Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

I very much appreciate Gregory Maguire's genre, fleshing out two-dimensional fairy tales into their pre-distilled real-life incarnations.
During most of the book, though, I was thinking "eh, it's not as good as 'Wicked'." (The book, haven't seen the musical.) Confessions was ok, but I felt more affinity with a story about political activism, physical stereotype, and government corruption than I could about reformation-era Netherland society. Moving away from history into the realm of artistry and Art History, however, the prose blossomed in the final 25%, and I felt quite fulfilled by the final pages. Rated 3+.