Review #73 - The Wish by DS Affleck

I went on a school trip to South Africa with Biology in July and one of the teachers who went with us (who I'm going to call Tim though I am not supposed to call him by his first name but we like to remain anonymous here) was reading a book and I asked it what it was.  Tim said his best friend had written a book and then when he finished it he leant it to me and I devoured it.

It's about a boy who's just moved schools and finds a magic orb in his grandmothers attic. He has to help five people in order to get a wish in 30 days and if he fails he loses his soul.

The best part of this book is not only is it really exciting but it really mixes fantasy and real life really well. It has magic and powers in a senior school setting with problems that occur in the real world. It makes the magic feel much more tangible.

The plot twists are not predictable at all which I loved because so many books are obvious. It was really smart and different, especially the ending. The ending does leave room for a sequel but the book feels very much like a book in its own right, not just a book that sets up a series. 

It is quite clearly written by a teacher which entertained me. It's littered with information like how weirs work but it also has knowledge of what activity residential trips are like. 

I don't quite know which demographic the author was writing for because I don't think it's YA as the romance is described as "his teenage hormones kicked in" which is fairly mild compared to the sultry scenes of Twilight. However, it did feel quite dark for a children's book because some of the emotions felt by teenagers were pretty strong (relax though, it's not like the Bell Jar for kids). 

I would recommend this if:

You want an introduction to fantasy

You want something that feels like YA without the romance

You want a book with a great bad guy

Buy it here