Bubblegum Wishes
Bubblegum Wishesby J. S. LongstreetPublished by: Crackjaw PublishingWhen Monkey told me about the Mini Book Expo blog I eagerly checked it out. I thought it would be difficult to claim books from the site, but it turns out it really wasn't. You sort of have to be on the ball with their updates, but my first try I got a book that looked interesting to me - Bubblegum Wishes!There are many exciting things about this book. 1) It's YA and I'm all about the YA 2) the author is Canadian 3) the author is born in the same month as I am and that makes him an Aquarius and Aquarians are the most awesome! And so the story of Bubblegum Wishes (in a nutshell).The story takes place in the Different Dimension and alternates story-lines between the planet Martin and the word of Pinfoot. Over on planet Martin, Nexus Zephyr an ex-Toy Elf, has been abducted by aliens and put on trial for altering the future when he convinced a rhinoceros to not become a door-to-door salesman. This angered the aliens on Martin because the rhinoceros was supposed to take over the world. Fate is even called to the trial to try and convict Nexus of his crime.Over on Pinfoot, a strange group of characters have been brought together by random occurrences. Malcolm, a Marshmallow Wizard is completely made of straw, Cran is a Sweet Toothed Tiger, Sandy is an aviator whose plane crashed near Malcolm's house and is just trying to get home to Gourd Valley. They also pick up Theodore a large man and a bit of a packrat and a couple of other oddballs. The group is accompanying Sandy to Gourd Valley so they can meet the Candycorn have have their wishes granted.Turns out the Candycorn is actually rather Evil and suddenly the group finds themselves trying to save Pinfoot from an evil plot in which the aliens who have Nexus are a part. All this because Fate wanted to turn Pinfoot into a Resort.I have been trying to think of how to review this book as I found it incredibly confusing. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun read, but boy oh boy was I confused for the most part! I sort of got the hang of the flow of the book about half-way through only to get lost again. The only way I can describe it is The Wizard of Oz-meets-Alice in Wonderland-meets-Candy Land-meets-some guy on a pretty vivid Acid trip (not that I know what an Acid trip would be like, having never taken more than over-the-counter pills from the pharmacy. But it is honestly what I think it would be like). The story was much more random than I liked and I think it would be better for boys rather than girls. There are a couple of parts I thought that my Gaming Geek Husband would get more than I did. (And I call him a Gaming Geek with infinite love and passion. I love my Gamer husband!)The stories tie together in the end as I figured they would, only I was still confused. It was sort of like reading a bunch of Mad-Libs put together at times. Random meetings of arguing Bananas and a Papaya creature. It was strange and yet I still found myself chuckling over the situations.I didn't really get the story, but I thought the plot and characters were very original and interesting. J.S. Longstreet certainly has an amazing imagination!![UPDATE: My husband has started reading the book and he's enjoying it (and understanding things) more than I did. See! I knew it wasn't aimed at ME! Said it was very Terry Pratchett/Douglas Adams-ish. I don't care for either of their writings, so, I guess I was just the wrong market for the book!]
