Down with the Shine by Kate Karyus Quinn

Down with the Shine

by Kate Karyus Quinn

When Lennie brings a few jars of her uncles moonshine to Michaela Gordon s house party, she has everyone who drinks it make a wish. It s tradition. So is the toast her uncles taught her: May all your wishes come true, or at least just this one. The thing is, those words aren t just a tradition. The next morning, every wish no matter how crazy comes true. And most of them turn out bad. But once granted, a wish can t be unmade.

Reviewed by whisperingchapters on

2 of 5 stars

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This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.


Down with the Shine is a quirky, weird and silly book with lots of disastrous happenings.

Lennie wants to do what her dead best friend told her to do: go to the biggest party held by her classmates and have fun. She takes her uncles moonshine along with her to the party. What Lennie doesn't know is that her uncles grant wishes using the moonshine. Without knowing, Lennie starts granting wishes from very drunk kids so you can imagine how disastrous this will be.

This story was interesting yet so weird. This is my first time reading a book by this author but apparently this author shines for her weirdness in her stories. I don't know how I feel about it all. I did enjoy it and it was fun to read about all the crazy wishes that were granted and how they played a part in the story. Like Christy from Christy's Love of Books said, "Let’s just say I’m not going to eat Cheetos for a while." Yeah, I agree and I don't view cheetos the same anymore after reading this story because this kid asks for the Cheetos touch, which was comical but so weird. Another kid asks for balls of steel... Yes, he literally has balls of steel. I did laugh at this because I couldn't believe the absurdity of his wish. 

The story is definitely silly and I didn't know if anything that was happening was real. A few stuff happened that I should have felt at least sad about but didn't because there wasn't a connection between me and the characters at all. I wasn't able to believe the romance much. It was kind of cute towards the end but I wasn't really rooting for them to be together.

Overall, it was enjoyable with all its quirkiness but it wasn't for me.

I received an eARC from the publisher for free in exchange for an honest review.This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.


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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 12 April, 2016: Finished reading
  • 12 April, 2016: Reviewed