Book Review – The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

The Wishing Spell follows twin siblings Alex and Conner Bailey, who grew up with fairy tales read to them by their grandmother. But when Alex and Conner are magically transported inside their grandmother’s fairy tale treasury, they will be thrust into a world where all their fairy tale characters are extremely real. The two will meet a whole cohort of fairy tale characters–such as Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, among others–as they collect a range of fairy tale items in order to find their way back home.

After being a big fan of the television show Glee, I was eager to read this book, as it is written by Chris Colfer, who portrayed the character Kurt Hummel on this very show. The book begins with a rather sad combination of events: we are introduced to the death of the twins’ father, we find that their old house had been sold, and we are introduced to their mother, a nurse struggling to get by financially. However, once our main characters enter the Land of Stories, the story picks up fantastically.

This novel perfectly weaves together all of your favourite fairy tales, and adds a backstory to all the most important characters. Throughout the novel, Alex and Conner travel to different parts of the land in order to collect items from each kingdom–a teardrop of a fairy from the Fairy Kingdom, a wicker basket from Red Riding Hood’s castle, and Cinderella’s glass slipper–and as you read the novel, you will find yourself feeling like you truly are going on the scavenger hunt along with our main characters.

Sprinkled with a perfect blend of humour and sadness, with wit and positive messages about the true values of life–as referenced in the twins’ father’s stories–the Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell is a spectacular begin to a six-book series, and with talk of a film adaption in the coming years, these fractured fairy tales are soaring high for a new generation of readers.