Three Wishes

Seventeen-year-old Rael O'Brien meets a genie on the banks of a Jamaican river - or at least, he thinks he does. The creature offers him three wishes: three perfect escapes from the pain, poverty, violence, and loneliness that have followed Rael his entire life.But the more Rael refuses to wish, the more the genietests him - breaking friendships, twisting memories, pushing him into impossible choices. Every victory he earns feels stolen. Every loss feels designed.Until Rael begins to realize the truth: The genie isn't real. The battles aren't magic. The monster he's fighting is his own mind.As his grip on reality unravels, Rael clings to a single lifeline - the belief that if he can just hold onto one thing, one reason to stay alive, he can survive the war inside his head.But the tests grow harsher. The illusions blur into real danger. And when Rael collapses in the real world, his mother and the girl he loves must watch him fade in a hospital bed while the final truth breaks open: Rael didn't need three wishes. He needed one person to stay.Heart-wrenching, spiritual, and unflinchingly honest, this novel blends Caribbean folklore with the raw reality of mental illness to tell the story of a boy who fought every demon except the one living beneath his own skin.And in the end, when Rael's heartbeat slips into silence, one question remains: If the mind can create its own monsters... can love create its own miracles?