A review by sarahrahrah
What You Wish for by Katherine Center

emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This book was emotionally gripping and I really enjoyed reading it. The longer I've sat with and thought about it though, the more I've found myself nitpicking or feeling weird about certain plot elements. Overall I still liked and would recommend it. It was especially relevant to me as a former elementary teacher with a family of educators/librarians. 

I knew pretty much right away that Duncan
likely had trauma related to a school shooting, and so I felt a weird tension and dread reading up until the point when this was confirmed. I didn't love all of the ways this topic was treated, and found a lot of the characters' reactions a bit unbelievable. Like when he tells Sam and she's just like, "oh yeah, I heard about that one." Which is a sad reflection of the prevalence of school shootings and reality of our world, but also just seemed like  a weirdly cavalier and tone deaf response to someone telling you they literally experienced it, especially from a fellow educator. And then the way the community were immediately accepting of that being the reason their new principal was acting ridiculous and ruining the school culture and that obviously the best way to "help" him was to give him silly little daily tasks so he could remember joy. Like yeah I guess they also got him to go to therapy but still...
I also had a hard time believing when Sam
reacted to her heartbreak from Duncan's betrayal by just running down the pier and jumping off. I get why it needed to happen for the plot and her own character development, but it again just felt so odd and far-fetched
. 

I think the more I think about it, the more I'll find to tear apart, so I will just reiterate that, looking past all of that, it was a compelling read that I was emotionally invested in, and that overall I liked.