Three wishes: A review of As You Wish

I was one of those kids who believed in wishing on stars. My earliest memory of making a wish was when my brother told me about the North Star, and I wished that I'd dream about Cinderella that night (I was pretty young then). Years later, my friends and I would wait for the first star to appear so we could make a wish before going home, but as time went by, I found it harder and harder to make a simple wish. I'd end up using my wishes (even birthday wishes) for some beauty pageant greater good, you know, like world peace. It's a part of growing up I guess, or a fear that I'd wish for the wrong thing and then it would come true. I needed to be sure that if my wish did come true, it would be one I wouldn't regret.

Sixteen-year-old Viola faces the same problem in Jackson Pearce’s novel, As You Wish. Viola has been feeling invisible ever since her best friend and boyfriend, Lawrence, broke up with her after confessing he was gay. His coming out of the closet catapulted him to popularity, and Viola’s heartbreak pushed her to the sidelines. For the next seven months, she spends most of her days observing the people around her, trying to figure out how they belong to their own groups and wishing that she could simply belong, like they did. Viola’s desperate wish summons a young and handsome genie with no name, bearing (what else?) three wishes. The genie is anxious to return to his home world (he ages in the human world) but the only way for him to go back is for his master to use up her wishes. However, Viola is terrified of making the wrong wish, so she asks for time, much to the genie’s chagrin. Refusing to treat the genie as a slave, Viola gives him a name, Jinn, and forces him to call her by her name instead of Master. And that's when things get complicated…

As they spend more time together, Jinn (initially uneasy with Viola's treatment) starts to fall for Viola; Viola, for her part, breaks down at one party and makes her first wish. She becomes a new and shiny Viola who finally belongs, but she soon realizes that she is also falling for Jinn…and if she makes her last two wishes, Jinn will be out of her life forever.

As You Wish is a paranormal romance novel that uses a character type I haven't seen in the genre before: the genie. In Arabian mythology, genies are supernatural creatures that occupy a parallel world, who often harass and possess humans for all sorts of reasons, from romance to revenge (Wikipedia). In Jackson Pearce’s world, however, there is nothing evil about these genies. Genies, or jinns, come from Caliban, where they follow the rules of the Ancients, and ifrits help keep jinns alive by making sure they come back to Caliban as soon as possible to avoid aging. In Caliban, the jinns have no name. They don’t fall in love, because when you live forever, you don’t want that kind of commitment to one person.

The first lines of the book were enough to tell me that this would be a fun read:

All I’ve learned in today’s Shakespeare class is: Sometimes you have to fall in love with the wrong person just so you can find the right person. A more useful lesson would’ve been: Sometimes the right person doesn’t love you back. Or sometimes the right person is gay. Or sometimes you just aren’t the right person. Thanks for nothing, Shakespeare.

And I was right. Jackson Pearce’s debut novel is a cute and quirky YA fantasy romance that’s fun to read. Told from the points of view of Viola and Jinn, we get to see both sides of the story, a nice change from the sappy single person POV romances on the shelves. They alternate every chapter, giving the readers a sense of what each was thinking as the story unfolds, giving readers a better understanding of the story. I disagree with this review from Goodreads that criticizes the voices of the two protagonists; for me, Viola and Jinn’s voices were very alive and unique.

I found Viola easy to sympathize and empathize with. At the start of the novel, she hasn't recovered from breaking up with her boyfriend; it’s never easy to get over a broken relationship (not that I'd know that firsthand, thankfully). Others weren't quite as taken with Viola's character: some thought that her feelings of isolation were exaggerated and somewhat repetitive, but others thought it makes her character more real. While I did like Viola--she’s a flawed protagonist, and this imperfection makes her more relatable--she does become annoying at some points in the story, but I can’t blame her for being confused about that she wants, given the difficult decisions she has to make.

I'm more unequivocal in my praise for Jinn, who is probably one of the best male leads I’ve encountered so far – snarky and sarcastic yet still vulnerable at the same time. It was great to have the opportunity to see the romance from the guy’s point of view (even a non-human guy). It gave the story more depth, and helped the readers understand exactly why Jinn was hesitant about his love for Viola not by mere exposition or dialogue, but by letting us see the possible repercussions from his standpoint.

The book has a good plot to complement the great characters, one which may seem light at first but has hidden depths that touch upon a lot of relevant topics for teens. I was surprised to find there was more to the story than the normal mortal-girl-and-supernatural-creature romance. Pearce delves into the issue of wholeness, about how one thinks a wish (or three) granted can easily make us complete. I liked the Jinn explanation for the mechanics of wishes: Wishes aren’t permanent. If you wish for a million dollars, it’ll be granted but once you spend it, it’s gone. If you wish for world peace, it’ll be granted but once someone fires a gun, it’s gone. According to Jinn, wishing for happiness is not going to last; what lasts is wishing for something that makes you happy.

But what makes a person happy, really? Pearce elaborates on wholeness in the latter chapters, and on the idea that we are all responsible for our own happiness. It’s a good lesson for the target readers of this book, especially now that there are many books out there that tell of a love that is so consuming that one is never really complete without that love. Pearce's message in As You Wish is that we are all whole in the first place, and even if someone leaves us, it doesn’t make us incomplete. The author wasn’t afraid to hurt her characters to get this point across, and in the end, it gave them room to grow, and they have done so beautifully by the end of the book.

My only gripe is how the development of Viola and Jinn’s friendship seemed rushed. I’m not alone in this, as other readers have pointed out: at first Jinn was adamant about returning home, but by his next chapter, he’s enjoying a conversation with Viola and seems to have given up on pressing her to make a wish. As I enjoyed his sarcasm and snark, I wished there had been more flashes of attitude before he realized he was in love with his master. There were also a lot of complaints about the cover, and I have to agree: the cover art was kind of lousy (although Pearce’s next book, Sisters Red has a much better cover).

Overall, As You Wish is a great book, even if you’re past the teenage years. While I don’t think it will help me figure out what to wish for the next time I spot a shooting star, this book certainly made me think twice about wishing for world peace.

Available on the Amazon Kindle for US$11.99.

[Image source: Indiebound.org. Copyright holder/s maintain appropriate rights.]

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