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A review by giulay
How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake
4.0
"No one really expects a wish to come true."
TW: alcoholism, neglecting parents
Wow. This was intense™️. This was overwhelming. This was too much.
I loved this.
Firstly, the representation and the diversity were truly wonderfully done:
Bi main character (#OwnVoices)
Biracial, lesbian secondary character
Grace was such a strong female character.
I loved how angry and messed up her voice was. How she didn’t know how to deal with this shitty and harmful situation but continued being this fantastic, loyal, caring, true to herself person.
She was sarcastic and cynic; she was hopeful and a dreamer. She had to grow up too fast. She was still a child in need of her mother.
She was a real teenager and I truly loved her.
Her relationship with her mother was toxic and painful to read. I definitely felt for her and pity her when her mother acted or said something bad. And in a very bizarre (and maybe wrong) way it was still intriguing and engrossing reading about it because I wanted things to get fixed and I just simply wanted Grace to be happy.
It was so tough though, to read about this bizarre relation.
From the outside it’s so easy to judge Grace’s mother (Maggie) and almost dislike Grace herself for her opposing feelings towards her mum.
For example, Grace was super defensive of Maggie when people outside of the family criticized her (hence me almost disliking Grace. I was just there like "c’mon girl! She’s bad influence, she’s not treating you right! Stand up for yourself!") but then, our main character herself would judge her mother and be mad at her (thus me judging Maggie. Like, can’t you see you’re hurting your daughter?! Stop being like this and listen to her!).
But these opposing feelings - both the reader’s and Grace’s - indicated a wonderfully complex, convoluted, raw and real story about family and love.
After all, how can you blame Grace? It’s her mother we are talking about; she loves her unconditionally and has to accept both sides of Maggie: her motherly and caring one and her dysfunctional and distant one. And that’s not easy.
So, what I’m trying (and failing) to say is that: the relationship was seriously complex and it was emotional and deep, and it was handled wonderfully.
Another deep and emotional relationship was the one between Luca and Grace.
Luca, sweet cinnamon role love of my life.
He was so loyal and supportive and caring. I adored his and Grace’s friendship: it was healthy and real, full of love and inside jokes. And there was no miscommunication between the two of them, no sexual tension either! They were open and honest and it was splendid.
Moreover it was…a GuY?! and a GiRL?! Just being the bestest of FriENDs?!! Can you believe that that can actually happen??! Ah, I loved it so much; male-female friendships are so rarely encountered in YA. The trope goes that the guy has (obviously) a crush on the girl but here it was not the case and it was glorious 🙌🏻
Eva was such a lovely and delicate character. She went through so much and she came out of all that chin up, smile on. I was proud of her.
And a special shout out to Emmy - Luca’s mother - for being the fucking embodiment of a ray of sunshine.
[a:Ashley Herring Blake|8545130|Ashley Herring Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1511916369p2/8545130.jpg]’s writing style was stellar. She managed to create this atmosphere that was both full of grief and full of hope; both sad and happy. Her characters jump out of the page and their personalities are incredibly well flashed out and detailed.
Only problem (hence the four stars), was the beginning of the romantic relationship. I though it was a bit too instalovey. It developed naturally and splendidly but the beginning was kinda rocky, in my opinion.
Moreover, I can’t really say that this was a super original story - the plot, after all, was: girl meets the new kid in town and things happen - but it nonetheless was fantastic and wonderfully done.
The bi representation was spectacular.
The biracial representation was marvelous (racist comments were challenged and beautifully handled)
The characters and their relationships were compelling.
The plot was intriguing and had a bite.
And the writing style was phenomenal.
Beautiful read.
I can’t wait to pick [b:Girl Made of Stars|31351689|Girl Made of Stars|Ashley Herring Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1501116083s/31351689.jpg|52030589] up.
If this is what is to expect from [a:Ashley Herring Blake|8545130|Ashley Herring Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1511916369p2/8545130.jpg], then we are off to a great start!
"The stars won’t help me. No one will, not really. No one can.
No one except me."
TW: alcoholism, neglecting parents
Wow. This was intense™️. This was overwhelming. This was too much.
I loved this.
Firstly, the representation and the diversity were truly wonderfully done:
Bi main character (#OwnVoices)
Biracial, lesbian secondary character
Grace was such a strong female character.
I loved how angry and messed up her voice was. How she didn’t know how to deal with this shitty and harmful situation but continued being this fantastic, loyal, caring, true to herself person.
She was sarcastic and cynic; she was hopeful and a dreamer. She had to grow up too fast. She was still a child in need of her mother.
She was a real teenager and I truly loved her.
Her relationship with her mother was toxic and painful to read. I definitely felt for her and pity her when her mother acted or said something bad. And in a very bizarre (and maybe wrong) way it was still intriguing and engrossing reading about it because I wanted things to get fixed and I just simply wanted Grace to be happy.
It was so tough though, to read about this bizarre relation.
From the outside it’s so easy to judge Grace’s mother (Maggie) and almost dislike Grace herself for her opposing feelings towards her mum.
For example, Grace was super defensive of Maggie when people outside of the family criticized her (hence me almost disliking Grace. I was just there like "c’mon girl! She’s bad influence, she’s not treating you right! Stand up for yourself!") but then, our main character herself would judge her mother and be mad at her (thus me judging Maggie. Like, can’t you see you’re hurting your daughter?! Stop being like this and listen to her!).
But these opposing feelings - both the reader’s and Grace’s - indicated a wonderfully complex, convoluted, raw and real story about family and love.
After all, how can you blame Grace? It’s her mother we are talking about; she loves her unconditionally and has to accept both sides of Maggie: her motherly and caring one and her dysfunctional and distant one. And that’s not easy.
So, what I’m trying (and failing) to say is that: the relationship was seriously complex and it was emotional and deep, and it was handled wonderfully.
Another deep and emotional relationship was the one between Luca and Grace.
Luca, sweet cinnamon role love of my life.
He was so loyal and supportive and caring. I adored his and Grace’s friendship: it was healthy and real, full of love and inside jokes. And there was no miscommunication between the two of them, no sexual tension either! They were open and honest and it was splendid.
Moreover it was…a GuY?! and a GiRL?! Just being the bestest of FriENDs?!! Can you believe that that can actually happen??! Ah, I loved it so much; male-female friendships are so rarely encountered in YA. The trope goes that the guy has (obviously) a crush on the girl but here it was not the case and it was glorious 🙌🏻
Eva was such a lovely and delicate character. She went through so much and she came out of all that chin up, smile on. I was proud of her.
And a special shout out to Emmy - Luca’s mother - for being the fucking embodiment of a ray of sunshine.
[a:Ashley Herring Blake|8545130|Ashley Herring Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1511916369p2/8545130.jpg]’s writing style was stellar. She managed to create this atmosphere that was both full of grief and full of hope; both sad and happy. Her characters jump out of the page and their personalities are incredibly well flashed out and detailed.
Only problem (hence the four stars), was the beginning of the romantic relationship. I though it was a bit too instalovey. It developed naturally and splendidly but the beginning was kinda rocky, in my opinion.
Moreover, I can’t really say that this was a super original story - the plot, after all, was: girl meets the new kid in town and things happen - but it nonetheless was fantastic and wonderfully done.
The bi representation was spectacular.
The biracial representation was marvelous (racist comments were challenged and beautifully handled)
The characters and their relationships were compelling.
The plot was intriguing and had a bite.
And the writing style was phenomenal.
Beautiful read.
I can’t wait to pick [b:Girl Made of Stars|31351689|Girl Made of Stars|Ashley Herring Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1501116083s/31351689.jpg|52030589] up.
If this is what is to expect from [a:Ashley Herring Blake|8545130|Ashley Herring Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1511916369p2/8545130.jpg], then we are off to a great start!
"The stars won’t help me. No one will, not really. No one can.
No one except me."