Dangerous Wishes

by William Sleator

To end the bad luck that fifteen-year-old Dom and his parents have been experiencing since their arrival in Thailand, Dom and his new friend Lek search for a jade carving that must be returned to its shrine to appease an angry Thai spirit

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

About the author

William Warner Sleator III was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland on February 13, 1945, and moved to St. Louis, MO when he was three. He graduated from University City High School in 1963, from Harvard in 1967 with BAs in music and English.

For more than thirty years, William Sleator thrilled readers with his inventive books. His House of Stairs was named one of the best novels of the twentieth century by the Young Adult Library Services Association.

William Sleator died in early August 2011 at his home in Thailand.

Reviews

[Trent Mikesell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sequel but was better than the first book.

[Vel Veeter]

I think William Sleator had a kind of haunted life, and that’s sometimes apparent in his early writing, which tends to be very science fiction and fantasy heavy, and in a lot of cases experimental quantum mechanics and chaos theory inspired. This is probably the latest of his books I’ve read, except for the sequel to Interstellar Pig, which was pretty bad. This is not bad really, but it’s not especially good.

It takes place in Thailand, where Sleator lived for the last few decades of his life, where Dom, an American boy staying in Thailand with his professor parents, meets Lek, a boy his same age who helps them when they get lost, and also works as a street food vendor. Lek is in possession of some kind of object that seemingly grants wishes, but at a cost. The two investigate it together.

What I like about Sleator is how not precocious his characters are. They might have plenty of knowledge about the world from school, but they tend to act and talk and think like the teens they are. He seems to understand that being 15 is actually pretty young.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do like Sleator's work. Exciting, with bits of humor, and, btw, don't tell anyone, but also super-educational. This *is* Thailand in the early 1990s. Religion (not superstition, unless you want to call Christianity superstition too), poverty, Cambodian soldiers and land mines, beauty, food, heat, traffic, hospitality, no phones in the village, etc. And themes of friendship. But mostly the book is, yes, exciting. Highly recommended to all young teens and anyone who likes easy ways to learn about 'other' cultures.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very different than I expected. It started off a little bit slowly, but the action ramped up toward the middle and continued at breakneck speed until the end. Now, I just have to see if I can get my hands on a copy of the companion novel.

[Luisasophiia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Sterne
Hab das in einem Bücherschrank in Bad Sobernheim mitgenommen, einfach zufällig weil es gut geklungen hat. War echt ein interessantes Thema, mal was neues :)

[Asenath · Rating 3 out of 5]

A family visits Thai and an evil spirit is haunting them.

[Sandy Runions]

Introduced me to a larger community--Thai. Including the super natural monster that took umbrage of the western visitor.