A review by ravensandlace
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

3.5

Title: The Wishing Game

Author: Meg Shaffer

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Format: hardback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 3.5 stars

tw: parental death, child neglect, childhood illness, drug addiction, implications of sexual assault, child abuse, alcoholism, miscarriage

So this book was read as part of my YA Not club. I wasn’t too sure about this book when I first started. I wasn’t vibing with it like I wanted to. So I peeked at a few reviews to see if I was the problem and realized it references Willy Wonka a lot. It’s almost a retelling. I’m going to let you in on a secret. I’ve never read Willy Wonka. I’ve only seen the Johnny Depp movie. So, needless to say, I was in for a ride in which I understood just about nothing.

One of the problems I had with the book was the riddles. I am horrible at riddles. I’ve watched every Resident Evil video game and I still couldn’t figure out anything. With the riddles in this book, I didn’t understand them at all. You have to read the books that the author, in the book, wrote which you don’t get. The author only had a few chapters of the book series in which the book talks about and I don’t think they had anything to do with the riddles of the book.

One of the things I didn’t love about this book was the relationship between Christopher, a foster child, and Emily. She promised him all these things but she couldn’t give them to him. She just gave him all this sense of false hope and it was kind of heartbreaking to read. It’s also just plain unrealistic. CPS would never let a teacher make such promises to a child. It wasn’t okay. 

I did enjoy this book. I enjoyed the ride but I wasn’t obsessed with it. I liked reading it but I didn’t love it. It was one of the books where it was written well but I just wasn't in love with the book. I think this would be a good book for others but not for me. It probably would have helped if I had read Willy Wonka or seen another version that wasn’t the Johnny Depp version because I don’t think that version follows the book.