53 pages • 1 hour read
The Wishing Spell
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Themes
Every Story Has Multiple Perspectives
Fairy tales and other stories focus on the arc of the hero or protagonist, often ignoring the viewpoint of sidekicks, villains, and other characters. Though these other angles are not explored, they still exist, and any story with at least two characters could be told more than one way. Through the retold fairy tales in The Wishing Spell, the Evil Queen’s backstory, and Alex and Conner’s different takes on the fairy-tale world, the novel explores the multiple angles present in a story.
Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty’s stories vary greatly from the original tales where they were little more than figures to be rescued. After fitting into the slipper in the original story, Cinderella became queen, but no consideration was given to how she felt or the struggles she faced. The Wishing Spell shows Cinderella doing her best to rule a kingdom where the people didn’t immediately want her as their queen. Where the original tale had a happily-ever-after, Cinderella’s story in The Wishing Spell is one of adjusting to new circumstances. In Sleeping Beauty’s original story, she slept for 100 years, but following the prince’s kiss, there was no mention of the aftermath of the curse or the struggle the kingdom faced. The Wishing Spell shows Sleeping Beauty taking responsibility for her people by searching for ways to banish the remnants of the sleeping magic and by not resting until the kingdom is prosperous once more. Rather than happily-ever-after, Sleeping Beauty has new obstacles to overcome.
The Evil Queen’s story shows how the “villain’s” story is usually overlooked. In the Prologue, the Evil Queen tells Snow White that “a villain is just a victim whose story hasn’t been told” (9), which is bolstered by how the Evil Queen was treated after losing Mira. Though her heartless behaviors were all performed in the name of saving someone dear to her, the queen is marked as “evil” and imprisoned without anyone ever understanding why she did what she did. The witch who took the Evil Queen captive may or may not have had any claim over her, but even if the witch’s actions were somehow justified, the Evil Queen never got to be the hero of her own story. When Mira found her, he was imprisoned in the mirror, which prompted the queen to embark on a life-long quest for her happily-ever-after. It’s never made clear why characters like Snow White and Cinderella got their happy endings when the Evil Queen did not, which brings up the question of whether people are destined to have their dreams come true.
Alex and Conner have differing opinions on the fairy-tale world and the things that go on there. As an avid believer in the power of fairy tales, Alex plays by the fairy-tale world’s rules, believing that princesses marry princes and that true love will always win. The narrative of the fairy-tale world that Alex prescribes to is one of goodness, where wrongs are always righted. By contrast, Conner sees the residents of the fairy-tale world for what they are—people with the same emotions and problems as those in the real world. He sees the truth behind fairy tales, how good people sometimes make poor choices, and how those who deserve happiness don’t always get it. Taken together, Alex and Conner’s perspectives give them the tools they need to overcome the challenges on their quest.
Both the stories we read and the ones we make up to understand the world affect how events are remembered. Each person may see different people as the heroes or villains of a story, but those roles can be reversed with a simple change of perspective. The Wishing Spell reveals that, no matter how simple a narrative seems, there is always another way to consider the story.
Different Strengths are Equally Important
The characters of The Wishing Spell struggle and excel in different areas. Some are rewarded for their excellence while others are punished for perceived failings, but all of them come to realize they don’t need to be perfect in all things. Through Alex and Conner’s strengths and weaknesses, Trix’s trial, and Froggy’s character arc, The Wishing Spell shows how we can be “our best” without being “the best.”
Alex and Conner have very different strengths. Alex is book-smart, and Conner excels at improvising and finding solutions on the fly. At the beginning of the book, both wish to be more like the other. Alex wishes she could improvise and talk to people more easily, and Conner wants to be more like Alex so he won’t be judged by his teacher so much. During their journey through the fairy-tale world, Alex and Conner find that they need the other’s skills as much as their own. Alex knows fairy-tale lore by heart, which means she can puzzle out the ingredients of the Wishing Spell, but without Conner’s unique ability to talk to people, she would have struggled to obtain the items on her own. Conner offers help to several fairy-tale characters, which he is able to do better thanks to Alex’s knowledge.
Trix’s trial in Chapter 12 exemplifies the standards people are held to in order to be “the best.” Following the curse put on Sleeping Beauty, the members of the Fairy Council have strict rules against using magic against others in order to keep the best image as possible of all fairies. Trix was being pushed around, and she made a mistake by casting a spell on another fairy one time. In that moment, she was not “the best” fairy, but anyone can make one mistake and the Fairy Council’s proposed banishment is a harsh sentence. Trix has done her best at following the rules and upholding the fairy image and should not be punished because her “best effort isn’t as good as someone else’s might be” (273).
Before the beginning of The Wishing Spell, Froggy was cursed by a witch to take away his good looks. Like Trix, Froggy made a mistake, and while we never learn if Froggy made multiple mistakes that might have harmed people, he was doing his best with what he had at the time. The witch’s curse may have been a harsh punishment, but regardless, it made Froggy realize he could do better. Until he meets the twins, Froggy rarely leaves his home and never interacts with other people. Through helping Alex and Conner, he learns to care about others more than he cared about his appearance. At the end of the story, he is still a bit embarrassed about his froglike appearance, showing that his “best” is a work in progress.
“Best” is a relative term that may be defined differently by different people in any situation. Rather than striving to be the best, The Wishing Spell highlights the importance of recognizing your current “best” and striving to do better.
There Is Always a New Challenge
In Chapter 10, Cinderella says that “life never has a solution” (190). The happily-ever-after format of fairy tales implies that, once a certain point is reached, there are no more struggles to be faced. This is not true, either in the real or fairy-tale world, as the characters in The Wishing Spell discover. Through the obstacles Alex and Conner face on their journey, the final chapters of The Wishing Spell, and the obstacles the fairy-tale characters face after the ends of their original tales, The Wishing Spell shows how challenges are a normal part of life.
On their journey to collect the Wishing Spell ingredients, Alex and Conner face struggle after struggle. Many of those trials, such as being captured by the trolls and goblins, send them in the wrong direction and force them to overcome unforeseen obstacles before they can continue their search. When they collect the crown from the troll and goblin territory, Conner unintentionally wakes the trolls and goblins. The creatures give chase, showing how obtaining a desired outcome doesn’t mean there will no longer be challenges around that outcome.
The main plot of The Wishing Spell is Alex and Conner’s quest to find the spell and get home. While they find the spell, they are not able to use it, which shows the struggles they face even after the ability to get home is in their hands. By the end of the book, they do go home with help from their grandmother, but if they hadn’t been related to the Fairy Godmother, they likely would have faced additional challenges to get back to the real world. Goldilocks and Jack end the book as fugitives together. Though they helped rescue Alex and Conner from the Evil Queen, Goldilocks is not excused from all her crimes, and Jack chooses to give up his comfortable life to be with her. They will face new challenges as fugitives and to clear their names, should they choose to do so.
The events of The Wishing Spell take place after many of the fairy tales’ original stories have ended. Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty struggle with running their kingdoms and facing the aftermaths of their stories, showing how conflict persists after happily-ever-after. Red Riding Hood has the original Big Bad Wolf as a rug in her castle but defeating him did not end her troubles with wolves. The Big Bad Wolf Pack still hunts her and causes disturbances throughout the fairy-tale world. At the end of the book, the Big Bad Wolf Pack’s leader is killed, but other wolves survive, implying that Red Riding Hood will see more of them in future installments of the series.
Even if The Wishing Spell were a stand-alone novel, rather than first in a series, there would be implied struggles after the novel’s final page. Challenges don’t end when the story is over, the book is closed, or the curtain falls on a situation. Every challenge we face unlocks further obstacles, even if we overcome that challenge. The Wishing Spell’s events, outcomes, and characters reveal the ongoing nature of struggle and how it is simply part of life.
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