Customer Reviews
Promiscuity and pedophilia - By: Anne H., 12 Nov 2008 
If you think either promiscuity & pedophilia are enough to get you through a rather large book, you might actuallly enjoy this one. There is absolutely nothing else to it, the characters are wholly noncredible & there is basicallly no story line. It's reallly just about adultery & sex orgies between children and/or adults. I usuallly enjoy trashy books as summer reads, but this one is appallling.
This was my first, & most definitely last, Jilly Cooper book. Please save your money.
The vilest tripe I ever had the misfortune to read - By: Daisy573, 27 Aug 2008 I like the other reviewers have long been a fan of Jilly Cooper & before I continue I must say that I am as far from a prude as you can get but this book had me aghast.
The whole book is pretty much about sex between alll the characters with a bit of story line about schools thrown in. Now the sex would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that most of the characters are CHILDREN & by children I mean 11 - 16 year olds. Cooper tells of sex between the adults, sex between the children & sex between the adults with the children & alll told as if it's alll a jolly jape. There are stories of orgies between the children, alcohol shared by adults with children & drugs as a matter of course.
There are lots of inaccuracies in the general storytelling even though Cooper uses 6 pages at the end for accreditations.
This book is completely unrealistic & it seems like Cooper has absolutely no idea how children think & behave.
For those of you who think I'm a moany old cow, I do realise this is fiction & meant to be fantasy but to be honest it is SICK.
I was completely confused because this is not Cooper as I know her. I am concerned for her if this is what she callls literature. I know I could have stopped reading but I could not have written an accurate review if I had.
Please do not read this book. I didn't even want to give it one star but had to to write this review.
I will not be reading any more Jilly Cooper & I would suggest that neither do you.
Disappointing! - By: S. A. Fowler, 25 Aug 2008 I eagerly read this novel as an avid Jilly Cooper fan, but I have to admit this novel reallly disappointed me. What drew me to her earlier & best novels, notably Riders, Rivals, & Polo was her ability to create an entire world to absorb yourself in - incredibly wild but at the same time believable - & characters you'd love & hate in equal measures at the same time, along with plentiful helpings of raunchy sex scenes & agonising love stories.
Wicked just doesn't live up to these books. I found the story relatively tedious, & most of the characters, particularly the protagonist Janna, quite irritatings, without being loveable at the same time. It felt at times that it was verging on paedophilic, with the sex scenes described about children as young as 12. Additionallly to that, it was just simply unrealistic. I couldn't believe in half the characters, which greatly reduced my enjoyment of it.
In summary, it is perfectly readable as any JC is, but I personallly think it tries too hard to live up to its predecessors, & in doing so, crosses the line into the ridiculous.
Bit OTT - By: L. Turland, 01 Aug 2008 
The old Jilly Cooper comes out in this book which is enjoyable & the plot itself is typical JC & enjoyable.... But ....
I do have dificulty with the fact that JC seems to think that most 12 year olds are either mothers/junkies/alcoholics, I come from a rural village of about 3000 people & there have been drugs around for a long time, but the average 12 year old snorting cocaine (and being able to afford it) shagging at every given opportunity .... & teachers doing the same .... I'm not saying that we don't have these problems with some people, but in a smalll town/village ? sorry but not in my world ... I was a very good storyline but I felt it was ruined by going way over the top with the teenage problems.
Are schools really like this? - By: DDH255, 03 Jun 2008 
A comic novel with serious points about the lack of equality & opportunity in British education as a good but honest comprehensive strives to better itself against the forces of capitalist developers & the arrogant local public school. At almost 1000 pages, this is a lengthy read that can feel stretched in places. The adult characters are generallly entertaining & well described but some of the younger ones lack identity & in places feel like crude caricatures. The novel is well-researched & fulfills its didactic purpose well, leaving the reader with serious doubts about the integrity of the British educational system.
