The Price of Wishes Book Review: The Dark Magic Story You Feel

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There’s a very specific kind of longing most readers understand.
That’s a quiet moment in a library or bookstore when your hand pauses over a spine, and something inside you whispers this one.

Now imagine opening that book…
and finding your own name written inside.

That’s the unsettling, irresistible doorway into The Price of Wishes by Desiree Dusablon, a dark, atmospheric supernatural fantasy that hooks you from its first pages and refuses to let go. When Eli discovers the mysterious book that promises to grant wishes, it feels like magic.

Until the wishes start taking things in return.

Suddenly, the question isn’t just what you want most.

It’s what you’d be willing to lose to get it.

Dusablon doesn’t just build a story around magic. She builds a story around need. Around grief, control, and the fragile human hope that maybe one small change could fix everything. The result is a haunting, cinematic novel where the library feels alive, the shadows feel close enough to touch, and every wish carries a chill that lingers long after the page turns.

If you’ve ever wanted something so badly it scared you…
This book will feel like it was written for you.

Title: The Price of Wishes

Author: Desiree Dusablon

Publisher: Independently Published

Format: eBook

Genre: YA Dark Fantasy, Magical Realism

Release Date: October 15, 2025

Pages: 236

Star Rating: 4.5 stars

Spice Rating: 0 chilis

A Premise That Hooks You Instantly

What makes this story work so well is how quickly it pulls you in.

The opening chapter doesn’t ease you into the mystery. It drops you directly into that eerie library moment where Eli finds the book with his name already written inside and the warning: write carefully, the world is always listening.

It’s instantly ominous. Instantly intriguing. And it raises the most important question right away:

What are the rules…and what is the price?

The tension grows from that uncertainty. Each time Eli writes a wish, the story quietly tightens. Something shifts. Something is taken. And the appearance of the black fingerprint becomes a visual reminder that nothing about magic is free.

It’s familiar enough to feel mythic. Unique enough to feel fresh.

Atmosphere That Breathes Around You

The atmosphere is where The Price of Wishes truly shines.

Dusablon writes an elegant, cinematic style that makes the environment feel sensory and alive. You don’t just read about the library or the shifting reality around Eli. You experience it.

You see the shadows stretch across the room.
Feel the chill in the air.
You notice the shimmer in the world as it starts to fracture.
And almost feel your own breath fog in front of you.

The atmosphere isn’t just background. It becomes part of the story’s emotional language. The world feels like it’s watching, listening, waiting.

The novel isn’t dense with complex worldbuilding, but that restraint works in its favor. By keeping the scope focused, the story stays immersive and immediate, especially for younger YA readers. It reads with a slightly middle-grade accessibility in tone, yet carries darker emotional themes that give it depth beyond that surface simplicity.

The result is a book that feels readable and layered at the same time.

The Emotional Heart Beneath the Magic

What elevates The Price of Wishes beyond a typical supernatural fantasy is the emotional core underneath the premise.

This isn’t just a story about a magical object granting wishes.

It’s about what drives someone to make those wishes in the first place.

The story quietly explores grief, legacy, and the human need for control when life feels unpredictable. Eli’s choices don’t feel like plot devices. They feel like the kind of choices any of us might make if we believed we had the power to fix what hurts us.

That emotional grounding makes every consequence land harder.

You aren’t just watching events unfold. You feel the weight of them.

Character & Story Threads

Eli anchors the story with a vulnerability that makes the unfolding supernatural chaos feel personal rather than abstract. His reactions feel believable, his fear understandable, and his hope painfully human.

Dani adds warmth and grounding to the narrative, helping balance the darker supernatural elements with emotional connection.

Nathaniel, meanwhile, feels like a thread intentionally left only partially unraveled. He clearly matters to the story’s mythology, yet his history isn’t fully explored here. Instead of feeling like a flaw, it reads more like a door left open for the future of the series. It left me curious about how the book ended up in Eli’s hands and hopeful that later installments might delve deeper into that backstory.

Pacing That Keeps You Turning Pages

One of the reasons I had such a good time reading The Price of Wishes is the pacing.

The story moves steadily, with each new development revealing just enough to keep you leaning forward. It doesn’t rush through emotional beats, but it also never lingers so long that the tension fades.

I kept telling myself I’d stop after one more chapter.

I didn’t.

Because once the consequences of the wishes started unfolding, the need to know what happens next became almost impossible to resist.

Final Thoughts

The Price of Wishes balances supernatural wonder with haunting dread in a way that feels both accessible and emotionally resonant. It’s atmospheric, cinematic, and rooted in deeply human questions about longing, loss, and the dangerous allure of second chances.

It isn’t perfect. I would have loved a bit more exploration of certain story threads, particularly Nathaniel’s role and history. But the reading experience itself was compelling, immersive, and memorable enough that those small gaps didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying the journey.

Who Should Read The Price of Wishes

This book is for you if you love:

supernatural fantasy with eerie, immersive atmosphere
stories where magic comes with a real emotional cost
YA fantasy that balances accessibility with darker themes
cinematic, sensory-driven writing
books like those from Neil Gaiman or Victoria “VE” Schwab
character-driven stories about grief, choice, and consequences

If you’ve ever stood in a library and felt like a book was waiting for you…this one might be.

Shop Indie

This is where I tell you to shop indie. Support the story, support the storytellers.

If The Price of Wishes sounds like the kind of haunting, magical read you need on your shelf, this is your reminder to shop indie first.

Order through your local bookstore if you can.
Request it from your library.
Or use Bookshop.org to support an independent shop at no extra cost to you.

And if the easiest way to get this book into your hands is elsewhere, like Amazon, that’s okay too. The most important thing is getting more stories like this into readers’ hands.

Because books like this deserve to be discovered.