As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti

Synopsis: What if you could ask for anything- and get it? In the sandy Mojave Desert, Madison is a small town on the road between nothing and nowhere. But Eldon wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, because in Madison, everyone gets one wish—and that wish always comes true. Some people wish for money, some people wish for love, but Eldon has seen how wishes have broken the people around him. And with the lives of his family and friends in chaos, he’s left with more questions than answers. Can he make their lives better? How can he be happy if the people around him aren’t? And what hope is there for any of them if happiness isn’t an achievable dream? Doubts build, leading Eldon to a more outlandish and scary thought: maybe you can’t wish for happiness…maybe, just maybe, you have to make it for yourself.

Publication Date: January 2nd, 2018
Imprint: Sourcebooks Fire
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Teens & YA/Sci-Fi
Received From: Netgalley in exchange for honest feedback
My Rating: 4/5

I would like to provide a trigger warning for attempted suicide in the content of this book.

As You Wish is based on such an interesting concept, one that I'm sure we've all considered, being able to wish for our hearts desire and have it come true. But how many of us have truthfully followed the ideas of our wishes all the way through to consider how they might have come out? That maybe it won't turn out exactly how we hoped? That maybe you should be careful what you wish for?  We're safe in our musings because there is no magical way for those wishes to happen so we're not bound by the consequences of just daydreaming.  Not so for the people of Madison.

Just like in life trying to decide what to do with your life,  go to college, start working immediately?  Are you really ready to make that life-changing to decision at 18?  Yet that is when you must make your wish, and live with whatever it brings.  I enjoyed the examination of the different wishes and how they turned out.  Many were selfish and short sighted, but we're human after all, and at 18 most of us are not equipped to be able to craft a wish that covers all the bases, that plans for every outcome that needs to be avoided. 

I was wary going in from the other varied reviews I was seeing, people either seemed to love it or hate it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how thoroughly and thoughtfully this story covered the premise of wishing and all the ways it might come out.  Our main character Eldon is flawed, as we all are, and struggling with what he wants, vs. what his family wants, a true trauma, and with just being a teenager growing up and all the social pressures that come along with that.  He doesn't make the best decisions, many of the characters don't, and the final outcome is not necessarily the best one for all involved, or in the mind of the reader, but it certainly provides a lot of food for thought. 

Overall I thought it was a well told and interesting story that made me think and pulled on my heart strings.  I appreciate the opportunity to review it!