The Wicked Years

The Wicked Years is a series of revisionist dark fantasy novels written by American author Gregory Maguire. It is inspired by L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with elements also based on the 1939 film adaptation by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and other Oz-related books. Unlike Baum's original novels, The Wicked Years is aimed at mature audiences and presents a dystopian, more cynical version of the Land of Oz than in other adaptations. The series explores several sociopolitical issues, namely the discrimination of sentient animals and racial tensions between various ethnic groups, and features many of the original Wizard of Oz characters re-imagined as antagonists or neutral parties.