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A review by sidneyellwood
As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti
3.0
What really drew me in to As You Wish was the premise, because mysterious small desert towns have such a surreal setting. As You Wish is set in a small, middle-of-nowhere town called Madison, where nothing ever happens - except for that everyone, on their eighteenth birthday, gets to make one wish, and one wish only. And everyone always regrets their wish. Eldon's eighteenth birthday is coming up, and so is his wish.
I was very frustrated with Eldon a lot of the time during this book, because he just was very self-centred. Which is totally a flaw that was brought up, but he doesn't really change in that aspect even though he does change in other ways. Even though I could emphasize with him, I kind of wanted him to notice more things that were going on around him and that even though he was going through some pretty tough events, other people were as well. As for plot and pacing, I felt like it was pretty slow, and not too much happened. However, the magical realism elements were fairly good - I don't usually like magical realism, and it was one of the more fascinating parts of this book.
My favourite part of this book was the setting, because I feel like Sedoti got the aesthetic and mood of the mysterious desert town down pat. Everyone knows each other, and each other's secrets, and all the secondary characters were a lot more interesting than the main characters, honestly. For me, Fletcher and Penelope were the most interesting characters because it brought up the question: What happens when your wishes interfere with someone else's life? There were a lot of philosophical questions brought up in As You Wish and it was quite thought-provoking.
If you like magical realism and Welcome to Night Vale, definitely check out As You Wish.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this book in exchange for review consideration. This review and others can be found on my blog.
I was very frustrated with Eldon a lot of the time during this book, because he just was very self-centred. Which is totally a flaw that was brought up, but he doesn't really change in that aspect even though he does change in other ways. Even though I could emphasize with him, I kind of wanted him to notice more things that were going on around him and that even though he was going through some pretty tough events, other people were as well. As for plot and pacing, I felt like it was pretty slow, and not too much happened. However, the magical realism elements were fairly good - I don't usually like magical realism, and it was one of the more fascinating parts of this book.
My favourite part of this book was the setting, because I feel like Sedoti got the aesthetic and mood of the mysterious desert town down pat. Everyone knows each other, and each other's secrets, and all the secondary characters were a lot more interesting than the main characters, honestly. For me, Fletcher and Penelope were the most interesting characters because it brought up the question: What happens when your wishes interfere with someone else's life? There were a lot of philosophical questions brought up in As You Wish and it was quite thought-provoking.
If you like magical realism and Welcome to Night Vale, definitely check out As You Wish.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this book in exchange for review consideration. This review and others can be found on my blog.