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kwaterlander's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be following this author for more.
The main characters aren’t very diverse, in my opinion. There are some minor side characters mentioned that add to the diversity, but not much.
Moderate: Child abuse and Death
Minor: Child death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness
sheryl's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Minor: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
juffnstuff's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Miscarriage and Pregnancy
Minor: Terminal illness
gholdreith's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol
abriggs07's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, and Emotional abuse
bandysbooks's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer follows Lucy Hart, a young, broke, idealistic teacher's aide who suffers from the memory of childhood neglect. She wants to adopt one of the kids at her school who has been recently placed in foster care, but has been unable to due to her financial constraints. Her life seems like it's in a downward spiral until Jack Masterson, her favorite author invites her to compete for the only copy of his newest novel. With nothing to lose Lucy accepts and is caught up in a whirlwind of childhood memories, grumpy artists, and dreams that just will not die.
This book is loosely inspired by Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and you can definitely see that inspiration in some of the elements. There are no golden tickets, creepy oompa loompas, or a psychotic murdering candy factory owner. In fact, most of the dark elements of Willy Wonka have been stripped away to create a much more sanitized overall feel.
The plot of this book was fun enough, but was quite predictable. I think within the first third of this book I had a good idea of where this book was going. It was still interesting enough to keep me reading, but I did find myself wondering occasionally if there was a way to make the book more suspenseful Even the "twist" at the end of the competition was visible early on. The predictability of the whole thing left me feeling like the stakes were never truly high and sucked out any emotional impact that the ending could've had.
If I'm really honest, this book seemed much more like a middle grade-young adult book. The writing style was very straightforward. There wasn't a ton of descriptive prose. The characters were all pretty squeaky clean and even their problems were presented in a sort of sanitized way. The couple of moments that could've provided emotional depth are sort of just glossed over for the most part. This made the few moments that I could identify as more adult a bit jarring in my opinion. In particular, there was a moment where Lucy is commenting on a piece of artwork, a painting of an orchid, and compares it to a vulva. This felt like it came completely out of nowhere and was forgotten in like three seconds. Considering the situation it occurred in, I could've read it as an attempt at flirting accept there wasn't much chemistry and it was forgotten within seconds of being said.
There is a romance element in this story as well, which felt very sanitized too. We never see so much as a kiss until well after the people in question are a couple. Their flirting is virtually non-existent even though they repeatedly mention growing feelings toward each other. Ultimately, it was a lot of telling, not showing in regard to the relationship. The constant fade to black anytime anything remotely romantic happened really added to that feeling of this being written for a younger reader.
That said, I'm kind of almost glad that more romance wasn't more visible because the two people involved were thirteen and twenty five when they first meet. Even though they are both adults at this point in the story, there are definitely still some questionable power dynamics at play. One person is a contestant, and one person is actively assisting in putting on the competition. It was just a bit icky.
I feel bad to be so critical. but another thing that really bothered me was Lucy's treatment of Christopher's situation (the young boy she wants to adopt). We see her confront his social worker (and it's implied that this isn't the first time) about wanting to adopt him. The social worker tells her politely that she's twenty six, broke, living in a crappy apartment with three roommates, and has no car. Those all seem like realistic and rational reasons why at this time Lucy is not a good candidate for fostering Christopher, but Lucy makes it seem like the social worker just hates her. The social worker tells Lucy that love isn't the only thing a child needs....and she's right. Love is extremely important, but so is having a guardian that can financially support you, feed and clothe you, take you to a doctor when you are sick, etc. I read most of this as coming from Lucy's own trauma around not receiving love or affection, but even still it felt so unbelievably unrealistic and illogical.
All in all, if you're looking for a low stakes, easy read that might leave you with some warm fuzzies, you may enjoy this book. I think going in expecting a book written for a younger reader might help you to have appropriate expectations.
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Emotional abuse
goldenbeebookshop's review
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
There are so many delightful details that it also gave me a little hint of what I loved about my all-time favorite book, The Night Circus. The descriptions are whimsical and magical, and capture the sort of clever ideas that spark joy in the parts of us that love to believe that the well-loved places from our favorite childhood books are somewhere we can really visit.
It’s a book for adults, but the style and content of the story makes it a great read for a wide range of readers.
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol