Matchless by Gregory Maguire

Genre: Short story

Published: Nov. 1, 2009, 112 pgs.

Source: Library

Review: 3/5 stars

Gregory Maguire has taken the rather dark tale of "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Andersen and has added a little light. This story was first heard on NPR and was written as a read-aloud Christmas story. It's a tragic story but feels a little less so as Maguire puts his spin on it. I wasn't very familiar with the story of "The Little Match Girl" when I read this book and I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more had I known the original tale better. It takes only 15-20 minutes to read so it's definitely worth the time. It really is a lovely story but I finished it feeling like I wanted a little "more". I'm not even sure what "more" I wanted but I wasn't completely satisfied. Has anyone else read this? I'm interested to hear what you think.

Rating: 1.1.1 As my mom used to call a good cleaning job--spic 'n' span clean.

Wicked by Gregory Maquire

Rating: 5.3.5

Category: Read at your own risk

I haven't finished this book and I'm not sure if I will. I've been listening to the audio version while I run and though I have enjoyed it, I've about decided that I should just wait for the musical. It is definitely not a clean read. I have heard that it is a very good book and I can see that it would be very interesting and entertaining but there is just a little too much sex, innuendo, and crudity for my taste. Since the musical is so family friendly I have heard of many people being caught unaware by the content of this book so I thought that I'd try it out and see for myself. With 3 F-bombs in the first third and more to come I'm sure, I've given it a 5 rating on profanity. The 5 for sex is deserved but the 3 for violence is just an estimate of what may come since there hasn't been much violence yet. If you really want to read this book I would guess that you could skip parts and be okay because it doesn't have profanity throughout like some books I've been unfortunate enough to pick up. If I do finish I think I will try the book version instead of the audio because I might be able to control what I read a little better. I would definitely not want my teenage daughter to read this.