What Would You Do if You Had One Wish? - Anya English Blog 10/11/2019

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What Would You Do if You Had One Wish?

          As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti is a young adult novel set in Madison, a small town in the Mojave desert. The story follows 17 almost 18 year-old Eldon, who lives in Madison with his parents. Madison from the outside seems just seems like any other small town, but despite the outside appearance, it has a secret. In Madison, every person gets to have one wish on their 18^th birthday, which is guaranteed to come true. The citizens may wish for anything that they choose, within some constraints. For example, they cannot wish for more wishes, wish to bring back the dead, or wish for anything that would impact the outside world. Most of the residents have their wishes planned out for years before their wish day, but Eldon has no idea what he should do.

     Eldon is having so much trouble in part because in every wish he has ever observed, something terrible always goes wrong, and there are always consequences. He wants to make the perfect wish, but not one that will turn his life upside down. He sees his own mother wish for her husband to love her and only her for the rest of eternity but suffers the consequences when she loses her love for him, but he continues to worship her. He sees Barnabas Fairly plan to wish to never be drafted in the war but accidentally tells the Mayor that he wishes to be alone for his wish. He sees how Barnabas is eventually drafted in the war but lives his life in never ending loneliness. He sees how Fletcher Hale hits Ebba, Eldon’s sister, and causes her to live in a half-dead state, and then wishes to have a perfect transcript for Harvard. Eldon is mad that Fletcher didn’t wish his sister back when he already would have had a perfect transcript. Eldon doesn’t want to end up like everyone else in the town, so he decides to do a “wish history” to see what kinds of wishes were good, and what was bad. However, throughout the whole process, he finds that almost no one is happy with their wish. Eventually, Eldon decides on his perfect wish, and it changes everything.

     I think this book is very interesting and presents a really complicated idea. I went into the book thinking that it would be cheesy and stupid, but I actually really enjoyed it. I think many people believe that if they could have one wish it would be amazing and wonderful, yet this book provides a different perspective. All You Can do is Wait shows the dark side of wishing and how it hurt almost every person that does this. I think if I lived in Madison, I would have a very hard time coming up with a wish because I am not very good at decisions. Also, at age 18 many people don’t know what they want for their life, and once they pick a wish, there is no going back.

     I would recommend this book to anyone who likes contemporary YA novels, and an interesting look at how big decisions can affect people’s lives. This book probably appeals to teens the most, but some adults would also likely enjoy it despite the fact that the intended audience is a little younger.

*I could not include quotes because I had to return the book to the library before I wrote this*