Wishbound - Clemency Brown

 

Leonie has magical abilities but she, along with children like her, are kept on the island of Onske in a school where they are taught how to manage their magic before they are sold to rich families who use them to grant wishes.  Leonnie, however, has other ideas and is determined to run away and find a life in the real world. After being sold, and whilst being transported to her new family by Jackson the body guard, she manages to escape and, with Jackson in tow, begins a new life where she even makes a friend, Cress.  But, despite their best efforts, they can't stay hidden forever, and when the past catches up with them, Leonnie realises that she may need to risk everything in order to be free.

Wishbound is a wonderful read that will appeal to so many people.  Magic combines with adventure and a dollop of daring in a plot that will pose many questions in readers' minds.  Leonnie is a truly determined character who has had no choice but to fend for herself.  Despite being alone, she refuses to accept her fate and fights with everything she has.  She manages to carve out a lovely life for herself, but when the past catches up, everything she has built comes crumbling down.

This really is an exciting read with wonderful friendships (some more expected than others); I also loved that Cress is deaf: it's not something you see a lot of in MG fiction (certainly not the books I have read) so this was refreshing to see.  The biggest thing for me though are the moral questions that this book will raise: essentially, Leonnie and her friends on Onske are sold as slaves, with no choice but to do the bidding of those who have bought them once the 'binding ceremony' has been carried out.  The potential to discuss freedom, slavery and the rights and wrongs of what happens, would be very interesting in school; the idea of being able to have every wish granted compared to people being free would certainly provoke many different opinions.

Wishbound is out now and is a wonderful story of freedom, friendship and being yourself.