As you Wish by Nashae Jones

Birdie has big plans for eighth grade. This is the year that she gets a boyfriend, and since she and her best friend, Deve, do everything together, it makes sense that Deve will get a girlfriend. This is the kind of math Birdie doesn’t find intimidating—it’s Eighth Grade 101. (Birdie + Boyfriend) + (Deve + Girlfriend) = Normal Eighth Grade Experience. And normal is something Birdie craves, especially with a mom as overprotective as hers.

She doesn’t expect Deve to be so against her plan, or for their fight to blow up in her face. So when the West African god Anansi appears to her, claiming to be able to make everything right again, Birdie pushes past her skepticism and makes a wish for the whole mess to go away. But with a trickster god, your wish is bound to come true in a way you never imagined.

Before long, Birdie regrets her rash words…especially when she realizes what’s really going on with her and Deve. With her reality upended, can Birdie figure out how to undo her wish?

---

PRE-READING

Eighth grade. New school year, new plans, new opportunities to finally have the normal teenage experience you are absolutely convinced everyone else is having.

Birdie has a plan. She will get a boyfriend, her best friend Deve will get a girlfriend, and everything will be perfect. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, a magical spider god might have something to say about that.

POST-READING

Despite the appearance of Anansi, the West African trickster god, As You Wish is very much in the tradition of Judy Blume: a story about the painfully complicated business of being a teenager, with a little magic thrown in to make everything considerably worse.

Birdie wants a boyfriend. Since she and Deve do everything together, she assumes that he wants a girlfriend, too. Unfortunately, it never occurs to her that he might want to be her boyfriend. From the outside, this is painfully obvious. Birdie, meanwhile, is busy pursuing her idea of a Normal Eighth Grade Experience, and keeps trampling on Deve's feelings without realising what she's doing.

When their disagreement gets out of hand, Birdie turns to Anansi, who claims he can make everything right. She makes a wish, discovers that wishes made to trickster gods don't necessarily come with the results you expected, and then has to make further wishes to try to repair the damage.

It's classic genie-story logic: the more you try to fix the problem, the more complicated it becomes. Anansi may owe Birdie's family a debt, but that doesn't stop him being a trickster. He twists her wishes according to his own nature, regardless of what Birdie actually wants. Whether he has his own feelings about the situation is another matter entirely; he's a pretty opaque character, and we're not given a clear answer.

As I expected

The teenage feelings are the real heart of this story. Anyone who remembers being that age will recognise the desperate wish to fit in, the certainty that everyone else has figured out something you haven't, and the ability to make a complete mess of a relationship while sincerely believing you're doing the sensible thing.

Birdie isn't trying to hurt Deve. She's trying to make her life work according to a set of rules she's decided must be correct. The problem is that people aren't equations, and you can't solve a friendship by adding a boyfriend and a girlfriend to it.

The magical complications are fun, but it's the very human confusion underneath them that makes the story work.

I was surprised by

How firmly the book stays rooted in ordinary teenage life despite its supernatural elements. Anansi is a fascinating addition, but the story isn't really about a god granting wishes. It's about Birdie learning to understand her own feelings and recognise that the people around her have feelings of their own.

And honestly, that is quite enough drama for one school year.

RECOMMENDATIONS

For another story about the complicated business of growing up, try Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. And if you'd like a television recommendation about the messy realities of teenage friendships, crushes and growing up, try Heartstopper.

MUSIC PAIRING

“Crush” — Jennifer Paige

Because sometimes the feelings are obvious to absolutely everyone except the person who needs to notice them.

VIBE CHECK

Colour palette: Autumn gold, warm brown, deep red, pencil-lead grey and the soft colours of a new school notebook.

Soundtrack: School corridors, the scrape of chairs, pencil cases opening, whispered conversations between friends and the uncomfortable silence after someone says the wrong thing.

Season: Early autumn, right at the beginning of the school year.

Mood: Hopeful, awkward, funny, emotionally tangled and full of possibilities.

Scent: Fresh pencils, new notebooks, fallen leaves and the faintly magical smell of something that probably shouldn't be brewing in the corner.

Texture: Crisp notebook paper, freshly sharpened pencils, school-uniform fabric and the rough edges of a friendship being stretched in unexpected directions.

TAROT CARD PULLED

The Page of Cups

The Page of Cups is full of emotional possibility. It's the moment when feelings begin to emerge, when the heart has something to say but hasn't quite worked out how to say it yet.

That feels perfect for Birdie, who is so busy trying to organise her romantic life that she doesn't recognise what's already right in front of her. The Page is curious and open-hearted, but still learning how emotions work - and that seems a very reasonable description of eighth grade.

✦ THE TRUE QUESTION ✦

What if the thing you're trying so hard to find is already part of your life?

Birdie's wish-making begins with her determination to create the romantic life she thinks she should have. Her journey is about recognising what her friendship with Deve already means, and learning that feelings don't always fit the plans we make for them.

As You Wish by Nashae Jones was originally published in 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.