Welcome friend! I mentioned If Wishes Were Retail in this month’s new book releases and I am so proud to bring you its review on publication day! This is a brilliant cozy fantasy, exploring themes of capitalism, labor and family. Little did I know I would have so much to say about it. Take a look at the synopsis below followed by my review.
Auston Habershaw | Goodreads
In this hilarious debut fantasy cozy, a rebellious—but enterprising—young woman and an ancient—but clueless—genie set up shop at the local mall.
Alex Delmore needs a miracle. She wants out of her dead-end suburban town, but her parents are broke and NYU seems like a distant dream.
Good thing there’s a genie in town—and he’s hiring at the Wellspring Mall.
It’d help if the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad knew even one thing about 21st-century America. It’d help if he weren’t at least as stubborn as Alex. It’d really help if her brother didn’t sell her out to her conspiracy theory-loving, gnome-hating dad.
When Alex and the genie set up their wishing kiosk, they face seemingly-endless setbacks. The mall is failing and management will not stop interfering on behalf of their big-box tenants.
But when the wishing biz might start working, the biggest problem of all remains: People are really terrible at wishing.
If Wishes Were Retail – Review
The Setting and the Weight of Wishes
If Wishes Were Retail starts off as a light hearted read about a 17 year old interviewing to work for the genie at a mall kiosk. Her family is tight for money and while she wants to support them, she also wants to get a better future for herself. The mall, with its fading foot traffic and increasingly empty storefronts, becomes a mirror to the characters’ economic and emotional realities. Her comparison of the mall with what it used to be pre-Covid and how it is now was nostalgic to me. It also offers a critical backdrop because as an employee of a retail store, Alex is able to experience consumer culture first hand.
What do people wish for and how much they would pay for it offers great insights to Alex about the world. It is not an easy job. People from all walks of life come to the kiosk and she gets exposed to the raw desires of people, their humility, desperation as well as greed.
Humans love looking for shortcuts and what are wishes but shortcuts? The years it would take to become a billionaire vanish when a wish like that is granted. For so many people who come to the kiosk, life isn’t about the journey to make their dreams come true. It’s about reaching that destination as fast as possible. There is ambition but no drive. On the other hand, there were also people whose wishes were heartbreaking or simply small ways to better life.
The Characters
Alex:
I enjoyed Alex’s perspective in the novel. She is a lonely girl. Her friends are older and have moved on to other cities. Her family doesn’t have the means to support her high education; her dad’s lawn care business and her mom’s grocer job barely pay the mortgage on the house. She feels like she has big responsibilities and she struggles with how to be in a family whose situation she doesn’t like and be herself. She connects to her mom’s frustrations with her dad and over the years, she has distanced herself from him and her brother. If Wishes Were Retail offers a raw insight into a child who has lost faith in her parent’s ability to give her a better life.
Through Alex, I saw a teen grappling with inherited limitations — poverty, family dynamics, and societal expectations — and searching for a way to make things better for herself and her loved ones at her young age.
The genie:
The genie — or rather, the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad — is perhaps one of the most memorable characters I’ve read in a while. He knows very little about the ins and outs of the modern world. He was imprisoned for a long time and after his release, he wants to help people.
He brings a blend of ancient magic and complete cluelessness about modern life. Alex has to train him more than he has to train her for the job. They make a fun pair. Alex is honest and blatant at times but she is also looking out for him, working with the mall management to make sure he has the right paperwork and can stay in business.
Their partnership starts off as one of an employer and employee but over time, it evolves into friendship. Alex asks hard questions of the genie and his choice to sell wishes at the mall. She is empathic and notices that, much like other working people, he isn’t very happy with his job either. As she gets insights into how he works and who he is, she starts to question her desires and selfish reasons to work for him.
Meeting the genie was very good for Alex. She got some much needed time away from her family, worked hard for herself and gained a new perspective on her life.
Through the genie, the story explored the disillusionment of someone with immense power who is still subject to bureaucratic nonsense and capitalist demands.
Storytelling and Worldbuilding
If Wishes Were Retail blends humour with the mundane really well! Something as simple as an employee contract is made hilarious (and serious) by the fact that it has to be signed in blood and how often Alex has to argue for her basic rights to take a break and go to the restroom. I particularly enjoyed the chapter of genie’s rental kiosk application.
One of the first things she has to do is to match the wishes people ask for with the genie’s pricing chart. It’s outdated and many times she can’t imagine anyone asking for things like these. I enjoyed that interaction a lot. She takes it upon herself to create a modern offering with their cost.
Also working at the mall (and many other places around town) are gnomes. These little creatures are hardworking and quiet. They offer great service at little to no costs. Alex doesn’t believe her dad when he tells her the gnomes are his competition but when she starts to see them everywhere, she has no choice but to accept their existence. Her interactions with them were very interesting to read. She wants their work to be valued. She knows that they are being taken advantage of. She tries to help them out but she doesn’t know enough about them to make a difference. Later in the book, there is a hilarious scene where Alex’s dad makes friends with the gnomes and they crib together about the way their employers treat them. It was fun to see that come full circle.
The presence of magical creatures adds more humour to the story. It makes it magical while also using them as means to talk about broader themes like labour.
The Artist and the Genie
In his note at the end of the book, the author makes a comparison between the genie and artists. I found this to be profound. A genie can make a wish come true because he has the power to. Like artists, the genie is expected to deliver something meaningful, powerful, and life-altering — often for very little compensation. It is obvious that people don’t want to pay much for their wishes to come true and this is similar to the underappreciation of artists that we see today like recently when authors’ works were used to train AI models without consent or compensation.
I felt that this book offers a great commentary on art and how people want to consume it by using the genie and other supernatural creatures.
So What’s it About?
At its heart I found If Wishes Were Retail to be a story about agency and how people navigate a world where their choices often feel constrained. The blend of magic and mall retail allowed for an exploration of serious themes of economic insecurity, invisible labor, exploitation, the commodification of dreams while keeping the tone light and often funny.
What stood out most to me was how cleverly If Wishes Were Retail critiques capitalism without losing its heart. It’s not just about “bad bosses” or “silly customers” — it’s about the deep yearning people have to be seen, heard, and helped, even when they don’t know how to ask. The ending, in particular in relation to Alex, reminded me that magic doesn’t solve structural problems — people do, slowly, imperfectly, together.
If you’ve ever worked retail or found meaning in a job you didn’t expect to matter — this one’s for you. Come back tomorrow for an interview with Auston Habershaw!
Add If Wishes Were Retail to your Goodreads TBR.
Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book.
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