Wish (review)

In the wake of her twin's death, Olivia and her parents pack up and relocate across country to San Francisco, where the family can continue their game of "let's pretend nothing happened" without being reminded of the gaping void in their family. At least that's what Olivia's stoic mother and distant father want to do, but Olivia, whose identity as a wallflower was as dependent on contrasting with extrovert Violet as it was connected to Olivia herself, is having a hard time figuring out who she can be without Violet's input. That's until she meets a magical seamstress who grants her wish for her sister's return—sort of. Violet comes back as a spirit visible only to Olivia, dishing out fashion and relationship advice and basically forcing her sister to live the life of a high-school A-lister—in other words, the life that Violet would have wanted for herself. An intriguing premise about the connection between two sisters and their search for separate identities, in this life and the next, is unfortunately bogged down by overwrought descriptions and plot contrivances, making for an entirely predictable story that lacks the emotional gravity readers might expect when dealing with the death of a loved one. Olivia's sadness, while initially believable, begins to feel a bit like a gimmick as she uses her sister essentially as an advice column, and it is soon apparent that Violet's character could have easily been replaced by an overbearing fairy godmother without really changing the story. While its emphasis on boys and fashion certainly lends the tale a frothy air, the reminders of Violet's death, particularly in the disintegration of Olivia's family, weigh the story down too much for it to be merely a light chick-lit read. Readers fascinated by Crewe's superior, similarly themed Give Up the Ghost (BCCB 10/09), however, may find sufficient substance in the appealing premise, and those willing to go easy on the grief may be diverted by the fantasy.