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Charmed #10
Beware What You Wish
Wishes are being made all over San Francisco: a candidate for office wishes for a less formidable opponent, a little girl wishes for a horse and Phoebe wishes she could foresee more calamities so she can prevent them. Soon she's having more visions than she can handle - and the sisters are exhausted from racing all over town to avert disasters. Finally Phoebe refuses even to leave the housel A strange spirit has been released from its stone prison and the power of the Charmed Ones may not be enough to stop an impending cataclysm.
179 pages, Paperback
First published July 31, 2001
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1007 people want to read
About the author
Diana G. Gallagher
157 books56 followersDiana G. Gallagher was an American author who wrote books for children and young adults. She also wrote the space opera The Alien Dark (1990), but was best known for her tie-in work for television properties including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Star Trek and The Secret World of Alex Mack, among others.
She was also a prolific filk creator, winning Pegasus Awards in 1986 and ’94. Gallagher won a Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist in 1988 under the name Diana Gallagher Wu. She sometimes also wrote under the name Diana Burke.
Born in 1946, in Paterson, New Jersey, she lived in Florida with her husband, the writer Martin R. Burke, who predeceased her in 2011. Gallagher was married four times; her third marriage was to author William F. Wu (divorced 1990).
Gallagher died December 2, 2021 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at 75 years of age.
She was also a prolific filk creator, winning Pegasus Awards in 1986 and ’94. Gallagher won a Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist in 1988 under the name Diana Gallagher Wu. She sometimes also wrote under the name Diana Burke.
Born in 1946, in Paterson, New Jersey, she lived in Florida with her husband, the writer Martin R. Burke, who predeceased her in 2011. Gallagher was married four times; her third marriage was to author William F. Wu (divorced 1990).
Gallagher died December 2, 2021 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at 75 years of age.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
April 6, 2013
Though written by a different author, this tenth Charmed spin-off novel (they don't need to read in series order!) has a lot in common, in terms of style and tone, with the one I read earlier this year, Voodoo Moon. Gallagher, like Staub, is a professional writer; her extensive credits include adult and (mostly) children's novels, many of them in the supernatural and other speculative fiction genres, and several of them spin-offs of other series, this being her first Charmed book. At this point in the series, all three of the original sisters are still with us; Piper is now married to Leo (though he doesn't appear much in this book), but neither of their boys have been conceived yet.
The Goodreads description for this novel explains the premise correctly. The plot is unilinear; and Gallagher's prose style is workmanlike, clear and straightforward, moving the action along at a brisk clip, with the right amount of verisimilitude and a good feeling of camaraderie among the sisters. Unlike Voodoo Moon, this tale is set on their home turf, San Francisco; and the Florida-based Gallagher is much less adept than Staub in evoking any real sense of place, or even reproducing local geography based on research. For instance, the Gold Coast Amusement Park, which is a key place in the book, was apparently invented by the author --at least, I haven't been able to confirm its existence online. (To be fair, a sense of place was never a strong element in the TV series itself either, IMO.) She also makes less use of actual lore for her plot; the demonic spirit Athulak, his history, and his proclivities, were apparently made up for the book, and I suspect the same about the idea of a "spirit stone," though I wouldn't say it positively. But like the former book, this is a quick read; and it's equally free of sexual content and nearly as free of bad language. (Piper lets the d-word slip once, in a super-stressed moment of life-and-death jeopardy; but most of us would be inclined to cut her some slack there.) On the plus side, whereas in Voodoo Moon the sisters had considerable help in defeating the baddies (and wouldn't have succeeded or even survived without it!), here they're on their own, with no help but each other.
A minor flaw in the plotting is that the idea that Athulak's continued existence depends on the success of his main scheme here is not really a very obvious inference (which is why Gallagher hurries over it so quickly). More problematic is the political subtext. Our story takes place against the background of a contested election for an open seat in Congress, pitting Republican Stephen Tremaine against Democrat Noel Jefferson (the party labels aren't mentioned, but are obvious). Three carefully-chosen issues are mentioned: the environment, corporate responsibility, and campaign finances; and on all of them, Jefferson takes the positions that would appeal to most readers (pro-environment, against trusting corporations to police themselves, and against "soft money"), with Tremaine taking the converse stands on at least the first two. All the author's characterization skills are then employed to make the former come across as likable and the latter as unlikable. (The actual TV series largely eschewed any kind of politicking, to my knowledge, though there are some episodes I haven't seen.) Now, it may or may not be true that from a standpoint of literary realism, the idea of a contested election in San Francisco is about like depicting a contested election in Castro's Cuba; my impression is that GOP voters in the former would be, if not wholly nonexistent, certainly too scarce to mount more than token campaigns, though I could be wrong. But it's definitely true that this picture of the political process is simplistic to the point of absurdity. Our society faces an array of issues far more numerous than these selected three (many of which are complex, and evoke more than two possible responses!); and unfortunately, politicians don't line up neatly taking either sound and responsible positions on ALL of them, so they can be clearly recognized as "one of the good guys," in Piper's phrase, or taking all wrong positions so they can be identified as the bad guys. It's perfectly possible for candidates to hold all three of Noel Jefferson's positions, and to mix them with absolutely horrific stances on other issues; and vice versa. (Another point that seems to have eluded Gallagher, in this era where spin and "branding" has replaced substance, is that campaign rhetoric is often hypocritical; politicians who rail against "soft money" may be raking it in with both hands, and many of the "pro-environment" party's elected and appointed officials consistently push some of the most egregious assaults on the environment that have been proposed in this century.) The type of oversimplified, "us vs. them" distortion of political reality that's being promoted here does not, to put it mildly, contribute to the serious independent thinking and analysis, on the part of voters, that needs to happen for our political process to be part of the solution for problems instead of being one of the problems.
Nonetheless, most readers probably don't turn to Charmed novels as formative sources for their political and social philosophy. (If they do, they have serious problems. :-) ) Generally speaking, readers pick up this kind of book for light supernatural adventure with likable heroines, and the sure prospect of a happy ending. (With this type of book, that's no spoiler!) This one delivers exactly that, and I liked it on that basis.
The Goodreads description for this novel explains the premise correctly. The plot is unilinear; and Gallagher's prose style is workmanlike, clear and straightforward, moving the action along at a brisk clip, with the right amount of verisimilitude and a good feeling of camaraderie among the sisters. Unlike Voodoo Moon, this tale is set on their home turf, San Francisco; and the Florida-based Gallagher is much less adept than Staub in evoking any real sense of place, or even reproducing local geography based on research. For instance, the Gold Coast Amusement Park, which is a key place in the book, was apparently invented by the author --at least, I haven't been able to confirm its existence online. (To be fair, a sense of place was never a strong element in the TV series itself either, IMO.) She also makes less use of actual lore for her plot; the demonic spirit Athulak, his history, and his proclivities, were apparently made up for the book, and I suspect the same about the idea of a "spirit stone," though I wouldn't say it positively. But like the former book, this is a quick read; and it's equally free of sexual content and nearly as free of bad language. (Piper lets the d-word slip once, in a super-stressed moment of life-and-death jeopardy; but most of us would be inclined to cut her some slack there.) On the plus side, whereas in Voodoo Moon the sisters had considerable help in defeating the baddies (and wouldn't have succeeded or even survived without it!), here they're on their own, with no help but each other.
A minor flaw in the plotting is that the idea that Athulak's continued existence depends on the success of his main scheme here is not really a very obvious inference (which is why Gallagher hurries over it so quickly). More problematic is the political subtext. Our story takes place against the background of a contested election for an open seat in Congress, pitting Republican Stephen Tremaine against Democrat Noel Jefferson (the party labels aren't mentioned, but are obvious). Three carefully-chosen issues are mentioned: the environment, corporate responsibility, and campaign finances; and on all of them, Jefferson takes the positions that would appeal to most readers (pro-environment, against trusting corporations to police themselves, and against "soft money"), with Tremaine taking the converse stands on at least the first two. All the author's characterization skills are then employed to make the former come across as likable and the latter as unlikable. (The actual TV series largely eschewed any kind of politicking, to my knowledge, though there are some episodes I haven't seen.) Now, it may or may not be true that from a standpoint of literary realism, the idea of a contested election in San Francisco is about like depicting a contested election in Castro's Cuba; my impression is that GOP voters in the former would be, if not wholly nonexistent, certainly too scarce to mount more than token campaigns, though I could be wrong. But it's definitely true that this picture of the political process is simplistic to the point of absurdity. Our society faces an array of issues far more numerous than these selected three (many of which are complex, and evoke more than two possible responses!); and unfortunately, politicians don't line up neatly taking either sound and responsible positions on ALL of them, so they can be clearly recognized as "one of the good guys," in Piper's phrase, or taking all wrong positions so they can be identified as the bad guys. It's perfectly possible for candidates to hold all three of Noel Jefferson's positions, and to mix them with absolutely horrific stances on other issues; and vice versa. (Another point that seems to have eluded Gallagher, in this era where spin and "branding" has replaced substance, is that campaign rhetoric is often hypocritical; politicians who rail against "soft money" may be raking it in with both hands, and many of the "pro-environment" party's elected and appointed officials consistently push some of the most egregious assaults on the environment that have been proposed in this century.) The type of oversimplified, "us vs. them" distortion of political reality that's being promoted here does not, to put it mildly, contribute to the serious independent thinking and analysis, on the part of voters, that needs to happen for our political process to be part of the solution for problems instead of being one of the problems.
Nonetheless, most readers probably don't turn to Charmed novels as formative sources for their political and social philosophy. (If they do, they have serious problems. :-) ) Generally speaking, readers pick up this kind of book for light supernatural adventure with likable heroines, and the sure prospect of a happy ending. (With this type of book, that's no spoiler!) This one delivers exactly that, and I liked it on that basis.
June 3, 2021
The story fell short for me. Even at the end when everything came to the surface it was underwhelming. I really didn’t even see how Athulak was defeated. I assumed it was because they stopped the first wish from happening.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 29, 2015
This was an okay book in the Charmed series. Nothing too spectacular, but it wasn't awful either, just middle of the road. This isn't the first Charmed book I'd recommend, but it was still a very easy read and I'm glad that I read it.
January 26, 2026
The last charmed book with Prue alive. I liked it and was glad Leo showed up. besides Coop. Leo was my favorite straight out good guy.
October 22, 2024
Takes place toward the end of Season 3 because it is mentioned that Piper and Leo are married.
Also, Leo comes in at the end and there is mention of Darryl.
This was the last book to have Prue as one of the main Charmed Ones before the character was killed off. Not many people liked Prue as a character or because they didn't like Shannen but the tie-in novels have given Prue more depth and Shannen was great as prue when they gave her time to shine.
R.I.P. Shannen...
Prue is still working for 415 Magazine as a photographer and her latest assignment is to take photos of a wealthy businessman running for public office named Stephen Tremaine. He has a wide collection of antiques and is impressed in a surprised way that Prue is so educated on artifacts and poses with one such piece from the Amazon in South America as part of the personal interest story.
Prue isn't a fan of Tremaine but professional and personal opinions aren't the main concern even if she would vote for the person he is running against, a younger man named Noel Jefferson.
A few days later, Phoebe is up watching the news on television as Prue brings in the morning paper to make sure that an incident of them saving a little girl from being run down by a runaway birthday party pony made the paper since it involved Piper having to freeze time a little.
They are safe from exposure but all the headlines of the TV and print news and their terrible downsides have gotten to Phoebe. She had a vision of the little girl being trampled and if they hadn't been able to save her...
Phoebe wishes that she could have visions to help ease the evil in the world, has a brief dizzy spell and is then fine...not knowing her and her sisters have a new threat on their hands.
Yep, a demon got freed from the artifact and guess how if the title isn't enough of a giveaway?
Now, Phoebe is getting even more visions ranging from a mother and child being in a car accident to a man choking on a chicken bone every time she touches someone on purpose or by accident. It becomes so overwhelming that Phoebe doesn't want to leave the house and her sisters can't be running around for paper cuts or someone possibly being shot by a mugger.
Piper is working at getting more attention to P3 by hosting a booth at the upcoming charity carnival where Tremaine and Jefferson will both be speaking to the crowd and earning votes. Phoebe valiantly goes to help out her sisters but when she sees a multitude of tragedies, the Halliwells are unsure which crisis to avert once they learn the demon is ready to see The Charmed Ones fail...
Beware What You Wish sounds interesting but it just takes so long to get to the real threat of the story. As a Charmed fan, it seems like a mash-up of previous episodes with a thin hint of what Buffy did in its episode Earshot. It also has that political vibe and yikes...don't we have enough of that going on right now?
Not a good way for Prue to go out as a character in these books either with such a lackluster story...
Also, Leo comes in at the end and there is mention of Darryl.
This was the last book to have Prue as one of the main Charmed Ones before the character was killed off. Not many people liked Prue as a character or because they didn't like Shannen but the tie-in novels have given Prue more depth and Shannen was great as prue when they gave her time to shine.
R.I.P. Shannen...
Prue is still working for 415 Magazine as a photographer and her latest assignment is to take photos of a wealthy businessman running for public office named Stephen Tremaine. He has a wide collection of antiques and is impressed in a surprised way that Prue is so educated on artifacts and poses with one such piece from the Amazon in South America as part of the personal interest story.
Prue isn't a fan of Tremaine but professional and personal opinions aren't the main concern even if she would vote for the person he is running against, a younger man named Noel Jefferson.
A few days later, Phoebe is up watching the news on television as Prue brings in the morning paper to make sure that an incident of them saving a little girl from being run down by a runaway birthday party pony made the paper since it involved Piper having to freeze time a little.
They are safe from exposure but all the headlines of the TV and print news and their terrible downsides have gotten to Phoebe. She had a vision of the little girl being trampled and if they hadn't been able to save her...
Phoebe wishes that she could have visions to help ease the evil in the world, has a brief dizzy spell and is then fine...not knowing her and her sisters have a new threat on their hands.
Yep, a demon got freed from the artifact and guess how if the title isn't enough of a giveaway?
Now, Phoebe is getting even more visions ranging from a mother and child being in a car accident to a man choking on a chicken bone every time she touches someone on purpose or by accident. It becomes so overwhelming that Phoebe doesn't want to leave the house and her sisters can't be running around for paper cuts or someone possibly being shot by a mugger.
Piper is working at getting more attention to P3 by hosting a booth at the upcoming charity carnival where Tremaine and Jefferson will both be speaking to the crowd and earning votes. Phoebe valiantly goes to help out her sisters but when she sees a multitude of tragedies, the Halliwells are unsure which crisis to avert once they learn the demon is ready to see The Charmed Ones fail...
Beware What You Wish sounds interesting but it just takes so long to get to the real threat of the story. As a Charmed fan, it seems like a mash-up of previous episodes with a thin hint of what Buffy did in its episode Earshot. It also has that political vibe and yikes...don't we have enough of that going on right now?
Not a good way for Prue to go out as a character in these books either with such a lackluster story...
December 11, 2019
Once again I love the concept, I am just not a fan of the execution.
I am beginning to feel that it is just the format that is the problem. It is such a concise package, and probably a limited word count, that any writer would feel that they need to tell more than show. But then there is all those parts that are added in, like telling everyone who the Charmed Ones are, which felt unnecessary. Are the books supposed to be promoting the tv series, or are the books a continuation of the tv series, or are they separate.
The worse part is the lack of continuation. Which would be justified if the latter, above, was the answer.
The irony is there are several scenes where the girls make fun of paperback romance...
Overall I was a bit disappointed with the book.
I am beginning to feel that it is just the format that is the problem. It is such a concise package, and probably a limited word count, that any writer would feel that they need to tell more than show. But then there is all those parts that are added in, like telling everyone who the Charmed Ones are, which felt unnecessary. Are the books supposed to be promoting the tv series, or are the books a continuation of the tv series, or are they separate.
The worse part is the lack of continuation. Which would be justified if the latter, above, was the answer.
The irony is there are several scenes where the girls make fun of paperback romance...
Overall I was a bit disappointed with the book.
Read
December 3, 2022Izgalmas volt nagyon, bár sajnáltam, hogy azzal a képviselővel aki „kiengedte” a szellemet a szoborból nem volt több jelenet. Nem tudom miért, de szimpi volt. Talán csak a furcsa ízlésem XD
A masik dolog ami zavart, hogy itt hirtelen már volt Leo, ráadásul rég összeházasodtak Piperrel, miközben az előző részekben sehol nem volt. Oké, kimaradt két könyv, de némi meglepetést azért okozott a felbukkanása. Egyébként, furcsa, mert mindegyik könyvet más író írt, de nem igazán éreztem különbséget. Talán némelyik nehézkesebb volt, lassabban haladtam vele, de mindegyik hozta a Charmed-érzést, amit egykor a sorozat is. Mindent egybe vetve, jó volt újra elmélyedni a három nővér történetében.
A masik dolog ami zavart, hogy itt hirtelen már volt Leo, ráadásul rég összeházasodtak Piperrel, miközben az előző részekben sehol nem volt. Oké, kimaradt két könyv, de némi meglepetést azért okozott a felbukkanása. Egyébként, furcsa, mert mindegyik könyvet más író írt, de nem igazán éreztem különbséget. Talán némelyik nehézkesebb volt, lassabban haladtam vele, de mindegyik hozta a Charmed-érzést, amit egykor a sorozat is. Mindent egybe vetve, jó volt újra elmélyedni a három nővér történetében.
January 6, 2023
Phoebe wishes to be able to help more people with her premonitions -- all of a sudden, she's having visions of tragedy befalling nearly everyone she meets. It's an interesting premise, but the execution doesn't hold up to the idea. That puts it kind of on par with a below-average Charmed episode, where it seems like they came up with a funny/punny episode title ("Sleepy Halliwell") and then wrote an episode around it. It's not badly written, but unfortunately, not that good either.
May 12, 2024
Malheureusement je trouvais que dans ce tome l'histoire du démon a pris beaucoup de temps arriver la moitié du livre c'est la vie des trois sœurs et pas beaucoup d'actions du coup j'ai trouvé ça dommage je l'ai moins aimé que les autres tomes
August 13, 2018
Not the best charmed book I've read
October 10, 2020
I was enjoying this for the most part until the same sentence was used two paragraphs in a row and then it went all down hill from there.
May 5, 2022
A pretty standard Charmed book. No complaints here.
July 18, 2022
I've come to enjoy the cheesy nostalgia of these books. This one fell a bit flat for me because of the political focus.
August 8, 2023
I found this Charmed episode one of the strongest in regards to storyline.
The characters really showed how their powers affect them personally.
The characters really showed how their powers affect them personally.
March 31, 2024
Excellent !!! J'ai vraiment pris beaucoup de plaisir à lire ce livre Charmed, tout était superbe ! On aurait dit un vrai épisode de la série ! Bref, j'ai kiffé !
July 30, 2024
The best part was finding an old bookmark from a previous owner in the book, 2001!
November 14, 2024
I love this book so much I'm sad that it's prue's last book rip Shannen ❤️
September 1, 2025
I love these books. This one felt strange though because the demon was invisible (air?) and there really wasn’t a battle between the charmed ones and the demon. Those are the best parts lol.
January 31, 2026
A decent storyline with an interesting demon that evades notice and then challenges the sisters with how to stop it.
January 28, 2024
It was cool,it has comedy, the demon was quite cool, good characterization of the girls, Leo wasnt there (thanks god, always hated him in the show). The actions scenes were great.
But the love interests were so forced in this one, also the whole "save the politician, save the world"... Girl please.
But the love interests were so forced in this one, also the whole "save the politician, save the world"... Girl please.
September 27, 2010
I love the Charmed TV series and read this because I love the show so much. I found that while I liked the book, the show is definetly better for the magical aspects, pacing etc. This might be biased as I loved the show so much but I thought that it was a good read but I would pick the show over these spin off books any day.
August 27, 2016
Read this book when I was at school. I loved watching the series on the T.V. and I was thrilled I could own the books to the series too! I just can't remember what they were like to read, or how many I owned!
October 10, 2008
awesome!!!!!!!!!
Read
March 22, 2010F CHA
Fantasy
Fantasy
July 9, 2012
me love
December 28, 2014
An entertaining read the plays out much like a TV episode. This being the final book with Prue in it made it kind of special. The story itself was pretty average, but it's great for light reading.
March 18, 2016
Yes, enjoyed this one. Loved TV episodes and it was nice to read many years later. Great book, will keep it and will reread it again.
March 1, 2011
Plot and drama good
October 8, 2015
For fans of the tv show.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews