It's a Miserable Life

Sabrina the Teenage Witch #34

by Cathy East Dubowski

After a hard and frustrating day, Sabrina makes a wish that she had never been born, and when Roland overhears her wish, he has no choice but to grant it.

Genres: Fantasy, Witches, Young Adult, Childrens, Urban Fantasy

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 5, 2003

About the author

Cathy East Dubowski is a narrator, editor, and illustrator. She specializes in novelizations of movies and literary classics for children and young adult readers. Dubowski has written more than 100 books for children, including adaptations of The Aristocats, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, and Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty.

Reviews

[Madeleine Knutsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vem har inte sagt någon gång att man önskade att man aldrig blivit född? Spännande bok som visar hur betydelsefull Sabrina är för sin familj och vänner.

[Leeanne G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never seen the movie It's a Wonderful Life but I know enough about to have recognized the similarities between it and this book. The About the Author page says Cathy East Dubowski did take direct inspiration from the movie so I was right!

Sabrina's having a really, really bad day. It's the kind of day that makes you say "I wish I'd never been born," even though you don't truly mean it. Unfortunately, Sabrina gets her wish. Roland the troll happened to be there when she said it and has no choice but to grant it. Sabrina doesn't believe him and he has to follow her around as she runs around Westbridge, determined to find someone who recognizes her. As usual there were funny parts, but this was a more serious Sabrina book.

This definitely wasn't my favourite Sabrina book but it wasn't bad. I do wish this had had more Salem in it though. He's my favourite.

[Stephanie ((Strazzybooks)) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish the cover had a Christmas theme to match the story.
A remake/homage to It's a Wonderful Life. Mediocre Sabrina story.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first tie-in book I've read from this series, though I did read the old comics back in the day. Still, I enjoyed this one, even if I've seen the same storyline in everything from Mork & Mindy to The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.

[Terese]

Lol! Finishing off my Sabrina nostalgia triad with this gem.

This was… honestly kind of a mess. Sabrina wishes she had never been born, her wish is granted and she spend 50 pages going around trying to prove her existence by visting Harvey, Zelda, and checking school records. It is mostly annoying to be honest.

The golden sparkle of this story, the real gem, is that Libby had become ”school dictator” (yes that’s an official title), is Mr.Kraft’s boss because her Father gifted her the school when she was 14 (!? What in the actual… what does this have to do with Sabrina? Lol. Who started there at 16 and thus has always gone to a school Libby then… owns!? What?), and has determined to buy Harvey’s way to college because for some reason she wants to marry him like now but only if he is s completely different person.

Those four or so Libby pages made me laugh out loud. School dictator!

Otherwise, mediocre at best. It is however the only one of these that bothered to give background inserts and exposition.

Ah, Sabrina books, this was a fun walk down memory lane. I didn’t really miss you, and I won’t do so either going on from here, but I can’t say I had a bad time. Tv-show tie-ins are essentially official fan fiction (from non-fans) which I actually do love and wouldn’t mind seeing more of.

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the series take on the movie It's a Wonderful Life and it does a fairly good job doing that. Things are going wrong for Sabrina. It seems she's lost a lot of money that was going to be used to help kids. Mr. Kraft is mad at her. Her school day goes bad. Harvey is mad at her. Salem is mad at her. She wishes she had never been born.

Be careful what you wish for.

A troll (that's madly in love with her) grants her wish. The story then goes through all the changes that had happened to people Sabrina loved because she had never been there for them. It's rather a lot of pretty bad things.

In order to fix things, though, she'll have to deal with Groucho Marx! Complete with a studio audience clapping and cheering! Plus, she'll have to complete a task that is utterly impossible!

Actually, that part is my favorite since I've seen some Groucho Marx television episodes and they are pretty funny. Anyhow, I liked the book and think it did a pretty good job.

[Lex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Came across this in a collection of teenage books I forgot about and thought it might be a nice festive December read. Nope: (blatant) rip-off of It's a Wonderful Life, but with none of the charm or seasonal cheer. Note to self: don't reread!

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved all of the Sabrina tales full of magic. Every story was a different adventure and some new and exciting challenge to overcome. These books made me want to have magical powers too but the ending results were hilarious.

[Lena Nieke]

good