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A review by bandysbooks
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
A book about a reclusive author, books, and the fulfillment of childhood wishes? Sign me up! Or so I thought when I first saw The Wishing Game.
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer follows Lucy Hart, a young, broke, idealistic teacher's aide who suffers from the memory of childhood neglect. She wants to adopt one of the kids at her school who has been recently placed in foster care, but has been unable to due to her financial constraints. Her life seems like it's in a downward spiral until Jack Masterson, her favorite author invites her to compete for the only copy of his newest novel. With nothing to lose Lucy accepts and is caught up in a whirlwind of childhood memories, grumpy artists, and dreams that just will not die.
This book is loosely inspired by Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and you can definitely see that inspiration in some of the elements. There are no golden tickets, creepy oompa loompas, or a psychotic murdering candy factory owner. In fact, most of the dark elements of Willy Wonka have been stripped away to create a much more sanitized overall feel.
The plot of this book was fun enough, but was quite predictable. I think within the first third of this book I had a good idea of where this book was going. It was still interesting enough to keep me reading, but I did find myself wondering occasionally if there was a way to make the book more suspenseful Even the "twist" at the end of the competition was visible early on. The predictability of the whole thing left me feeling like the stakes were never truly high and sucked out any emotional impact that the ending could've had.
If I'm really honest, this book seemed much more like a middle grade-young adult book. The writing style was very straightforward. There wasn't a ton of descriptive prose. The characters were all pretty squeaky clean and even their problems were presented in a sort of sanitized way. The couple of moments that could've provided emotional depth are sort of just glossed over for the most part. This made the few moments that I could identify as more adult a bit jarring in my opinion. In particular, there was a moment where Lucy is commenting on a piece of artwork, a painting of an orchid, and compares it to a vulva. This felt like it came completely out of nowhere and was forgotten in like three seconds. Considering the situation it occurred in, I could've read it as an attempt at flirting accept there wasn't much chemistry and it was forgotten within seconds of being said.
There is a romance element in this story as well, which felt very sanitized too. We never see so much as a kiss until well after the people in question are a couple. Their flirting is virtually non-existent even though they repeatedly mention growing feelings toward each other. Ultimately, it was a lot of telling, not showing in regard to the relationship. The constant fade to black anytime anything remotely romantic happened really added to that feeling of this being written for a younger reader.
That said, I'm kind of almost glad that more romance wasn't more visible because the two people involved were thirteen and twenty five when they first meet. Even though they are both adults at this point in the story, there are definitely still some questionable power dynamics at play. One person is a contestant, and one person is actively assisting in putting on the competition. It was just a bit icky.
I feel bad to be so critical. but another thing that really bothered me was Lucy's treatment of Christopher's situation (the young boy she wants to adopt). We see her confront his social worker (and it's implied that this isn't the first time) about wanting to adopt him. The social worker tells her politely that she's twenty six, broke, living in a crappy apartment with three roommates, and has no car. Those all seem like realistic and rational reasons why at this time Lucy is not a good candidate for fostering Christopher, but Lucy makes it seem like the social worker just hates her. The social worker tells Lucy that love isn't the only thing a child needs....and she's right. Love is extremely important, but so is having a guardian that can financially support you, feed and clothe you, take you to a doctor when you are sick, etc. I read most of this as coming from Lucy's own trauma around not receiving love or affection, but even still it felt so unbelievably unrealistic and illogical.
All in all, if you're looking for a low stakes, easy read that might leave you with some warm fuzzies, you may enjoy this book. I think going in expecting a book written for a younger reader might help you to have appropriate expectations.
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer follows Lucy Hart, a young, broke, idealistic teacher's aide who suffers from the memory of childhood neglect. She wants to adopt one of the kids at her school who has been recently placed in foster care, but has been unable to due to her financial constraints. Her life seems like it's in a downward spiral until Jack Masterson, her favorite author invites her to compete for the only copy of his newest novel. With nothing to lose Lucy accepts and is caught up in a whirlwind of childhood memories, grumpy artists, and dreams that just will not die.
This book is loosely inspired by Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and you can definitely see that inspiration in some of the elements. There are no golden tickets, creepy oompa loompas, or a psychotic murdering candy factory owner. In fact, most of the dark elements of Willy Wonka have been stripped away to create a much more sanitized overall feel.
The plot of this book was fun enough, but was quite predictable. I think within the first third of this book I had a good idea of where this book was going. It was still interesting enough to keep me reading, but I did find myself wondering occasionally if there was a way to make the book more suspenseful Even the "twist" at the end of the competition was visible early on. The predictability of the whole thing left me feeling like the stakes were never truly high and sucked out any emotional impact that the ending could've had.
If I'm really honest, this book seemed much more like a middle grade-young adult book. The writing style was very straightforward. There wasn't a ton of descriptive prose. The characters were all pretty squeaky clean and even their problems were presented in a sort of sanitized way. The couple of moments that could've provided emotional depth are sort of just glossed over for the most part. This made the few moments that I could identify as more adult a bit jarring in my opinion. In particular, there was a moment where Lucy is commenting on a piece of artwork, a painting of an orchid, and compares it to a vulva. This felt like it came completely out of nowhere and was forgotten in like three seconds. Considering the situation it occurred in, I could've read it as an attempt at flirting accept there wasn't much chemistry and it was forgotten within seconds of being said.
There is a romance element in this story as well, which felt very sanitized too. We never see so much as a kiss until well after the people in question are a couple. Their flirting is virtually non-existent even though they repeatedly mention growing feelings toward each other. Ultimately, it was a lot of telling, not showing in regard to the relationship. The constant fade to black anytime anything remotely romantic happened really added to that feeling of this being written for a younger reader.
That said, I'm kind of almost glad that more romance wasn't more visible because the two people involved were thirteen and twenty five when they first meet. Even though they are both adults at this point in the story, there are definitely still some questionable power dynamics at play. One person is a contestant, and one person is actively assisting in putting on the competition. It was just a bit icky.
I feel bad to be so critical. but another thing that really bothered me was Lucy's treatment of Christopher's situation (the young boy she wants to adopt). We see her confront his social worker (and it's implied that this isn't the first time) about wanting to adopt him. The social worker tells her politely that she's twenty six, broke, living in a crappy apartment with three roommates, and has no car. Those all seem like realistic and rational reasons why at this time Lucy is not a good candidate for fostering Christopher, but Lucy makes it seem like the social worker just hates her. The social worker tells Lucy that love isn't the only thing a child needs....and she's right. Love is extremely important, but so is having a guardian that can financially support you, feed and clothe you, take you to a doctor when you are sick, etc. I read most of this as coming from Lucy's own trauma around not receiving love or affection, but even still it felt so unbelievably unrealistic and illogical.
All in all, if you're looking for a low stakes, easy read that might leave you with some warm fuzzies, you may enjoy this book. I think going in expecting a book written for a younger reader might help you to have appropriate expectations.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Emotional abuse