Review 141: The Bracelet by Todd W. Cheney

The Bracelet
by Todd W. Cheney
CreateSpace
Copyright © 2009
ISBN: 1449579639
342 Pages
$16.99 Paperback

It was not intentional that this month both books I reviewed were centered around a specific object and the consequences that the said object has on the characters involved in the story.  A few weeks ago I reviewed Billy Young’s Bublos about a mysterious scroll from the Bible and the devastating effects it could have on human kind. This week, it’s Todd Cheney’s The Bracelet.  The Bracelet is about the consequences just one man faces after a magic bracelet comes into his possession.

Cheney’s book reminded me of a short story I wrote in grade school which was about me and all of my friends meeting a wizard in a castle in the sky and each getting endless wishes and in the end getting everything we wanted.  For someone of grade school age, such a possibility could be amazing.  We wished for toys, ice cream, puppies, and life size matchbox cars in my story.  I laugh at myself now as I recall that silly story.  As an adult today if I was given endless wishes, my list of wants would be much different.

I loved The Bracelet because the concept behind it is very very simple, and even child-like to an extent, but the author stretches it and makes the reader and his lead character contemplate all consequences of having such power.  It sounds so good that it’s almost like a chain email that would be forwarded around the office or a question posed on Facebook: “If you were given a magic bracelet that could grant you one wish a day, what would you wish for?”

That’s exactly what happens to Mike Alex, a small town “everyday” mechanic who is a victim of routine until one day when a mysterious package is delivered to his front door.  It’s a bracelet that can grant him one wish a day. It’s frightening at first, but curiosity eventually gets the best of him.  But unlike many who might already have a laundry list of things they’d wish for, Mike does try to carefully consider what to wish for, but like anyone, is ultimately unable to predict what the repercussions of his daily wishes may be. Some are good, and yes, some are bad.

While the old words of wisdom, “Be careful what you wish for,” immediately came to mind, for me this book also served as a metaphor for the old adage that says, “You can’t take it back.”  We should make decisions wisely and choose our actions carefully, but in the end, we have to accept the fact that we can’t change them -  good or bad.  We can forgive.  We can forget.  But the scar is there.  We can’t take it back.

There are religious tones to the book.  Mike even says, “He could be God if he wished it,” and if God allowed such a thing as the bracelet to exist than it must be part of his ultimate design.  So, should Mike use it for selfish purposes, or to help others?  Either way, there are always consequences, even when Mike uses it just once to do something bad out of anger.  There’s a passage near the end of the book that stood out that pretty much summed up the entire theme for me:

The thought that he could cure cancer, or AIDS, or end poverty with a simple command sometimes made him feel so lucky he could cry.  But whenever these ideas were rolling around in his head, Lucy’s words were rattling around in there too. Now that her warning made sense, he could only heed it.  And he made himself another promise, one that was less formal and perhaps less meaningful, but one that he had to make anyway.  He didn’t say it out loud this time, but kept it inside, because it seemed like too much to risk calling it to the world’s attention.

I received a hard copy of this book to review.  At 342 pages, the book is a bit thick for a paperback but formatted nicely, and put together quite well for the most part thanks to CreateSpace.  The simple cover is a bit too simple, especially since the majority of it is black.  It would probably be lost on a bookstore shelf since it lacks impact. There’s also quite a bit of wasted space on the back where I would like to see an author bio or blurbs from readers.  On the spine, the title is too small in comparison to the author’s name.

The front matter of the body is almost non-existent.  There is only a title page with a small mention of a copyright at the bottom.  Turn the page and Chapter 1 starts on the back. The body of the text is formatted properly though although the margins are a bit wide.  If decreased in size, the page count and the list price might both come down a bit. I only point out the poor physicality of the book because the story itself was quite brilliant and deserves better.

And remember what I said about Facebook?  I decided to post that question  just to see how people would respond.  While one person said they’d wish for their pet to live longer, most responses were humorous.  It is Facebook after all.  One person said they’d wish the bracelet didn’t get taken away that day.  Another wished that all junk food was fat free. A few wished for good health for their family and friends.  World Peace, and yes Tess, that does sound Miss America. Another would wish to erase some of their past.  In the end, despite the humor and jest, most people’s wishes were not selfish. So, what would you wish for?

For those who have read William P. Young’s The Shack, you will definitely enjoy The Bracelet.  It is about right and wrong, free will, the power of choice, and how ultimately in the end, though we make struggle with decision, the power we hold inside ourselves and over our own lives is the greatest of all, and sometimes not always ours to control.

Thank you, Todd W. Cheney, for giving us The Bracelet.