The Wishing Spell Sparknotes

To start, the book “The Land of Stories The Wishing Spell” by Chris Colfer is an intriguing book following the young protagonists Alex and Conner. Alex and Conner are sucked into a magical book of fairy tales and find themselves lost in a fairy tale world with no way out. Throughout the book the twins are in search of 8 magical items in order to form the wishing spell; the wishing spell grants the user any wish no matter how big or small. The twins see the wishing spell as their only chance of escape. The twins start their adventure in a dangerous forest known as the Dwarf Forest which houses criminals and other evil entities. The twins meet a frog man here who gifts them a book with a list of all the items and how to get them. Once receiving

My first impression of this book is that it seems to be an interesting and more matured take on fairy tales which is very refreshing when compared to the childish fairy tales we’re all used to. When observing the characters in the book I noticed a couple flaws in the book’s story telling. They portrayed Red Riding Hood as a love sick princess longing for “Jack” to finally accept her as his wife. Throughout the book she is seen whining and unable to do anything for herself. While this did help break the action up it was very annoying to read at some points in the book. On the other hand, Conner is written as a tired 11 year old boy who isn’t afraid to speak his mind for better or worse. Conner’s quips were funny at some points but also somewhat cringey and made me somewhat less engaged in the overall story. Alex gave me similar emotions but through other actions. Alex is a lonely girl with no friends except her books and fairy tails. This forces her to be somewhat of a know it all and teachers pet which was definetely not the easiest for me to

The Evil Queen however, was much different. The Evil Queen is made to be a secretive woman in search of her long lost lover who became trapped in a mirror. Her goal is to stop the twins from using the wishing spell in orer to save her lover which ends up with her dead. I thought the Evil Queen was a very well made vilain that wasn’t afraid to hold back which is nice to read compared to other villains that end up not going through with their plan after reflecting on themselves. I think he Evil Queen was the perfect charecter to make the villain in this storeOne other character that I felt was brought to life well was Goldilocks. I enjoyed the aftermath of meeting the three bears and it was nice to see a character that had a darker side. Goldilocks is viewed as a skilled swordsman and criminal deeply in love with a man named Jack. She provided good action scene’s with her sword and helps the twins throughout their journey. Overall one of if not my favorite character in the book. Moving on I felt that there could have been more world building than what the author gave us. The twins were constantly moving throughout the kingdoms giving scarce details of each place they