I initially requested Granted by John David Anderson because my good friend JM Tuckerman loved the cute opening chapter. I didn’t think I’d fall in love with this book as hard as I did.
From the author of beloved novels Ms. Bixby’s Last Dayand Posted comes a hilarious, heartfelt, and unforgettable novel about a fairy-in-training.
Everyone who wishes upon a star, or a candle, or a penny thrown into a fountain knows that you’re not allowed to tell anyone what you’ve wished for. But even so, there is someone out there who hears it.
In a magical land called the Haven lives a young fairy named Ophelia Delphinium Fidgets. Ophela is no ordinary fairy—she is a Granter: one of the select fairies whose job it is to venture out into the world and grant the wishes of unsuspecting humans every day.
It’s the work of the Granters that generates the magic that allows the fairies to do what they do, and to keep the Haven hidden and safe. But with worldwide magic levels at an all-time low, this is not as easy as it sounds. On a typical day, only a small fraction of the millions of potential wishes gets granted.
Today, however, is anything but typical. Because today, Ophelia is going to get her very first wish-granting assignment.
And she’s about to discover that figuring out how to truly give someone what they want takes much more than a handful of fairy dust.
I immediately fell in love with the voice. I loved Ophelia’s attitude and sass, and I loved how she did things because that’s how she was going to do them, thank-you-very-much. The puns and the light-hearted voice really made me see myself reading this book to a child during storytime.
It did get a little old pretty fast, but that could just be the way I as an adult was reading it. But seeing as Granted is a middle grade book, the tone was appropriate and fun.
I felt a little disheartened from reading just because Ophelia kept running into bad situation after bad situation; there was very little time for reflection or trying to recuperate to do better next time. But maybe it was that sort of constant negative situations that led me to cry at the end.
And the end, y’all. JM Tuckerman and I talked about it during our Booked All Night episode on Granted, but I cried. And any book that brings tears to my eyes immediately gets a bump up in the star rating.
All in all, it was a cute read and I highly recommend it to everyone!
