Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Wishing Game

I loved Clock Island as a setting and wish we'd gotten to explore the island more, but I didn't click with any of the characters since everyone made me uncomfortable. Our main character Lucy is a kindergarten teacher's aide who is determined to adopt Christopher, one of her former students. She tutors him at school and gives him many hugs, kisses, and false promises of being his mother. She lives with three roommates, no car, and has credit card debt, so she has been told that she is unable to foster and likely never will be able to. Lucy is also very whiney, both about the situation with Christopher and that it's her parents gave all their attention to Lucy's extremely ill older sister.
Then, there's the issue of Lucy's relationship with Hugo. While they don't start their romance until both are adults, Lucy was thirteen when they first met and Hugo was in his mid twenties.

Jack, a beloved children's author, also left me feeling weird and uncomfortable. The book briefly addresses that he lures kids to his island, though they claim that is not what's happening. However, he writes back to every kid who writes him and encourages them to come to Clock Island, wishing they could be his kid. Five of these children do run away to Clock Island, though one drowns in the process. The book takes place much later to take part in a contest to win the only copy of his final book. There is hardly any time spent actually participating in the games, rather most of it is just mentioned in passing.

If any of the issues this book attempts to address had been explored with any level of depth or nuance I probably would have liked this much better.

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lavenderlikings's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I liked the book but it was a little too unserious for me. I wanted a little more depth to the characters and to the story. There were some really serious topics being discussed throughout the book and we only ever went surface level and so when everything wrapped up I never quite felt like I could empathize with the characters but I did speed through it with it being such a light read - very Peter Panesque.

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kibbles15's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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ana_inklings's review

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

There were aspects of this book I really loved: Hugo and Jack’s relationship and the interactions between Hugo and Lucy, most especially.

Without spoiling anything, I found the ending very satisfying, even if other parts of the book were dark and difficult for me to get through because of my own personal story within the foster care system and dysfunctional parts of my home life growing up.

I wanted to love Lucy’s relationship with Christopher, the love, and care, and growth is definitely a beautiful thing, but I found it hard to suspend disbelief regarding the boundaries of their relationship. This read was magical and endearing in its own way, and even healing in parts. I didn’t find it cozy per se, but I’m glad I read it.

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jes312's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

I wanted to like this more based on the premise; similar to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but with people who love books. But it was poorly written--to much telling, not enough showing, especially in terms of relationships between characters.

There were too many predictable and/or unnecessary subplots; one issue was introduced at the very end just to keep everything from being wrapped up a little too neatly. The thing that bothered me the most was

Autumn's death

; I felt like it was shrugged off by everyone; the author creating the contest and

only making it available to kids who did make it to the island felt disrespectful to her memory

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marlanaperry77's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I'm at a loss for how to describe my feelings about this book. It is so far from what I usually read that I almost put it down after a few pages because I wasn't totally sold on it or sure why I picked it up, but I am so glad I didn't. I have not been so enrapt and dedicated to a book and left feeling so hopeful in years. The way it handled the themes of foster care, with honesty and delicacy about how shitty the system is but still with hope, touched really close to home, and I haven't rooted for characters like I did in this book in years, and the thematic elements of stories being so interwoven definitely won me over as well. I know it's early, but I have a feeling this may be my favorite fiction of the year.

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