Okay, so this is one I wasn't all that jazzed to return to. I listed it before as one of the more disappointing books I've read. But, the reread has managed to change my mind on certain books, so maybe this might have a chance? It's wishful thinking as we enter Be Careful What You Wish For...
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...
RELASE MONTH: October, 1993
FRONT TAGLINE: It might come true.
COVER STORY
It's the second of the two non-Tim Jacobus covers for the original series. Where we still got a great cover from Jim Theissen with Stay Out of the Basement, Stanislaw Fernandes doesn't quite hit it as well. I think it has to do with Sam's face, the real lack of color in the art, to the point it feels too minimal. It doesn't have the same Goosebumps feel as the covers before it and doesn't set a good precedent for what's to come.
MAKE A WISH!
Samantha Byrd is such a klutz. An accident waiting to happen. She's the laughingstock of the girls' basketball team. And that mean, rotten Judith Bellwood is making her life miserable on and off the court.
But everything's about to change.
Sam's met someone who can grant her three wishes. For real.
Too bad Sam wasn't careful what she wished for.
Because her wishes are coming true.
And they're turning her life into a living nightmare!
STORY
We open our protagonist Samantha Byrd (or Sam as she calls herself) being tripped in math class by Judith Bellwood to the jeers of her classmates. Sam's got it rough. She's the tallest kid in her class, taller than her friend Cory Blynn, and she's genuinely klutzy, even without Judith and her friend Anna Frost causing her misery. Judith often telling Sam to "fly away, Byrd". At home ec, Sam talks about how her teacher is nice, but is fat and has chins, so maybe she's not that innocent either. Regardless, Judith, intentionally by the look of it, spills tapioca on Sam's new Doc Martens, which is enough of an excuse for Sam to start pudding the hurt on Judith. The two kids brawl until they're separated. However, Sam promises that somehow she'll get her revenge.
At basketball practice, it gets worse for Sam as in the midst of trying to catch the ball, Judith catches her with a stiff knee to the chest. Judith apologizes, but Sam doesn't buy it. Angered, Sam leaves school on her bike just as it starts to rain. In her anger biking, she sees a woman. The woman asks for directions, so Sam leads her to where she needs to go. The woman introduces herself as Clarissa the Crystal Woman. Sadly, she's not made out of rock, but does tell Sam that she wishes to repay her kindness. How? Clarissa explains it all by giving her three wishes.
Sam is skeptical of the strange, yet kindly lady now holding a crystal ball and tries to leave, but Clarissa insists. Eventually Sam wishes to be the strongest player on her basketball team. Clarissa claims wish granted and both go their separate ways. At home, Sam tries to see if she's improved by playing some basketball with her older brother Ron. But, oddly, she's still pretty mediocre. Ron mocks her for it, to which she blurt that she wishes he was a foot tall. She panics, thinking she blew a wish, then thinks she sees a shrunken Ron. But it's only their dog Punkin. So, I guess wishes only work if Clarissa is there, but still, odd.
Sam competes in her team's basketball game and soon discovers that everyone on her team has become a disaster. Unable to catch a ball or even look like a threat. Everyone but Sam. Sam realizes what she's done. She wished to be the best on her team, but the wish made everyone but her worse. In fact, all the other girls feel tired and sick. The team loses by 24 points. The next day, Sam learns that Judith and Ellen are both absent. Sent home due to being sick. Sam calls Judith later to see how she's doing, to which Judith straight up calls her a witch. Considering that every girl in the team got sick but Sam, it's not like her story doesn't fully check out. She tries to visit Judith later, but after letting it kinda slip that she hexed Judith for being mean to her, Judith lets her have it even harder. This angers Sam enough to wish that Judith would disappear. This summons Clarissa who voids the first wish and grants the second.
Sam wakes up the next day and suddenly realizes that things seem quiet. A bit too quiet. Upon leaving her house, she sees nobody. As if the entire town has suddenly emptied. It dawns on her soon just what happened. When she wished Judith to disappear, it somehow made everyone disappear for some reason. It's probably the best part of the book so far as the concept of being the last person on earth is a creepy scenario. Sam soon runs into Clarissa once more and asks why this happened, to which Clarissa simply says that magic is unpredictable. Sam makes her third wish that everything is back to normal, but with one caveat. Judith now has to think of her as the greatest person who ever lived. And sure enough, everything is back to normal.
But the problem for Sam now is that Judith becomes almost full on Single White Female with her new obsession towards Sam. Right down to the same haircut, same clothes, same mannerisms. Sam tires of it and begs Clarissa for one more wish. And, despite the whole point of the book being that Sam is granted only three wishes, Clarissa gives her a fourth. That wish is that she wishes Judith would have met Clarissa instead.
TWIST ENDING
Sure enough the wish is granted. Sam believes she hears Judith say "fly away Byrd" once more. But Sam isn't bothered anymore. She's more focused on a nice juicy worm, and a real interest in flying. She's now turned into a bird and flies off.
CONCLUSION
Be Careful What You Wish For... is a real easy read. The book flows faster than anything we've covered yet for this reread. My opinion on it however still hasn't really changed, but I think I feel a little different when it comes to Sam herself. While a lot about her makes her sympathetic on almost a Carly Beth level, she also feels like someone who is motivated on revenge and anger to the point it kind of makes her as much of a bully as Judith Bellwood. Judith is mean to Sam, and is far from sympathetic, but given the situations involving the errant knee that may have been intentional, and realizing that Sam put a curse on her (twice technically), she's within her right to make the wish she chooses.
And then there's Clarissa. We really don't get her deal. Is she just evil? Is she just bad at wishes? Does she just revel in the idea of jerking kids around with these messy wishes? Her motivations as to why Sam ends up with the versions of the wishes she gets is never really well explained. Sam couldn't make her brother shrink with one wish, why didn't that work? Why, despite the three wish rule was Sam suddenly allowed a mulligan? Was this always her plan? If Sam used the shrinking wish on her brother, would it have screwed up Clarissa's plans in this gaslighting and eventual screw over of Sam? It's one of the book's biggest problems and it still sticks as a massive problem with this reread.
In the end, I really want to like this one. Its concept is one that should be amazing. But when the wishes feel lacking (save for the second somewhat) and the characters aren't super sympathetic, and the attempts at scares feel so miniscule, you're left with wasted potential. An okay at best parable on how revenge can make things worse for you, but not okay enough to make for a compelling tale. Decent twist though. I guess it's true when they say "wish in one hand, big ol' Stine turd in the other."
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