A review by darumachan
As You Wish by Nashae Jones

emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The premise and resolution are sweet and make this a solid middle-grade romance -- a genre that doesn't get enough love, IMO. But I didn't think that the friends-to-dating relationship was developed very well-- while it was nice that the MC was equally focused on others in her social circle at school, it ended up leaving the best friend/crush character a bit shallow and lacking any discernable voice or agency, to the extent of making him seem rather objectified by the final resolution.  

The aspect of this novel that made me outright uncomfortable was the mother's extreme anxiety, which she was entirely unable to contain or filter around her 13-y.o. child. Yeah, I'm a mother of a teen, and I have significant, lifelong anxiety disorders, so I'm biased, but here's the thing - if a serious mental illness is introduced in a novel, I expect it to be explored with a *touch* more nuance than it got here
with a patched-in traumatic backstory that explained why the mother developed it
. Ultimately it read at best as a cheap plot point
for the MC to see possible ways such toxic parenting might have affected her
and at worst as a twisted "comic relief" based on the presumed absurdity of the mother's concerns. I'm unsure if this was the result of a clunky, awkward attempt to depict a real anxiety disorder or a downright ignorant and sloppy introduction of a "quirky" plot complication, but it took down what would have otherwise been a solid 3-star novel.

My thanks to Libro.fm for the advanced listening copy of this work. 
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