Dangerous Wishes [Hardcover]

William Sleator (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1995 | Age Level: 9 and up

Dom, a fourteen-year-old computer enthusiast, travels to Bangkok in order to find a necklace that his sister had lost three years earlier and to lift the curse that has plagued his family since that time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sleator brings the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of Thailand alive in lush detail, but the story itself, a sequel to The Spirit House, doesn't come alive until halfway through. Readers who tough out the repetitious narrative and plodding dialogue that set up the situation, though, are in for a snappy supernatural spine-tingler with edge-of-the-seat chase scenes. The action centers around Dom Kamen, an American teen who moves to Bangkok with his parents. Bad luck dogs the Kamens from the moment they arrive. Lek, a street vendor who is Dom's age, tells them that there is a bad spirit in their house. At first incredulous, Dom begins to believe that the spirit comes from a jade carving that his older sister had lost en route to Bangkok three years earlier. The plot machinery creaks a bit to enable Dom to accompany Lek to his native village, but once there it shifts into high gear. In a chase involving practically every type of Thai conveyance, Dom and Lek end up being pursued back to Bangkok by the khwan (malevolent spirit) of a sinister villager who ultimately gets his just deserts in "spirited" fashion. An entertaining and empathic fantasy that affords a good glimpse of an exotic culture. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6?This sequel to The Spirit House (Dutton, 1991) is set in Thailand and involves Dominic, the younger brother from that book. Dom and his parents are living in Bangkok for two months while his mother does some research. Dom's secret mission is somehow to find the Buddha statue that has been causing his family so much bad luck and give it to the proper shrine. He is aided in his search by Lek, a 15-year-old street vendor who is suffering from his own kind of bad luck. Dom eventually bribes Lek to escort him to his village in search of the statue. After a meal to rival the banquet in the second Indiana Jones movie, they eventually succeed in their mission. Everything wraps up nice and tidy, with everyone suddenly having good luck and bright futures. It is much easier to believe in the presence of spirits than it is to believe that Dom's parents would be so easily persuaded to let him go off with a stranger into the boonies of a strange land, or that they would be so blindingly ignorant about the country they are visiting. The heavy-handed comparisons of the American (read "rich") Dom and the native Lek, while perhaps valid, are extremely irritating after a while. The plot is clearly defined but the entire book has a jerky, sketchy tone that prevents readers from settling into it. Still, Sleator has a deft hand when it comes to cliff-hanger sentences, and he also does a nice job with dialogue and foreshadowing, which might be enough to save the story. This is not a completely satisfying novel, but for Sleator fans, or folks who just liked the first story, it might be enough.?Patricia A. Dollisch, DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; 1st edition (October 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525452834
• ISBN-13: 978-0525452836
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,697,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Enemies and Friends, February 4, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Dangerous Wishes (Mass Market Paperback)

om comes to Thailand and was in a rich house,bad luck happens,but he met a Thai boy called Lek.Lek sells sam-tom, (spicy food) and despises rich people. He was edcuated in a villige and learned to speak English.He had good relationship with his teacher, the teacher gave him a pocket computer when he left for Bangkok.It prooved to grant wishes, even evil ones that gets others hurt. And soon the teacher was killed by some raiding Khmer Rouge soildiers.

Dom had had all the bad luck size=1>
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5.0 out of 5 stars Dangerous Wishes, November 19, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Dangerous Wishes (Mass Market Paperback)

I liked the book for the most part but some of the characters were to unrealistic. My favorite part was when yhe boys saved the mad spirit from the pocket computer that she was stuck in.

The worst part of the book was when the khwan, a spirit of a body who is still alive, came out of Gope's body and went after Dom. The khwan of Gope was angry at Dom because Dom knew a secret that no one
was supposed to know.

The most vivid were Dom And lek because the author,William Sleator, told their personalities and discriptions as if he knew them personally. The most vivid conflict was when Dom offended Lek about his culture by accident.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Book, January 18, 2002

By 

"kitkat1287" (Racine, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dangerous Wishes (Hardcover)

This was the first book that I'd read by this author. It's very good, very interesting, and factual in most ways. It tells about Thailand and the lifestyle of the people who live there among the story. The story is about a boy named Dom who moves with his parents to Thailand for a while. As soon as they arrive, bad luck descends upon him and his family. Dom befriends a Thai boy named Lek who sells som-tam (a type of spicy food) in the city. The story progresses as pieces to the puzzle of what happened to Dom's sister and her jade necklace when she'd visited before, and what Lek is so mysteriously hiding are revealed. This author's very good and if you like this book, you should try another one of his. This book is part of a sequel, and that should be read as well.