The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

SO I was able to finish The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer. He is a newbie author, but as some of you know, he is known for his role in Glee. His book was published by Little, Brown which is part of Hatchette Book Group. The cover art was done by Brandon Dorman, who also did work for Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, and Janitors by Tyler Whitesides. His illustrator website is here and his blog is here. There were illustrations at the beginning of every chapter (like with the Harry Potter books, if the reader is familiar with those). I loved the illustrations and thought they added to the book and the fairytale feel.

I am just going to note here something that sometimes bothers me: I am having to post this review at work since my home's internet is down, so I do not have Chris Colfer's book on me. I like to say who does the illustrations or the book cover art if possible. And sometimes, it is very difficult to find that information when a person does not have the book on them. (Although, sometimes even THEN it can be confusing, since sometimes the information is on the copyright page, sometimes it's on the jacket flap, sometimes it's on the back of the book, and so on.) I think more people are becoming aware of illustrators, but they are still oftentimes behind the scenes people. (Like copy editors. Not many people know who copyedited the most famous of books, but without them we would enjoy books less, because we would be distracted by all the little mistakes.) So, I encourage you to try and go over to Brandon Dorman's blog, if you like art and if you are able to follow blogs. Or just to leave him a comment if you have ever appreciated his artwork.

Alright, done with that rant. Moving on to the book!

I will be honest, the first two chapters were not wonderful. They didn't grab my attention and I was a little bit bored and it wasn't the bestly written. But, since I got an ARC from BEA I wanted to make my way through it. I'm so glad I did! The story is about twins who fall into a fairytale world. Once they get into the world it really picks up. I love how Colfer combines the different fairy tales, and gives them developed characters and backstories. Colfer has all the princess married to the Charming Brothers, which made me wonder if he had ever seen Into the Woods. BUT that is not really important.

As it went on I didn't want to put the book down. The twins have to gather objects for the Wishing Spell so they can get themselves home. BUT they have to gather the objects before the evil queen gathers the objects before them. (Which, by the way, I liked the new sin Colfer did with the Evil Queen.) The story is fast-paced and the world-building is done very well. I love Goldilocks. And Red Riding Hood was hilarious. One of the other things I liked was that I couldn't quite guess the ending. There were two options and I wasn't sure which one was right. I like being surprised by the ending. Sometimes with middle grade books you can guess the ending after the first five chapters, and that can annoy me. But not so with this book!

If you can get through the first two chapters, it is totally worth it. It is so much fun and I am glad I was able to getmy hands on a copy. You can find yourself a copy at...

B&N
Books-a-Million
And Indie Store near you!

Have a good week!