The story line of As You Wish is fairly predictable. The fact that their are consequences to wishful thinking has been the basis of many a novel. However, I really did enjoy the book and here’s why –
1. Eldon to a large extent is an unlikeable character. He’s self-centered and doesn’t seem to be quite concerned with the lives of the people around him. This somehow made the book even more interesting. The author made no efforts to portray him as a good guy, instead calling him out for his faults and yet making the decisions that he did. After all, nobody is perfect.
2. I really related to the concept of how your decisions at a young age setting the course for your life. Being a college student myself its just occurring to me how many of my decisions have been made for me, just because I was to young to know what is right.
3. The book was light-hearted, easy to read through and quite interesting if you wanted to know how each person was affected by the wish (which I was).

If you could wish for anything at what would it be? How would your choices change if you had your whole life to think about it? Such an intriguing exploration of the wishes made and the consequences thereof.

I think I have finally accepted that Chelsea Sedoti’s books just aren’t for me. I struggled through THE HUNDRED LIES OF LIZZIE LOVETT (Review here) and while I didn’t have the exact same problems with AS YOU WISH in finishing it, the story was… uncomfortable and confusing.

I’ve seen other reviews where they talk about Eldon being an asshole. He is. He’s written that way, and I generally like unlikeable characters. Eldon was not my problem with this story. He was a kid who grew up in a very strange house and is dealing with extreme grief following his younger sister’s accident. I think all of his actions and the way he acted on page (we’re only told that he used to be an asshole who was full of himself) was justifiable. Including his belief that Norie liked him. I know this is supposed to be a moment of “oh, yeah, Eldon totally thinks EVERYONE wants him” but I actually thought Norie liked him as more than a friend, too.

There is also Queerphobic content in the book. One of the characters decides that he wants to wish his homosexuality away. I think Sedoti tried to redeem herself by saying that the feelings didn’t go away but she drops the ball when the character is not longer interested in sex/romance… which apparently makes him a sad and pitiful character that everyone should feel sorry for. As if ace/aro people don’t exist. I was deeply uncomfortable with Sedoti’s use of the “wish the gay away” because there’s also deep seeded Christianity in this book. Norie is the only character in the book who believes in God and she is also written as the best, most honest, most caring character in the entire story.

There is a suicide attempt in the book by a character that was bullied by Eldon. In fact, the last conversation the character and Eldon has is the one that pushes the character over the edge. After someone wishes him back, he returns to school and is continuously said to look like a corpse.

I think the author wasn’t sure what the message was supposed to be. Half of the book is about not playing God and the other half is about playing God. The ending was extremely weak and felt rushed. It was as if the author wasn’t sure herself how to end the book.

My final thought on this book is that it tried way too hard to be Nightvale. A secret town in the desert with a magic cave that grants wishes? Please.

I would not recommend this book.

I just found out why Chelsea Sedoti sounded SO familiar! Netgalley kindly approved me for her debut "the hundred lives of Lizzie Lovett" prior to this book.
Guess I'm really into her topics. In this case I also loved the bookcover and, true, with the title was hoping for a princess bride reference.
The premise of the book is wonderful. Anti hero main character, a place were you can make wishes on your 18th birthday and they come true. I'm sold.
Also that bookcover.
As this is supposed to be a honest review I have to admit that I haven't finished it. Eldon was not my cup of tea, I couldn't sympathize with him at any point ( and I don't care how hot he is ) so I didn't really care about him. As his friends don't him like as well, I guess I'm in good company. Maybe Sedoti was aiming at this, for the reader not to like him. Tsiolkas does this brilliantly, but Sedotis isn't a good enough writer for a stand like that.
So conclusing, I have to read way to many books to spend too much time on titles that don't flash me enough...
No hard feelings, yeah?!

PS: Please compliment the arts departement on the cover. It's a highlight!

As hard as I tried, I just couldn't get into this book and didn't finish it. I made it halfway through, but it just seemed to drag to me, and there wasn't enough going on to keep my interest piqued. The main character Eldon really bothered me, and he seemed really ungrateful for what he had. Yes he lost his sister, but he still had his parents and a good close friend and a decent life. Just because he didn't have his girl anymore, or wasn't the star of the football team, he made it seem like the whole world was out to get him. I did skip ahead to the end because I was curious what Eldon wished for...and wow I should have seen that coming. The names in the book really bothered me for some reason as well, like Eldon and Ebba the siblings, it was way too weird and simultaneously cutesy matching for me. Unfortunately, if I had a wish, it would probably be to get the time back that I spent trying to read this book.

I was blown away by the originality of this book. I was impressed by the writing and the storytelling. What if you were granted one wish when you turned 18? What would you wish for? Plenty of people have wished for beauty, cash, love, and more. Yet to every wish there is a catch....would you still wish? That is the crux of the story and it was wonderfully told. Two Thumbs WAY UP!

As you Wish by Chelsea Sedoti- I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. It is coming out in January and I had an advanced reader copy. I was very excited to receive this book and loved the idea of it. It was such an interesting premise and I'd never read a book like it.

The story takes place in a little town where everybody gets to make a wish on their 18th birthday and the wish comes true. Eldon is about to have his 18th birthday and is contemplating his wish. He knows that so many people are unhappy with how their wishes turned out and he wonders if he can help people actually be happy. There were a few details in the story that were difficult for me to wrap my head around and I'm a huge lover of magic/ fantasy. For example, Eldon is a great football player until people his age start making their wishes. What I do not understand is how his football was not affected by the older students making their wishes in the years before. Also, why would he suddenly be unable to catch a football just because other kids became great?
The middle of the book felt like it moved too slowly. II did like how the chapters were set up and the character development. I liked the ending. Overall, it was an enjoyable read. 3 stars
Thank you to Netgalley for the Advanced copy of this book.

This was great.

The writer created a real sense of place and character. I could genuinely picture the dusty town and didn't feel as if the characters were two-dimensional caricatures of high school teens.

Although the ending was predictable, in terms of Eldon's decision, it didn't lessen the enjoyment of the novel's build up in any way. And there were many moments which caught me off guard.

I'd love to use the book as a class text; I can imagine the hours of rich debate about the ethics of wishing and regrets.

As You Wish has a very interesting and promising premise. In a small desert town in Nevada, there exists a wishing cave. The residents keep it secret from the outside world, and everyone gets a wish on their 18th birthday. There are rules to wishing, of course, which is why this plot could have been so interesting.

I really feel like this was written by the wrong author. I read Sedoti's [book:The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett|25546710], in hopes that this would be better than that because there seemed to be an actual plot, but no such luck. The main character is incredibly annoying and just an asshole. It's hard to enjoy a book when you want the protagonist to go away and never come back. 2 1/2 stars

In As You Wish, we are introduced to a town with a magic cave that grants wishes to the inhabitants on their 18th birthday and to Eldon, who's about to turn 18 and has lots of angst about the wish.

The magical realism premise didn't do much for me but I loved Chelsea Sedoti's previous book, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett so of course I requested this book as soon as I saw it.

<b> The Good: <\b>

Chelsea Sedoti's writing is as great as I remember it. You can really feel how suffocating life in a little, dusty, forgotten town in Nevada is. You can taste the sand and the utter panic of knowing how your life will turn out if you don't do something.

<b> The Bad: <\b>

I'm all for unlikable narrators, but Eldon was just such a jerk that doesn't even seem to truly learn much over the course of the book. At the end, you get the sense that he might be willing to do some actual soul searching but we're not going to see the results of that. It's not a great character arc, he barely even moves.

As many others have mentioned, the book seemed to be extremely negative about disabilities or asexuality. Yes, I get that the point of that character wishing away his gay feelings only to regret it soon after is to say that you shouldn't wish yourself away, you should embrace what makes you you, etc. But instead of coming out as an empowering story, it actually reads as "asexuality is horrible" since that's essentially how the character ends up. It's narrow minded, although I think unintentional.

Nothing happens. At the very end something does happen but for 95% of the book, it's just Eldon feeling sorry for himself and spouting off so much angst it almost made me a teenager again.

<b> The Weird </b>

The names. Oh my God, the names in this novel. For a town in the middle of the Mojave, these characters sure have strange names. Eldon, Luella, Harmon, Ebba, Merrill, Norie, Juniper, etc. One of these names in the novel would have been enough, instead everyone has strange names that I'm guessing are supposed to show the quirky side of town but instead annoyed me. I do realize this is extremely shallow of me but it just felt like dissonance. Here is this tiny town... full of people with very unusual names.

Overall, this book didn't really live up to my expectations. The writing itself is good but the story meanders and then comes to a halt in an unsatisfying manner.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I'm sorry to say this book did not grab me, I found it hard to finish if I'm totally honest and I've ended up putting it down a lot and reading other books in between as it just didn't grab me. This is a book out of my normal comfort zone so it could just be me and not the book itself but personally for me I struggled with it

I absolutely LOVED this book.
Eldon is a selfish, conceited, jock and takes every opportunity to show what a horrible person he is. But the growth that he goes through and everything that he learns and changes, just makes this book so rewarding. I couldn't put it down.
I really enjoyed the chapters that were written explaining the wishes of other townspeople. The writing style was thoroughly Eldon. Spoken like a 17 year old, I related to some of his emotions from that age. Well done!

I really liked the concept of this book, but the main character was so unlikable that it was hard to really get into the story. I just wanted to slap Eldon the whole way through. RIP wishing cave. What a jerk.

As You Wish comes from the perspective of Eldon, a cute, funny, 17 year old in Madison, NV. He is turning 18 in 25 days and then he'll get a wish. The first chapter is intriguing. What's Eldon's secret? In Madison, a town of secrets, everyone gets 1 wish. The enormity of this upcoming, life-changing event presses down on him. The story is well-written and feelings are real. Several characters are introduced, such as Merrill, the best friend, and Eldon's younger sister, Ebba. Where is she? What happened to her? The reader's interest is continually piqued with the stories of how wishes have been granted to other people in the town. "It's human nature to fixate on the path not taken rather than the one you're walking." Halfway through the book, religion is introduced and mildly linked to wishing, but it's not too distracting. As You Wish is about temporary fulfillment, guilt, regret, family, true friends, and finding yourself. "Is there really such a thing as the perfect wish?" And, as a bonus, the football team names are genius!

Madison is not a place people stop unless they are getting gas. And no one encourages stopping either. Something isn't quite normal here.

Eldon isn't sure he wants to make a wish. He's seen how some turn out and it isn't all good. 

This was an interesting book. Full of the normal teen aged angst, but also a deeper theme of taking shortcuts through life and what we want at 17 is probably not what we want at 25. 

About how our wants or wishes can and do affect other people's lives. I am still not sure if I liked the end or not. 

Netgalley/Sourcebooks/YA  Release is set for January 01,2018.

If you could wish for anything and know that that wish is going to come true, what would you wish for? Eldon lives in the small town of Madison in the middle of the Mojave Desert, and for as far back as anyone can remember the people born in this town get a wish on their 18th birthday. Eldon's Wish day is coming up in about a month and he has no idea what to wish for.

This book follows Eldon as he researches wishing. He interviews people around town to find out about the wish they made and whether or not they would change things if they could go back. The majority of the people he interviews admit, that yes, they have regrets. Things didn't turn out the way they thought. It's a Monkey's Paw situation. Be careful what you wish for. Throughout the book there are chapters dedicated to telling people's Wish stories. This is the most interesting thing in the book. I was fascinated. We see their life before their wish, and learn why they make the wish they end up making, and then Eldon talks to them, and we see how it turned out for them. It was interesting to see the different characters and why they wished for such different thing, and also how their wishes effected other people.

I enjoyed this book very much, it was fast paced, and interesting enough that it kept pulling me along. I love concept behind it also, it really makes you think, about people, life, and happiness. It forces you to put some things in perspective. My only real complaint with the book was the main character. He was egotistical. A typical jock type, who gets upset when people start wishing to be better than him at football. He's full of himself, seems genuinely shocked when people don't like him. He does things that knows are wrong, but he does them anyway. However, I did identify with one aspect of his life. He recently lost his little sister and the pain he feels throughout the book, is so accurate. I lost my little sister and I understand the pain his family is going through. It made him more real to me.

Overall, this was a really good book and I gave it 4 stars. It comes out in January 2018!

3 Stars. I was really excited to jump into As You Wish because of the fantastic premise, and that was certainly the strongest part of the novel. However, I struggled connecting to the characters, especially Eldon. He was a bit too unlikeable for my taste, which contributed to the tension, but made it difficult for me to root for him. I found some of the supporting characters more interesting, but the representation was kind of questionable. Nevertheless, the character of Madison itself, with it's rich mythology and history, was compelling enough that I was eager to read the ending. I normally don't read for setting, but this one kept me hooked.

I didn't like this book. I read it but none of the characters gave me enough to really want to get to know. I read many YA books and this one was disappointing. It needs to have more of a development of characters, I thought there would be more mystery and aliens in it from it being near area 51. The wish premise was interesting but I thought Eldon's ultimate wish was STUPID. I wanted more from the characters and their wishes.

"Wishing made it a sure thing though."
"But who wants a sure thing? Life is about gambles,"

well that felt like a really long read. . .


this book !!!!!!!!

it had such a unique plot, a unique world, and I am in love with the writing style of the whole book. The history narrations of some characters was a creative addition to this already wonderful story, it made everything much easier to understand and kept up the unique twists of the book. The characters were very easy to relate to and every single one of the characters was given just the right amount of depth, whether they be in the story for a few pages or for the majority of the book. I loved seeing them grow and change.

this is a wonderful coming of age book that I am sure a lot of teenagers can relate to (particularly, older ones). The moral of the story in general is something that everyone should learn and read about. The story is practically about finding yourself, it teaches you that it's okay if you don't know what's going to happen because that is what life is about, it's okay not to be perfect. And what really stood out to me is how to still believe in the magic that the world has, but to not let it control you and to see what is beyond that magic.

"maybe we destroy our own lives"


wishing here means so much more if you relate it to real life and I can really see this book being a classic for me, personally.


"Mayor Fontaine is awful and terrifying. But like the rest of us, he's human too."


this was not cliche in any means of the word and I am just left in awe at how amazing this was. It got me hooked so bad that I did not even want to finish this book too quickly.


just go where life takes you.

"being extraordinary is overrated."

I really wanted to like this one but the characters just made it so hard. The plot had so much potential, but it just wasn't a good read for me. I hated how everyone was selfish and rude. The women are depicted poorly. Most have been said that their wishes were used for either better looks, bigger boobs or for their dream man. Eldon was a complete stuck-up jerk who only complained about how he's not popular anymore and how the girls don't want him. His automatic reaction to his girlfriend breaking up with him was because she wished to be more popular/beautiful, so the most popular boy in the class would date her. ARE YOU SERIOUS. I also hated how the only gay character in the story WISHED FOR HIS GAYNESS AWAY.

Maybe I'm thinking too much of this. Maybe this story was made to be a learning lesson. But that is in no way how I read it and I'm sure a lot of people will be hurt from this story if they don't realize right away that this is supposed to be a "what not to do." I had higher hopes.