May all your wishes come true; or at least, just the one.
Down with the Shine by Kate Quinn is about a girl who grants wishes. Sounds exciting right? But hold up, Lennie didn’t know it yet that she could actually grant wishes when she smuggled some moonshine from her uncles and brought it to Michaela Gordon’s labor day weekend party. She waltzed in the house and let everyone made a wish before chugging down the glass of moonshine. Some wishes were simple and totally harmless, but most were against the norm and were totally harmful. The next morning, Lennie understood more about the phrase, “be careful what you wish for”.
So the book was concentrated on Lennie trying to find a way to reverse all the wishes she granted at that party, while having to deal with her almost lover, mostly enemy, Smith, and brought back from the dead best friend, Dylan. Smith was Dylan’s twin and Lennie’s long time crush. I didn’t particularly like them together because there certainly is no spark, or connection, or passion, or whatever you call it. In fact, the whole book I always found Smith so annoying. Because he can’t for the life of him, set himself straight. He was a boy who didn’t know what he wants. Sometimes, he can’t get close enough to Lennie, and then he’s pushing her away the next. Talk about major attachment issues. Grow up dude! I really hated his character. He had no brilliant qualities at all. I also didn’t like Dylan that much because the entire book, she did nothing–I mean all the characters did nothing to help Lennie solve the problem, they were just there to accompany her in their near death experiences. There were no real help. Especially with how Lennie saw herself as somebody who no one really cares about, and she was damn right about that. I felt how alone she was the entire time, despite being surrounded by all these other characters claiming that they’re helping her.
The idea was actually there already, but the whole plot could’ve been more engaging, and enticing to read. It almost felt like dragging my thoughts to end of the book.
3/5 stars.
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