Book Review: The Wicked Years

I happened to read this series out of order because at the time I borrowed Wicked and Lion Among Men from the library, Son of a Witch had already been checked out. For that reason, my opinions of this book might be a bit skewed. For one thing, it didn't seem quite as inappropriately sexual as the other two. This is likely because either reading the other two desensitized me to it or it really contained fewer overtly sexual references. Before I go on, I must say that I think the Broadway version of Wicked is much better than the book. However, I definitely wouldn't mind it if someone made a film adaptation of Son of a Witch after Wicked is released on DVD.
My favorite part of Son of a Witch is near the end when Liir is flying with the Conference of Birds. It felt like it had an epic Harry Potter-esque quality to it that I know would look good on screen. That being said, there are also parts that were disappointing. It seemed too haphazard a journey at times, and there were a few characters that seemed to change personalities almost at the drop of a hat. Like the other two books, it still has unnecessary sexual references thrown in where they don't need to be (although, again, there seemed to be less of them). If this is what it means to be an adult read, then I'm not sure I like being an adult if it means putting up with inappropriate mental images that are not integral to the telling of the story. If anything, that makes it less mature, not more. (P.S. I've read historical fiction novels involving General Sherman and Grace O'Malley, respectively - more porn. Do not want.)
As a final note, I offer my recommendation: see Wicked on Broadway, then come back and read Son of a Witch if you absolutely want to see a continuation. Lion Among Men doesn't provide much of a conclusion outside of who informed on Fiyero and the first-person viewpoint of an Animal (the Cowardly Lion, which isn't saying much), so you don't have to worry much about that one.
(Seriously, though, this trilogy follows a similar pattern to the three live-action Ninja Turtles movies in that the first and third contain more "explicit" content. Incidentally, I like Secret of the Ooze best of the three, and season 1 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003.)
But then, I finally got to read Out of Oz. I think it's the best one out of the whole series and you should definitely read it if you can get your hands on a copy. The ones about the son and granddaughter are the best, then, I guess, and the musical is the best for Elphaba. Lion is just the exposition.
Frustrated in her attempts to see Wicked on Broadway, my Mom bought herself a copy of Disney's Oz the Great and Powerful. I didn't want to see it but since we're watching it right now as I compose this I can give it credit for being at least a little clever. Disney's had some other attempts at telling this story, like the Muppet version. I also saw at the store a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse version starring Minnie Mouse called The Wizard of Dizz. No. Just no. For kids confused as to why it's spelled with two z's to Oz's one, you can probably blame Kingdom Hearts for that (even though DiZ stands for Darkness in Zero, for hardly any reason other than Ansem the Wise was not in a very good mood at the time). Nothing can top [Idina Menzel's] Elphaba as Witch of the West at this point though. Wicked defines that character's backstory now. There is no going back.