can share with the fellow Ozians you love!
