As You Wish Review

Navid Tajkhorshid

November 6, 2019

As You Wish Review

            Continuing with my trend of choosing obscure books to read, I read As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti, a seemingly fun novel that grapples with deep questions. The book is set in Madison, a small town in the Mojave Desert. This town is normal but for the fact that everyone who lives in it gets one wish on their 18^th birthday which it comes true. The book is narrated by a boy named Eldon Wilkes who is 26 days away from his wish day, but unlike everyone else, he hasn’t decided his wish. His mother pressures him to wish for money to get their family out of trouble, but Eldon is not completely sure about this. Throughout the story, Eldon struggles with what the right choice to make is. He knows the real reason his mom wants money is to have a chance at saving his sister, who has been hanging on to life for the last few years in Las Vegas, but knows deep down that there is no chance to save her.

            Rules of Wishing:

1.     Never let an outsider find out about wishing.

2.     Wishes that would impact the world are off-limits.

3.     Do no harm.

4.     No time travel.

5.     No wishing for more wishes.

6.     Never break the rules.

7.     The direct impact of wishes must be confined to Madison.

8.     There are always consequences.

In any story with an interesting premise, I pay attention to how well the author expands on this premise and uses it in creative ways to advance the story. In As You Wish, Sedoti executes on this perfectly, exploring a multitude of potential consequences wishing would have on the town. The main theme of the story is how wishing can destroy lives, and these short stories interspersed with the main plot are profoundly thought-provoking. They range from a woman who wished her crush would be forever in love with her, but discovering that she did not really love him, to a kind-hearted girl who gives a person who is about to die from suicide a second chance at live, when she realizes that he wanted to die. These stories are surprisingly deep for a seemingly lighthearted book.

      The main wish story that the book is concerned about, though, is that of Eldon. On his quest to find out what to wish for, he makes a few new friends and grows as a character. However, his character development is far from ideal. He starts the story narrating in a very pessimistic way, being mad or triggered at most of the things that happen. The tone of his narration gradually shifts to optimistic, which was done well, one of his major developments as a character was becoming a nicer person. His shift in tone roughly coincides with him starting to realize that he was “kind of a jerk,” to quote him. Sadly, the author did not seem to trust the reader to understand his change on their own, so Eldon repeats this “I was a jerk” line way too much. His expertly done change in narration tone tells the reader enough, so it is frustrating for the author to try and spell out the character change in an unnatural way. If I were trying to correct this issue, I would just take out the jerk lines and focus more on changing how Eldon acts. You know, “show not tell?”

SPOILERS IN NEXT 2 PARAGRAPHS!

      In my opinion, Eldon’s most powerful change is in relation to how he feels about his sister, Ebba. His sister got in her condition because of a car crash with Fletcher Hale, a student who was speeding since he was late on his wish day. Ebba was being driven to Las Vegas (see rules above for why this matters), but Fletcher had time to wish for her injuries to fully heal. Fletcher instead wished for materials guaranteeing his entrance to Harvard. Because of this situation, Eldon develops a hate for Fletcher. Eldon frequently mopes in the beginning of how much he misses his sister and how much he hates Fletcher, but as the story progresses, he starts to become more understanding and forgiving of Fletcher. In the end, he lets go of his sister and pulls the plug on her life support; she was never going to make it. This character change was handled more smoothly, and it ties into the theme of living with the world as it is and not trying to change or “fix” it with wishes.

      While I did say that Eldon’s development of becoming a better person was not handled well, I think his main development was him letting go of everything he was holding on to. He was holding onto his hate for Fletcher, his sister, his ex-girlfriend, his leaving friend, and his skilled but unhappy football career. All of these amount to a very strong catharsis for Eldon that leave a mark on the reader. Even though the book is about wishing, what Eldon wishes for (or does he wish J) does not matter.

      Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who wants a thought-provoking and different type of novel. Eldon as a character is very compelling and fun to listen to, the story goes surprisingly deep, and it wraps up in not a perfect ending, but pretty close. Kirkus Reviews puts is perfectly: “An unexpectedly affecting book.”