Review: As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti

As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book will be published on January 2, 2018.

As You Wish is a coming of age story that takes place in the sleepy town of Madison, Nevada. Madison is on the outskirts of Las Vegas and Area 51, but nothing really happens there, except everyone in the town of Madison gets to make a wish on their 18th birthday. The gift of wishing is a well kept secret amongst those living in the town of Madison because no one ever really leaves Madison, and if they do they tend to come back. Main character Eldon is about to turn 18 and make his wish, only he doesn't know what he wants. He is obnoxious, self-centered, and very immature. He blames all his problems on everyone else and the wishes they've made. His attitude made the books hard to read sometimes because you just wanted grow up. Then again there weren't very many likable characters in the book. Most of the wishes were shallow and self serving like making yourself better looking or the most talented at something. Then again when you are 18 and don't know any better what would you wish for? Probably something shallow and self-serving. Each person of the town has to live with the consequences of their wish, some good and some bad. Eldon starts to research wishes and their consequences as his wish day approaches only to find out that most people's wishes didn't exactly have the effect they'd intended. Some people learned to live with their wishes, while others are miserable. Eldon only sees the bad that has come from wishing. Part of Eldon's problem is that the whole town is obsessed with wishing, everyone wants to know what you are going to wish for, and everyone is telling you what to wish for, and his parents are telling him what to wish for because their wishes didn't work out for them. Eldon hasn't had an easy time of it as his 18th birthday approaches, some of it is his own fault, some of it is not his fault at all. Eldon never takes ownership of his own actions, he just blames everyone else for being angry and mean to everyone. There are plenty of lessons to be learned from reading this, but they took way to long to develop for my liking. Eldon is the epitome of flawed.

In the end this book was just OK for me. I didn't connect with the characters or the story. It just felt very immature to me, as an adult reader who likes YA I find that is a problem at times. While the dialog may be realistic as if it were coming from high schoolers, there were some very immature comments in the dialog between characters that did not appeal to me, and I'm sure people will find them hurtful if not harmful. That is not what I want my kids thinking is OK, so I don't want them reading it in the books they read. I did appreciate that there was atleast one character that was trying to stop it, even thought not very forcefully. The premise is interesting enough and kept me interested.

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