The Wishing Game by Meg Shafer (book review)

GENRE: Adult Contemporary

LENGTH: 278 pages

 

PLOT

Lucy Hart is a teacher’s aide who seeks to adopt orphaned student Christopher. Her favorite children’s book author, Jack Masterson, hosts a game on his private island with a prize that could make Lucy's dream a reality. On the island is also Hugo Reese, who illustrates the Clock Island book covers.

 

CHARACTERS

I had mixed feelings on our protagonist, Lucy. On the one hand, she has the best of intentions. On the other hand, I agree with the social worker in the book that she shouldn’t be making a young boy promises she’s in no condition to keep. It’s clear from her and Christopher’s backstories that Lucy sees a lot of herself in Christopher.

Hugo lives on Clock Island with Jack and has isolated himself from the larger world and sacrificed relationships. This all happened after his brother died and he mentions feeling guilt at living and being happy when his brother is gone. I attributed his choice to remain on the island to two things. The first was it being a way of connecting with his late brother (who loved Jack’s books). The second was to keep himself from moving on out of his guilt. After finishing the book, I don’t think it was ever meant to be that deep, but that’s the beauty of being a reader – even if the writer intended things one way it’s still possible for the reader to interpret things in their own way.

Lucy and Hugo have a romance that serves as a sort of side plot to the main one. On the one hand, I liked them together. They had good chemistry. On the other hand, they first met when Lucy was a child and Hugo was an adult. Now, nothing untoward occurred during their first meeting. Lucy had an innocent crush on him but he saw her as nothing more than a child. Even still, it felt unnecessary and weird to me to have it be canon that they met when Lucy was a minor.

Jack was my favorite character. He is whimsical and childlike but also parental, warm, and supportive. Much like our two protagonists, there is far more to him and his backstory than we’re first made aware of.

In terms of minor characters, I do wish we had more focus on the other players of the game. We get to know some basic information on them, but it would have been nice if they had been more important, either as friends or rivals to Lucy. Then there is the teacher Lucy works under, Theresa. I loved Theresa because she was so supportive of Lucy. I feel like Theresa filled in the hole that Lucy’s parents left in her life in some ways.

 

WRITING

The novel is told from the alternating third person perspectives of Lucy and Hugo. It also includes excerpts from the fictional first Clock Island book. I imagine these brief passages were included to showcase why Lucy was first drawn to the books and how they influenced her.

The novel is said to be inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Willy Wonka. I am largely unfamiliar with these stories so I can’t say a lot about how much inspiration was drawn from them. From the little I do know, I think Jack was meant to be similar to Willy Wonka and the blue envelope Lucy gets inviting her to the island is a stand-in for the golden ticket.

This is a found family story which is one of my favorite tropes. As someone with an adopted family member who dreams of one day herself being an adoptive mom, I'm always happy to see adoption stories. I especially liked how this one focused on an ‘older’ kid instead of a baby – there is nothing wrong with adopting a baby but I think the ‘older’ kids in foster care are often overlooked. The novel also includes positive mentions of therapy, which is so wonderful to see as well.

I want to end this section with a quote from the book that I found most profound and I encourage you to mull over.

“Hate is a knife without a handle. You can’t cut something with it without cutting yourself.” (page 237)

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

My feelings on Shafer’s debut are a lot thornier than those on her sophomore book, The Lost Story (which I gave 5 stars). That being said, I want to end this review on a positive note. The characters (Lucy, Hugo, and Jack) all have a lot of depth to them. Despite my divergent views on them, I would argue they’re the novel’s strongest point.

The game aspect was fun and as a fantasy reader I enjoyed the setting of Clock Island and how it felt like stepping into Jack’s books.

Please be cautioned that there are A LOT of trigger warnings for this book. They include: Alcoholism, child death, childhood abuse, incest, sexual assault, miscarriage, arson, racism, homophobia, and suicide.

FINAL RATING: 3.75⭐️