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engpunk77 's review for:
Wishing Day
by Lauren Myracle
I accidentally listened to the audiobook version of this book thinking that it was Wishtree by Applegate. What a terrible mistake. I'm so sorry to rip this apart as much as I'm about to, but it was truly awful. I couldn't relate to the characters, any of them, but I thought that perhaps a child with siblings could. Natasha, a girl with the mind of a writer, is curious about nothing, and allows herself to not have any idea why her mother "disappeared." No one talks about it, and she's not sure if she's dead or what, and she's not curious, really. She never asks. She has a lot of freedom to go where she pleases and she's really intelligent (having to pretend to finish her tests second because she's tired of being the one on top, the class pet, etc.) yet she never goes to the library to read up, perhaps, on what happened to her mother (and again, she doesn't ask anyone in her family, either). This is maddening, and I can't believe for a minute that such a person would exist, so how could I love a book with characters like that?
The magical realism aspect was annoying rather than magical, especially since there's this magical ability for Natasha to learn about her mom, her first wish. But instead, she shows typical tween characteristics of moodiness and pushing away that which is good for her and pushes away the magic, denying it's existence despite two of her wishes coming true....everything about Natasha's character development contradicts itself. And the ending is absolutely ridiculous--frustrating, implausible (even if you believe in the magical part of it), and then answers none of your questions.
This may have been the worst book I've ever finished, and the fact that it's titled up there as "Wishing Day #1" does not forgive its ending. Most books in series leave you completely aware that the book ended at a climax and there's no doubt that there's a book 2, OR, the book stands alone and you may be surprised to find a book 2. This just fizzled out in the worst way. However, now that I think about it, Natasha had a hard time finishing her own stories and maybe the author chose to have Natasha not finish this one either? This technique, although worth a moment of praise to the author for a clever move like that, is not worth the overwhelming dissatisfaction the reader experiences.
If I had known what book I was reading, (honest mistake if you see the covers of both books), I'd have seen the poor reviews of this one compared to the one I thought I was reading, so sadly, I wasted 6 hours.
The good news is, I'm an adult, and hopefully this book touches the lives of children in a way that I won't understand, so as always, my review is a narrative of my experience and not a judgement on the book's worth.
The magical realism aspect was annoying rather than magical, especially since there's this magical ability for Natasha to learn about her mom, her first wish. But instead, she shows typical tween characteristics of moodiness and pushing away that which is good for her and pushes away the magic, denying it's existence despite two of her wishes coming true....everything about Natasha's character development contradicts itself. And the ending is absolutely ridiculous--frustrating, implausible (even if you believe in the magical part of it), and then answers none of your questions.
This may have been the worst book I've ever finished, and the fact that it's titled up there as "Wishing Day #1" does not forgive its ending. Most books in series leave you completely aware that the book ended at a climax and there's no doubt that there's a book 2, OR, the book stands alone and you may be surprised to find a book 2. This just fizzled out in the worst way. However, now that I think about it, Natasha had a hard time finishing her own stories and maybe the author chose to have Natasha not finish this one either? This technique, although worth a moment of praise to the author for a clever move like that, is not worth the overwhelming dissatisfaction the reader experiences.
If I had known what book I was reading, (honest mistake if you see the covers of both books), I'd have seen the poor reviews of this one compared to the one I thought I was reading, so sadly, I wasted 6 hours.
The good news is, I'm an adult, and hopefully this book touches the lives of children in a way that I won't understand, so as always, my review is a narrative of my experience and not a judgement on the book's worth.