I've read it more than 10 times. It's amazing. Read it, you won't regret it. I first read it when I was 13 and I fall in love with it.

Review originally published 12 August 2018 at Falling Letters.

“Annie Blythe is dying, but she can give Peter Stone the strength to live.” Yes, that first line of the jacket copy made me do a hard eye roll.  Thankfully, the story doesn't fully play into that bad trope. Annie doesn't help Peter because she has cancer and thus has some enlightened take on life. She helps him by being an artistic friend and showing him the beauty in nature. Annie's cancer opens up the discussion of parents and children not communicating, of parents smothering their child – like how Peter's parents pressure him. (Another question one might ask while reading this book is, what is the point to be made about children and decisions about medical procedures? Communication between parent and child is critical.)

I loved the description of their secret place. It does sound like a beautiful place to find some calm. I can piece together places I’ve been and come up with a perfect view like this.  I wouldn't call this book magical realism - I felt that any 'magic' the children experience is of the ordinary sort to be found in nature.

Ahead of us, stretching for hundreds of yards, was a wild-flower field. It was red and yellow and orange, all black-eyed Susans, firewheels, and Indian paintbrushes. I took a deep breath and smelled air thick with pollen and nectar. (40)

The actions of two nasty brothers, Doug and Jake (violent, mean little boys – they are hints they grew up in a violent household, but nothing excuses their behaviour), culminate in something pretty awful. I was a little shocked.

Spoiler

Peter describes, “Watched it hit, saw the fear and pain on her face the split second before she fell to her knees, to her face, below the water, the red of her hair growing in to a wider and longer stream of red as she bled. It looked like she was bleeding to death.” (213) This happens about 20 pages from the end. I don’t like endings that jump ahead and then have uncertainty about what happened before. The narrative follows the scene in which Annie is knocked out in the river, but then it jumps ahead and Peter doesn't know what happened to her. On a positive note, my heart felt lighter when Peter shares the special place with his parents and they acknowledge the pressures they've put on him (233-34).

The Bottom Line: Wish Girl deals with complex issues of parent-child relationships and medical treatments, but be prepared for a bleak and violent climax.

3 ⭐️ Cute but not my type of reading

tried so hard not to cry.
Simply lovely. :)

*Review also posted at Briar Rose Reads

I grew up a quiet, introverted child roaming the remote canyons of the Texas Hill Country, searching for magic. I saw myself as fundamentally wrong because I just couldn't become an extrovert, no matter how hard I tried. Nikki Loftin's WISH GIRL is the book I needed.

Peter is gentle and thoughtful, and doesn't fit in his loud family. Smart, artistic Annie has a disease that could kill her, but the treatment could leave her with permanent brain damage; she's as afraid of that as she is of dying. They find each other in a canyon whose quiet magic can turn distinctly ugly to those who don't respect it.

WISH GIRL is about life and death. It's about children and the choices they are or aren't allowed to make for themselves, and how powerless they feel (and how there are no easy answers to that, because they are still children). It's about how our society sees quiet, gentle people as broken, especially if they are boys. It's a beautiful love letter to nature and silence, and the value of closing your eyes and listening for a while.

The book itself, for all its quiet magic, doesn't shy away from hard questions and sharp edges, which gives them powerful impact when they come. Child or adult, introvert or extrovert: I think everyone should read this book.

I just finished this book and loved it. Magical Realism. Friendship. Acceptance. Hard Decisions.

Recently, I re-read Tuck Everlasting and when I got to the end I remembered why I loved that book. It strikes an emotional chord. You are better because you read the book. When I finished Wish Girl I had that same feeling - an emotional chord was struck and life is better for having read it.

This book grabbed my heart and didn't let go. It's a beautiful story between two characters, both who just want to be heard in their own way. The setting was so important to this story, it's almost a character.
Loftin clearly has a beautiful way with words. I'm so glad I got to know Peter and Annie.