Chelsea Sedoti’s new book,As You Wish, is something that peeked my interest the second I saw the synopsis. A book about a town where everyone at a certain age gets a wish felt like a simple, yet intriguing concept. So after being lucky enough to receive a copy of the book myself in a giveaway, I read it as soon as I was finished reading Nice Try, Jane Sinner. The book started off a little iffy to me, but soon I found myself not being able to put it down.
As You Wish is about a young man named Eldon who is on the brink of turning 18 years old. Some people think of the age of 18 as the age when you get to be a legal adult, can buy a lottery ticket, and/or will be graduating high school soon and possibly off to college. In Madison though it’s a different story. In Madison it’s about what your going to wish for. A cave in Madison allows people on their 18th birthday to be granted any wish they desire. Some people have regretted their wishes the minute they said them and others wishes have been the best thing to ever happen to them. It is one of the biggest decisions the people of Madison make & Eldon only has days left to decide what he should wish for or even if wishing is worth it at all.
I really enjoyed this book, especially the creativity that came with the wishing and history of wishing. I think the best part of the book for me was seeing everyone’s wishes, how they decided them, and the consequences that the wishes had on those people. There were flashback chapters throughout the book explaining people’s wishes and the results of them. If I didn’t already believe in the age-old-phrase “be careful what you wish for ” I certainly did now. Sedoti really finds a lot of unique ways with wording of a wish or the long term impact of a wish or last minute decisions to show the before and after affects of wishing and how it affected so many people. Many actually were very quite sad. I will get into it later in my discussion of the things I did not like about this book, but for the most part it felt like many of the wishes made had more bad consequences than good. Now due to the rules of wishing regarding how wishes like for money can’t be obtained outside of town (an ATM in the town will keep your unlimited supply of money you wish for, but once you step out of town lines and try to withdraw the money from any other ATM it will not be available) or how you can’t wish for anything affecting the outside world (you can wish to be the best player on the Madison high football team, but not the best football player in the world or you can wish to help certain people in the town, but not wish for poverty to end worldwide or anything like that) that may be more understandable due to the limits of what you can wish for and not wish for. However, I did feel like they focused too much on the bad wishes and not enough on the good. Like I said though I will get into that later.
The other thing I liked about the books is the characters. There was a large cast of the characters in this book even for a small town, but I never once felt like I couldn’t remember who someone was or could not differentiate from them and another person. This is because the characters in this novel were so distinct, interesting, and all had some affect because of a wish that caused them either happiness or misery. I really liked seeing everyone’s backstory and how wishing affected their lives, whether they made their wish years ago and are still living with the consequences or still have yet to make their wish. I really liked seeing so many characters and their different views on life and how those views affect what they were going to wish for.
Now to things I didn’t like about the book causing me to teeter on giving in 3 or 4 stars, but ultimately deciding on 4. First off lets start with the wishing consequences. While it is understandable possibly to only have the main character and book focus mostly on the bad consequences of wishing and it is brought up a bit at the end of the novel, I did feel like there could have been more of a highlight on the good outcomes of wishing or at least a few more peeks at wishes that turned out helping people more than hurting them. This could have been done at the end when that point is brought to Eldon’s attention, but the author did not add that in which disappointed me. Another thing that really hurt this book was a part later in the book when the subject and false admission of underage sexual abuse/child prostituion is used as a ploy to help get Eldon to the wishing cave undetected. While it is called out by two people how wrong it was and even the main character admits it, the fact that it is used as an excuse felt very wrong and something that should not have been done. While I do get that it is called out, at the very least it could have been called out more or drilled in more how wrong it was to use that as an excuse to distract their school principal. I also felt even though I liked this book it was not something I felt the need to really read over and over again or even maybe ever. I enjoyed the book, but more as a one time read than something I could see myself enjoying again in the future.
Overall, I really liked the concept of this book and the characters in it. I thought the wishing take was done in a very compelling & extraordinary way that I have never seen before. I also felt the characters were all unique individuals that I could feel for. My issues with the book really came down to a few things including the inappropriate plot point used to help get Eldon to the cave, the book’s focus on the bad side of wishing rather than much of the good, and my personal feelings regarding not having much of a desire to really want to reread it again. So all in all I feel like this book deserves 4 out of 5 stars and I would recommend it. The novel has its problems but I still feel like this is a book that many people may be “wishing” for after the holidays.
4 out of 5 stars
**** out of *****
As You Wish is about a young man named Eldon who is on the brink of turning 18 years old. Some people think of the age of 18 as the age when you get to be a legal adult, can buy a lottery ticket, and/or will be graduating high school soon and possibly off to college. In Madison though it’s a different story. In Madison it’s about what your going to wish for. A cave in Madison allows people on their 18th birthday to be granted any wish they desire. Some people have regretted their wishes the minute they said them and others wishes have been the best thing to ever happen to them. It is one of the biggest decisions the people of Madison make & Eldon only has days left to decide what he should wish for or even if wishing is worth it at all.
I really enjoyed this book, especially the creativity that came with the wishing and history of wishing. I think the best part of the book for me was seeing everyone’s wishes, how they decided them, and the consequences that the wishes had on those people. There were flashback chapters throughout the book explaining people’s wishes and the results of them. If I didn’t already believe in the age-old-phrase “be careful what you wish for ” I certainly did now. Sedoti really finds a lot of unique ways with wording of a wish or the long term impact of a wish or last minute decisions to show the before and after affects of wishing and how it affected so many people. Many actually were very quite sad. I will get into it later in my discussion of the things I did not like about this book, but for the most part it felt like many of the wishes made had more bad consequences than good. Now due to the rules of wishing regarding how wishes like for money can’t be obtained outside of town (an ATM in the town will keep your unlimited supply of money you wish for, but once you step out of town lines and try to withdraw the money from any other ATM it will not be available) or how you can’t wish for anything affecting the outside world (you can wish to be the best player on the Madison high football team, but not the best football player in the world or you can wish to help certain people in the town, but not wish for poverty to end worldwide or anything like that) that may be more understandable due to the limits of what you can wish for and not wish for. However, I did feel like they focused too much on the bad wishes and not enough on the good. Like I said though I will get into that later.
The other thing I liked about the books is the characters. There was a large cast of the characters in this book even for a small town, but I never once felt like I couldn’t remember who someone was or could not differentiate from them and another person. This is because the characters in this novel were so distinct, interesting, and all had some affect because of a wish that caused them either happiness or misery. I really liked seeing everyone’s backstory and how wishing affected their lives, whether they made their wish years ago and are still living with the consequences or still have yet to make their wish. I really liked seeing so many characters and their different views on life and how those views affect what they were going to wish for.
Now to things I didn’t like about the book causing me to teeter on giving in 3 or 4 stars, but ultimately deciding on 4. First off lets start with the wishing consequences. While it is understandable possibly to only have the main character and book focus mostly on the bad consequences of wishing and it is brought up a bit at the end of the novel, I did feel like there could have been more of a highlight on the good outcomes of wishing or at least a few more peeks at wishes that turned out helping people more than hurting them. This could have been done at the end when that point is brought to Eldon’s attention, but the author did not add that in which disappointed me. Another thing that really hurt this book was a part later in the book when the subject and false admission of underage sexual abuse/child prostituion is used as a ploy to help get Eldon to the wishing cave undetected. While it is called out by two people how wrong it was and even the main character admits it, the fact that it is used as an excuse felt very wrong and something that should not have been done. While I do get that it is called out, at the very least it could have been called out more or drilled in more how wrong it was to use that as an excuse to distract their school principal. I also felt even though I liked this book it was not something I felt the need to really read over and over again or even maybe ever. I enjoyed the book, but more as a one time read than something I could see myself enjoying again in the future.
Overall, I really liked the concept of this book and the characters in it. I thought the wishing take was done in a very compelling & extraordinary way that I have never seen before. I also felt the characters were all unique individuals that I could feel for. My issues with the book really came down to a few things including the inappropriate plot point used to help get Eldon to the cave, the book’s focus on the bad side of wishing rather than much of the good, and my personal feelings regarding not having much of a desire to really want to reread it again. So all in all I feel like this book deserves 4 out of 5 stars and I would recommend it. The novel has its problems but I still feel like this is a book that many people may be “wishing” for after the holidays.
4 out of 5 stars
**** out of *****