I Wish You Would
By: Eva Des Lauriers
Expected Publication: May 21, 2024 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
280 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
( Goodreads | Amazon )
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Goodreads description--In this drama-filled love story, private confessions are scattered on the beach during a senior class overnight and explosive secrets threaten to tear everyone apart, including best friends (or maybe more?), Natalia and Ethan.
It’s Senior Sunrise, the epic overnight at the beach that kicks off senior year. But for Natalia and Ethan, it’s the first time seeing each other after what happened at junior prom―when they almost crossed the line from best friends to something more and ruined everything. After ghosting each other all summer, Natalia is desperate to pretend she doesn’t care and Ethan is desperate to fix his mistake.
When the senior class carries out their tradition of writing private letters to themselves―what they wish they would do this year if they were braver―Natalia pours her heart out. So does Ethan. So does everyone in their entire class. But in Natalia’s panicked attempt to retrieve her heartfelt confession, the wind scatters seven of the notes across the beach. Now, Ethan and Natalia are forced to work together to find the lost letters before any secrets are revealed―especially their own.
Seven private confessions. Seven time bombs loose for anyone to find. And one last chance before the sun rises for these two to fall in love.
Sigh...I'm struggling with what to say about I Wish You Would. I got sucked in quickly, which was nice since I've picked up and put down about 4 or 5 books lately because they didn't snag my attention quickly. I read this book quickly, but I had two major complaints. Let's get into the story.
Natalia and Ethan have been best friends for years. They made a pact in freshman year that if they were still virgins by senior year, they would use each other to change that. First of all, I think that's completely idiotic, and if this information had been in the description, I probably would have skipped this book. Why would "just friends" even consider making a pact like that? It makes no sense. And the reasons that Natalia shared were bogus as all get out. Anyway, after junior prom, they had a moment where they considered calling in the pact. But Natalia made a comment that spooked Ethan, and he backed out knowing that he couldn't cross that line with her without changing their relationship. Natalia takes his backing out as rejection. These two could have rendered this book pointless if they'd just had a simple conversation. Honestly, I don't love it when books are centered around one or two big misunderstandings.
Natalia is the student council president, and it's her job to organize these events for the school, like Senior Sunrise. Like the pact that Natalia and Ethan made, I found the entire idea about Senior Sunrise and writing these bravery letters to themselves bogus. I mean this is one of those things that sounds good, but the execution would never work. If this is an event the school holds every year (not the camping part, but the letter-writing part), there's no way that people's personal secrets being shared or exposed has never happened or come up before if they keep them in some jar for a big burning ceremony. It only makes sense to burn those suckers immediately if you're going to have some big event like this. But also, why does a group need to come together for individuals to write a letter like this to themselves? Why isn't this an exercise that each kid could do on their own time in the privacy of their own home and dispose of in whatever way they want to? If you were going to have some bogus tradition like this in the first place, that is.
I could continue describing the events of the book, but honestly, I don't feel the need to do so. Even though I've complained already, one of my biggest two complaints was that there was so much drama. Do you guys know how video content creators have learned to cut clips to different camera angles and to hype the drama so that people's brains are engaged and never bored? Well, I felt like the writing in this book was the equivalent of watching some of those YouTubers who play video games and hype their videos so much that it feels ultra-intense the entire time. One minute Natalia's running away, and Ethan's chasing her. Only for them to have the briefest of conversations that didn't actually move them any closer to a real discussion of their emotions or the secrets they're hiding from each other, only for Ethan to run away from Natalia, and then her to chase him right back. The back and forth was like watching a yo-yo go up and down. That's not even to include the actual events the characters experienced or were struggling with.
The book featured essentially 10 characters (not including the adults). Of those 10, four were LGBTQIA, two adults were sexual predators of some sort, and one of the LGBTQIA identified as a they/them. Guys...this makes no sense whatsoever. The character "identifies" as an individual but uses plural pronouns. I don't understand how we've gotten to this place. One character was a bully. Bullying used to be pushed in every young adult book for a period, but now apparently, the criteria for mainstream publications is to have at least one they/them character. We also had 2 characters that were "persons of color". Unnecessary information if you ask me, except the characters have to experience adversity because of their races. I only mention this because it felt like we were checking all the boxes in a leftist agenda. This felt like the exact narrative that certain individuals want to portray as a typical American experience, but I just don't see this where I live. Maybe it's because the book takes place in California. Again, had I known this was the cast of characters this book would feature, I would have skipped this book.
All of that said, I find it hard to rate this book. On the one hand, I read it quickly. I was interested in finding out what happened to Natalia and Ethan. I wanted to see them resolve their issues. But I also had so many logistical issues with this story...the plot, the characters, the writing method, the drama. All of it was just too much for me to truly enjoy this book. Overall, I guess the best rating I can come up with for I Wish You Would is 3 Stars. Have you read I Wish You Would? What did you think? Let me know!
