Confessions of an ugly stepsister.

[Q]

By Gregory Maguire

I just finished the book yesterday.
And I thought it was amazing. In some ways, so much better than Wicked.
It's been a long time since I actually got shivers down my spine reading a book.
Gregory Maguire really has talent, more in how he represents the story rather than thinking it up.
Plus it is really strong with the most interesting and appealing characters you could ever stumble upon reading a novel.
I know that in Wicked Gregory Maguire didn't really go that much in depth with every character, but in this book he really digs in, and half way through the book you have a really deep connection with them.
The characters are truly amazing and I can repeat this phrase on and on!!
And it's deep with mistery and magic.
And Gregory Maguire really puts alot of richness in it too.
The magic is pretty realistic. It's not the kind of magic where you cast a magic spell and turn something into a watchamacallit or where you fly on a broomstick or you have talking mice. None of that.
It has a more practical sense too it, the kind of magic everyone once felt sometime through their lives.
And No, it doesn't have any fairy god mother in it, or mice turning into people or pumkins turning into carrages.
Here's my plot summary without any spoilers:
Iris is the Daughter or Margarethe and the sister or Ruth. Iris is very unfortunate in her looks(although she is very smart and pure), and Ruth, while very good in heart, lacks in brains and dosn't know how to talk while she acts like a little child. After their father gets killed by a mob, they move form England(where they originally lived)to Holland. There, they wander the streets, penyless, with nothing to eat and nowhere to go. They remain homeless for a while, and right before they strave to death, a man called Schoonmaker. He isn't wealthy or anything, just a struggling artist who needs a helping hand. He also has an apprentice called Caspar. Schoonmaker is visited by many upper-class rich people who want a painting done by him, and one of them turn out to be Van den Meer, a wealthy tulip merchant. He is impressed with Iris' intelligence in speaking English and Dutch, and thinks that Iris would make a good tutor/friend for his daughter, Clara. So Iris with the rest of her family moves into Van den Meer's house, and start out as being maids and servants. And their she meets Clara, the most beautiful girl anyone could ever lay eyes on, but also a girl who has the most distorted mind as a child. Then that's where all the crazy stuff plus alot of mysterious magic happens!

Caspar is an awesome character, and he might be my favorite character in all the novels I have read. He reminded my alot of a good friend I had. I want to be Caspar!! He's just the most amazing character ever to be read!!!!

I think it would be an awesome movie. It has so much potential in it! The mood is consistant through out the whole book! If it were to be made in a movie, I imagine the mood would be something in the line of 'Sleepy Hollow' combined with 'A girl with a pearl earring' with a touch of 'Lemony Snicket'.

The only thing I count as an error is the book cover. The book cover it seems, has really NOTHING to do with the actual story. In the cover or the book you have mice with people clothes on, with a pumpkin. All which just never happens in the book. and the inside cover, you have Cinderella looking like a whore with the Prince looking like a pervet reaching into her dress. What the heck. Nothing of this sort happens!!! Clara(or Cindergirl or Cinderella) is totally not like that! So don't be decieved by the cover of the book. I was.

The book, like Wicked, has that "Rush of exciting parts" toward the end of the book, which you just can't let go till it's over. But it dosn't have those boring parts where nothing seems to happen. It has really cool moments through out the whole thing.

[CaptainObvious]

I didn't like this as much as Wicked but it is still good.

[Q]

Hm...I liked it much more than Wicked. maybe it's because the characters felt more real to me, compared to Wicked. Most of the characters reminded me of someone I actually know,and I could picture them as the characters. Espcially the main improtant characters like Caspar, Margarethe and etc. It felt more personal.

-Q

[CaptainObvious]

i think i like wicked better because of the hype and the musical. but yeah confession is good too. Probably equally good. have you read Mirror Mirror? That one is alright, really good in the beginning and the end but the middle... lots of drag and mellow events.

[Q]

Haha yeah, I certainly know what you mean by the wicked hype ed! I don't think I need to express the passion I have for Wicked anymore on these boards.
But just comparing them as books, I think Confessions is so much better.
Since Wicked was the debut-novel for Gregory Maguire, and Confessions was written later, I think he definately improved in writing in so many places. And atleast to me, his improvement is very much apparent in Confessions. So, writing-wise, Confessions felt much stronger.
In Wicked, though the idea and plot was amazing, like Jen mentioned earlier there were some issues of "changing perspectives" and "inconsistancy".
The focus changed first from the Thropp family in general, then to Galinda, then to Elphaba, then to Boq, then to Fiyero, then back to Elphaba.
All in all, even though the main character was Elphaba, she wasn't really presented solely. Even from the begining, when Elphaba is a baby, she is just "seen" rather than "seen through".
It is way passed after Fiyero's death and toward when Dorothy arrives that he actually really digs in to Elphaba's inner feelings and describes them.
Plus there was this inconsistancy of story here and there. Especially the parts with Boq as the focus. I still really don't comprehend what the little happening at the "Philosophy club" had to do with the main story. When later on Boq becomes merely a non-sufficient character.
And since there were so many switches of perspective, and little description of Elphaba's inner mind, I really didn't have a strong connection with the characters. I'm not saying the characters were weak, oh heck no! Galinda is one of my favorite characters in a novel!
But just that believabilty on each of the characters and the connection was somewhat lacking for me in Wicked.

But in Confessions, Gregory Maguire really takes care of these flaws(not really flaws just different style; in someway, a weaker style I say).
Even though the story is written in a writer's perspective, the focus of the whole story is solidly set on Iris and only Iris(and I'm not really counting the Prologue and Eplilogue).
There is so much vivid description on what's going on in Iris' mind, but you never know what is going on Schoonemaker, Caspar, Ruth, Margarethe or Clara's.
So even though the writing is done in a 'third-person perspective', the substance of it is really a 'one-person' perspective, and Maguire makes sure he doesn't lose his focus on this.
There are no 'unsufficient' parts. And he sneaks in so many "historic events" subliminally, to make it seem even more real.

In his writing, he is way more visual in Confessions. I actually felt if though this could easily be turned into a great movie.
But then, Gregory Maguire's writing style in general is just amazing. Very artistic choice of words and sentances.

And I thought alot of the moments in the book were more powerful than Wicked. Like that one moment where Iris, for the first times sets eyes on her own portrait(which shows her how she looks with more raw honesty than the mirror would) and after a little silence she starts to cry because she realizes really how ugly she is. I thought that was very touching.

And Lissa once said that the end of Wicked kind of leaves you hanging. Elphaba is liquified. THE END. This is not the case of Confessions. Although the main book ends with Clara(Cinderella) fitting on the glass slipper, there is a whole other chapter which describes what happens after that, and in that chapter is such an unsuspected surprise!

Plus Gregory Maguire really tries to show what the main theme of the book is. Stuff about beauty and all these other cool stuff with so much potential and so much to ponder.
"In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats."
that was cool!
-Q