Imagine if you had one wish, and you knew for sure that it would come true. What would you wish for? Money? Beauty? Success? Love?

But what if you had already seen generations of people make their own ‘one wish’ and you could see the toxic affects it had on their lives? Would you still be so eager to make that wish?

For Eldon, that’s his reality. He lives in Madison, a place where each citizen can make one wish on their 18th birthday and it’s guaranteed to come true. But Eldon’s life has been heavily influenced by the consequences of his mother’s wish when she was 18, and he’s dreading his.

All his friends are excitedly discussing theirs, or they knew for months in advance what they would wish for, but Eldon just doesn’t know. He knows what his mother wants him to wish for, but he also knows it wouldn’t have the outcome that she wants.

I was taken on so many turns on this book that I honestly couldn’t decide what Eldon would wish for. I did find it got slightly teenage and brooding in points, but there we were also many places where it was pretty spot on as well.

“Wishing either gets you everything or nothing. And it’s a gamble everyone is willing to take.”

“Eldon, we all mess up. No one should measure their worth by how often they screw up. What matters most is how a person deals with the aftermath. How they grow and change.”

Including this one which was so relevant for me right now that I actually had to stop and have a little cry.

“When someone dies, it doesn’t just take them. It takes a piece of everyone who ever loved them and everyone they ever loved.”

I think I’d give this book 4 out of 5. The idea and most of the execution was great, but I just feel like it was a bit juvenile in places.