If you could wish for anything what would it be?
Obligatory Statement: I received this e-ARC from the publisher through Edelweiss and this in no affected my opinion of the book.
Sedoti's story took on the question of: If you could wish for anything what would it be? Now in Madison, of course, you can't wish for just anything there are rules and regulations. This helped greatly with the story building of the little town. For example, you could wish for money but you could only have that money in the town as your wish cannot affect the world. Like you can't ask to be the best football player in the world but the best in Madison, go for it. Eldon also did these cool Wish History chapters that talk about past wishes and how they turned out. In the similar vein of The Monkey's Paw, As You Wish shows how the wording of wishes is everything and even though we think that is what we want then it might not turn out for the best.
Now in my WOW post I did have a couple of questions about how wishing in Madison works. Now some of my questions got answered in Wish Class, yep these poor kids need to take a class on Saturday morning. The rest of us just spent it in SAT class. However, a big question that I really wanted to be answered and they almost did was: Can outsiders wish as well? Other questions, that I had where:
Can you wish multiple times?
Why do you have to be 18 to wish?
Can you wish at any other age other than 18?
Are there other Wishing Caves?
If you wish for money, why can you only access it in Madison?
This might have been explained in the book, I don't remember, but why did they have to use candles in the Wish Cave?
And finally, who first figured out that you could wish?
This is another large question that I am surprised that Sedoti did not answer as wishing is basically Madison's religion so wouldn't they want to remember who first discovered that you could wish there?
However, I will give Sedoti credit that she did have the characters discuss these questions. Eldon's best friend, Merrill, was a bit of a conspiracy theorist when it came to wishing and he had many ideas as to wishing. Some were correct, some were definitely out there. And to look at it from a writer's perspective that is a lot of complex details to include that would have taken some of the wonders out of the book?
Since we are the on the topic of characters, this is a coming of age novel as well as one about coping with your mental illness. Though it is not specifically stated, Eldon does have depression and that comes out in his anger, his inability to express what he loves, and his "self-absorbed" moments. And because no one was saying "Hey, man, you have depression", everyone just thinks that he is a major jerk. I also am advising a trigger warning for suicide as one of the characters attempts suicide about halfway through the book.
I did enjoy the characters and through their wish histories we got to see how they think and it did push the fact that they were all human and though they think that they made their choices for certain reasons. I really did feel for Eldon because his sister was dying and he could not save her. Do I support his wish? Yes, I do as his reasoning was sound. And unlike some of the other wishes it was not selfish even though the town might have viewed it that way. One character that I own hated it was the Mayor for reasons that I am not going to go into, but he is definitely one of my most hated characters I have yet to read.
And one of the joy's of reading As You Wish is it allows the reader to reflect what we would wish for. I, to be honest, have no clue what to even wish for. Of course, money would be nice. I could buy a beach house and open up my bookstore. But would that really make me happy? I mean probably; I would be opening up a bookstore that I have wanted since I was about 14. Or I could wish to always be happy or to do the right thing or to have everything work out? As you can see there are so many things that one could wish for and like Eldon says in the book, how can an 18-year-old be expected to make this decision that will affect their whole life? And there are no do-overs, so if you make a wish and if does not end up the way you want then sorry. This is also why this book is a coming of age novel. Eldon and his peers must grow up to decide what they want their wishes to be like.
Overall, I did enjoy this novel as it was not super intense but it was thought-provoking.
If you could make one wish what would it be?
Sedoti's story took on the question of: If you could wish for anything what would it be? Now in Madison, of course, you can't wish for just anything there are rules and regulations. This helped greatly with the story building of the little town. For example, you could wish for money but you could only have that money in the town as your wish cannot affect the world. Like you can't ask to be the best football player in the world but the best in Madison, go for it. Eldon also did these cool Wish History chapters that talk about past wishes and how they turned out. In the similar vein of The Monkey's Paw, As You Wish shows how the wording of wishes is everything and even though we think that is what we want then it might not turn out for the best.
Now in my WOW post I did have a couple of questions about how wishing in Madison works. Now some of my questions got answered in Wish Class, yep these poor kids need to take a class on Saturday morning. The rest of us just spent it in SAT class. However, a big question that I really wanted to be answered and they almost did was: Can outsiders wish as well? Other questions, that I had where:
Can you wish multiple times?
Why do you have to be 18 to wish?
Can you wish at any other age other than 18?
Are there other Wishing Caves?
If you wish for money, why can you only access it in Madison?
This might have been explained in the book, I don't remember, but why did they have to use candles in the Wish Cave?
And finally, who first figured out that you could wish?
This is another large question that I am surprised that Sedoti did not answer as wishing is basically Madison's religion so wouldn't they want to remember who first discovered that you could wish there?
However, I will give Sedoti credit that she did have the characters discuss these questions. Eldon's best friend, Merrill, was a bit of a conspiracy theorist when it came to wishing and he had many ideas as to wishing. Some were correct, some were definitely out there. And to look at it from a writer's perspective that is a lot of complex details to include that would have taken some of the wonders out of the book?
Since we are the on the topic of characters, this is a coming of age novel as well as one about coping with your mental illness. Though it is not specifically stated, Eldon does have depression and that comes out in his anger, his inability to express what he loves, and his "self-absorbed" moments. And because no one was saying "Hey, man, you have depression", everyone just thinks that he is a major jerk. I also am advising a trigger warning for suicide as one of the characters attempts suicide about halfway through the book.
I did enjoy the characters and through their wish histories we got to see how they think and it did push the fact that they were all human and though they think that they made their choices for certain reasons. I really did feel for Eldon because his sister was dying and he could not save her. Do I support his wish? Yes, I do as his reasoning was sound. And unlike some of the other wishes it was not selfish even though the town might have viewed it that way. One character that I own hated it was the Mayor for reasons that I am not going to go into, but he is definitely one of my most hated characters I have yet to read.
And one of the joy's of reading As You Wish is it allows the reader to reflect what we would wish for. I, to be honest, have no clue what to even wish for. Of course, money would be nice. I could buy a beach house and open up my bookstore. But would that really make me happy? I mean probably; I would be opening up a bookstore that I have wanted since I was about 14. Or I could wish to always be happy or to do the right thing or to have everything work out? As you can see there are so many things that one could wish for and like Eldon says in the book, how can an 18-year-old be expected to make this decision that will affect their whole life? And there are no do-overs, so if you make a wish and if does not end up the way you want then sorry. This is also why this book is a coming of age novel. Eldon and his peers must grow up to decide what they want their wishes to be like.
Overall, I did enjoy this novel as it was not super intense but it was thought-provoking.
If you could make one wish what would it be?