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Review: Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

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Three Wishes is not my favorite book by Liane Moriarty. Nevertheless, it is a good book that I was deeply committed and engaged it. Three Wishes follows the lives of 33 year old triplets- Lyn, Cat and Gemma Kettle. Cat has recently discovered a secret about her marriage. Lyn is dealing with a step-daughter, baby, and internal struggles. And Gemma’s relationship never seems to last after the six month mark. The book explores the lives of the three sisters through laughter, heartbreak, and happiness. The center themes in this book are marriage, family and children.

Like all of Liane Moriarty’s book, Three Wishes had a mellow and easy flow. It felt conversational and quirky.  Although simple, the writing packed a punch with dark undertones. It was never predictable or repetitive.

The story was told through multiple perspectives. And because all of the sisters were unique it was never hard to guess which POV I was in. It was interesting to see how the sisters interacted with each other. They didn’t always play fair or even agree with one another, but somehow in the end they always supported each other. It felt like a true sisterhood that featured the good and the bad.

I think one of my favorite things about Three Wishes is that it featured passages from onlookers- those who had encountered the sisters over the years. So in addition to getting an insider look at the family, you get to see the family from another angle which was interesting. And it made me think about how many people who I have encountered on the street that may not have impacted me but I had impacted them in a way that made our small encounter memorial.

Like mentioned earlier, Three Wishes is not my favorite book by Laine Moriarty. The ending was not as strong as I had hoped. I would have much rather had a definite ending for Cat like her sisters had gotten.

Final Analysis

Three Wishes is a funny and lovable tale about three sisters who are dealing with life in the best way they can. It features strong relatable characters and quirky narrative.

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Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty: Book Review

Liane Moriarty is one of my favorite authors of all time. Her books such as What Alice Forgot, Nine Perfect Strangers and Her Husband’s Secret are among my all time favorites. Of course I’ve also read her more popular books Big Little Lies and Truly Madly Guilty , but these did not make my favorites list. Neither did Three Wishes , unfortunately.

“Lyn, Cat, and Gemma Kettle, beautiful thirty-three-year-old triplets, seem to attract attention everywhere they go. Whenever they’re together, laughter, drama, and mayhem seem to follow. But apart, each is very much her own woman, dealing with her own share of ups and downs.” Goodreads

It only took me a week to read this book so I’m not saying that I hated it. I just didn’t connect with it the way I do with this authors other books. Another issue may be that I’m an only child so it’s hard to imagine being a triplet? I’m not quite sure what caused the disconnect but it was there.

Also, I’m not the only one who felt this way. The reviews on Goodreads are not great. Many people seem to agree with me that the book wasn’t particularly exciting or going anywhere. It started with a dramatic moment and most of the book was the lead-up to how it happened.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Maybe the issue is that I’m used to psychological thrillers with gut-wrenching and unexpected twists. Three Wishes is a heartwarming story that mostly revolves around complex family relations. The twists and climaxes here are not so dramatic. The biggest two are also quite predictable but they were still exciting moments.

Do I regret putting in the time to read this book? Definitely not. But it wasn’t my jam. Before you write it off completely, Pretty Little Lies wasn’t my thing either. I had trouble following the story line and I read two other books in between struggling to finish it. Once I did, I was glad I finished because, unlike Three Wishes , Pretty Little Lies did have some huge twists. It also had an aspect of darkness that I enjoy in books.

So don’t write this book off just because I didn’t love it. If you love the author, you will enjoy it. And if you’re a triplet or have a big complicated family, you’ll relate to it. At the moment, Three Wishes remains my least favorite book by Liane Moriarty. I’m only halfway through Last Anniversary though, and I still have The Hypnotist’s Love Story  to read!

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Three Wishes

40 pages • 1 hour read

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Prologue-Chapter 4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-15

Chapters 16-21

Chapters 22-Epilogue

Character Analysis

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Summary and Study Guide

Three Wishes (2003) is the debut novel by Australian author Liane Moriarty. Categorized as British and Irish humor and satire , the novel immediately became a New York Times Bestseller. The tone of Three Wishes is generally light and funny, despite its serious issues of adultery, divorce, abusive romantic partners, and the complications of pregnancy. The story is told from the limited third-person perspective of the sisters and the first-person perspective of several anonymous observers. The location is contemporary Sydney, Australia. Because the book was originally published in 2003, some of the temporal references may seem slightly dated. As the novel follows the adventures of the colorful Kettle sisters, it examines the themes of multiple-birth identity, learning when to hold on and when to let go, and the necessity for attitude adjustments in the face of life’s changing circumstances.

All page citations are taken from the Kindle edition of this book.

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Plot Summary

The novel begins with the Kettle triplets—Catriona “Cat” Kettle, Lyn Kettle , and Gemma Kettle—celebrating their collective 34th birthday at an elegant seafood restaurant in Sydney. The events of the evening are told from the perspective of other witnesses, but everyone agrees that Cat accuses the other two of ruining her life and throws a fondue fork that lodges in Gemma’s pregnant abdomen. Chaos ensues as all three are carted off to the hospital.

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What brought the Kettle girls to this crisis is the subject of the rest of the book as the narrative traces their lives, starting with their unintended birth to 19-year-old parents. Cat and Lyn are identical, while Gemma is a fraternal twin. The three are extremely close but emotionally dramatic and combative toward one another. Cat is intense and competitive; Lyn is the family overachiever; and Gemma drifts through life with no sense of direction. The trouble starts when Cat’s husband announces that he’s having an affair with a woman named Angela. Cat is enraged and becomes angrier when she learns that Angela is the sister of Gemma’s latest boyfriend, Charlie. Because Cat hasn’t been able to get pregnant, she is also jealous that Lyn has a daughter.

The plot thickens after Cat conceives a baby but has a miscarriage. Gemma also becomes pregnant but is unprepared to care for a child, so she promises it to Cat. During their birthday celebration, Gemma changes her mind, and Cat throws a fondue fork at her. This episode serves as a wake-up call for the siblings as each one makes an effort to eliminate destructive behavior patterns. Lyn learns how to become less of a perfectionist; Gemma learns how to hold onto a good relationship and her baby; and Cat learns to let go of what she can’t control and start a new life for herself. Fortunately, all three sisters mend their ways before wreaking havoc in another Sydney restaurant on their next birthday.

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Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

• Publication Date: May 24, 2005
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• ISBN-10: 0060586133
• ISBN-13: 9780060586133
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A Summary and Analysis of ‘The Three Wishes’: A Curious Fairy Tale

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The pattern of three is deeply imbedded in the structure of the fairy tale. Numerous fairy stories, from Goldilocks and the three bears to Rumpelstiltskin to the story of Snow White (to name but three) rely in part on the tripartite narrative structure (three bears, three bowls of porridge, three visits to the house, three nights, and so on). But perhaps the most concentrated example of this patterning is the fairy tale titled ‘The Three Wishes’, where the entire story hinges on the granting of three wishes to a character.

In summary, the story of the three wishes runs as follows. A man and his wife are poor and wish they were happier and better off, especially compared with their neighbours. At that moment, a fairy appears to them, and says she will grant them their next three wishes, but no more. After the fairy disappears, the husband and wife mull over their wishes.

The wife says it makes sense to wish to be handsome, rich, and ‘of good quality’. But the husband replies: you can be good-looking and rich but still be sick, full of worry, and end up dying young. So it’s better to ask for good health, happiness, and a long life. The wife retorts: but what use is a long life lived in poverty? They decide to sleep on it, and so go about their tasks at home.

As the wife is tending to the fire to keep them warm, she sees how good the fire is, and says to herself, ‘I wish we had a giant bit of black pudding over the fire, as that would cook a treat’. In an instant, a yard of black pudding comes tumbling down the chimney and onto the fire.

The husband, seeing his wife had wasted one of their three wishes, says, ‘You fool, I wish that black pudding was stuck to your stupid nose.’ And so it was: the black pudding attaches itself to the wife’s nose, and is stuck fast. The husband curses himself for being stupider than his wife. He says they should wish for something sensible for their final wish, like riches, but the wife says that all the riches in the world would be no good to her if she had to have a black pudding stuck to her nose for the rest of her life.

So the husband reluctantly allows his wife to wish for the black pudding to be removed from her nose – and so it is. They have used up their three wishes and all they have to show for it is a black pudding. The husband decides that from now on they should wish for nothing, and be happy with their lot.

The above summary is of the version of the three wishes tale which Iona and Peter Opie collected in their definitive anthology of fairy stories, The Classic Fairy Tales , but as the Opies note in their fascinating introduction to this story, the tale of the three wishes has a long and complex history.

Like many other fairy tales, versions of ‘The Three Wishes’ are found, in slightly different form, in medieval Persian texts, eighteenth-century French volumes of fairy tales, and even, perhaps, in a collection of fables attributed to the ninth-century Saxon king, Alfred the Great.

The pattern of the three wishes extends far beyond traditional fairy tales, however, and can be seen in the tale of Aladdin and the magic lamp and in the wonderful Edwardian story by W. W. Jacobs, ‘ The Monkey’s Paw ’, to say nothing of that other Edwardian classic, this one for children, namely E. Nesbit’s trilogy of novels featuring the Psammead .

One of the most curious of these sister-tales to ‘The Three Wishes’ is the one found in a ninth-century Persian book, commonly known as The Book of the Seven Sages . In that version of the story, a husband and wife are visited by a friendly spirit and granted three wishes. In consultation with his wife, the husband requests that he be generously endowed with the means of satisfying his wife.

The wish is granted, but the husband finds that he is now so well-endowed that he is weighed down by his new ‘gift’.

So for his second wish he asks that all that embarrasses him be removed. When the wish is granted, he finds that he has been left, in the Victorian Andrew Lang’s delicate phrase, with ‘a frightful minus quantity’. The third wish is for his original, more modest ‘endowment’ to be restored. Black puddings are swapped for something else meaty and sausage-shaped in this version, it would seem.

The moral of the story is curious. It cannot be analysed as a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’, since, in the tale of the three wishes, the protagonists don’t end up worse off than they started. But nor do they end up better off either. Instead, they end up exactly back where they started, because they have foolishly and recklessly not made the most of the wishes on offer.

With this in mind, it may be that the tale was conceived as a reminder of the folly inherent in human nature: we wish for things idly all the time, and even if those wishes could instantaneously be made reality, we’d still frivolously misuse them for short-term gain, myopically unable to see how more prudent wishing might serve us better in the long run.

This is made more poignant in the version of the story summarised above, since the husband and wife sit down and carefully discuss which wishes it would be wisest to make, but then carelessly go and wish for trivial things in the course of going about their lives. To quote a cliché, ‘give a man a fish and he can feed himself for a day; teach him how to fish and he can feed himself and his family for a lifetime.’ The wishers in ‘The Three Wishes’ very much fall into the ‘give us a fish’ category, rather than the latter.

Or, to quote another proverb: ‘If wishes were horses, the Devil would ride.’ In ‘The Three Wishes’, wishes are horses, in that they are made reality. But the protagonists, not devils but merely flawed and silly human beings, end up riding round in circles.

Perhaps the ultimate moral of ‘The Three Wishes’, in the last analysis, is found in the husband’s words at the end of the fairy tale: one should wish for nothing and either be happy with one’s lot or strive to improve it oneself. Relying on wishes from supernatural benefactors is a dangerous and unreliable game, after all.

2 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of ‘The Three Wishes’: A Curious Fairy Tale”

Glad you included “The Monkey’s Paw” in your list of similar tales. It is one of my favourite short stories and the consequences of the first two wishes are certainly more frightening than having a black pudding stuck on your nose!

Funny you should remind us of this now. I have just written a ‘three wishes’ tale to read out at a charity gig we are putting on called “Tunes and Tales.” In it a grandmother and her granddaughter find a silver teapot on the beach. Without realising it is magic the grandmother asks that the dull day become sunny and the weather improves. She wishes out loud that her husband was not so ill. The girl takes the teapot home but it rattles. When they arrive home the grandfather is feeling better. Grandma suspects the teapot is magic but doesn’t quite believe it. She would have liked to wish for riches. Upstairs the girl looks down the spout to see what is rattling in the teapot. It is large, red and shiny. She wishes she could open the lid…..

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Three Wishes: A Novel Mass Market Paperback – Feb. 28 2017

A  New York Times  bestseller,  Three Wishes  is the funny, heartwarming and completely charming first novel from Liane Moriarty, also the author of #1  New York Times  bestsellers  The Husband’s Secret  and  Big Little Lies .

Lyn, Cat, and Gemma Kettle, beautiful thirty-three-year-old triplets, seem to attract attention everywhere they go. Together, laughter, drama, and mayhem seem to follow them. But apart, each is dealing with her own share of ups and downs. Lyn has organized her life into one big checklist, Cat has just learned a startling secret about her marriage, and Gemma, who bolts every time a relationship hits the six-month mark, holds out hope for lasting love. In this wise, witty, and hilarious novel, we follow the Kettle sisters through their tumultuous thirty-third year as they deal with sibling rivalry and secrets, revelations and relationships, unfaithful husbands and unthinkable decisions, and the fabulous, frustrating life of forever being part of a trio.

• Print length 464 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Harper
• Publication date Feb. 28 2017
• Dimensions 10.64 x 2.95 x 17.15 cm
• ISBN-10 0062669257
• ISBN-13 978-0062669254
• See all details

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Product description

“Three funny heroines are three times the fun.” — Dallas Morning News

“An entertaining exploration of an offbeat, yet surprisingly ordinary, family. You’ll long to make friends with these delightful young women.” — Woman's Day

“Moriarty’s first novel, written with wisdom, humor, and sincerity, is an honest look at sisters who have a bond stronger than anything life throws their way.” — Booklist

“A joyful, bighearted valentine to sisters. Full of charm and cleverness, Three Wishes is a rich, enticing birthday cake of a book.” — Patricia Gaffney, bestselling author of The Saving Graces

“I adored  Three Wishes  by Liane Moriarty... it’s fresh, very, very funny, accessible and entertaining. But it’s also intelligent and unsentimental about family dynamics."    — Marian Keyes, bestselling author of Under the Duvet

“A funny, wry, touching tale of triplets. . . . Each of the beautifully drawn characters is so vividly alive, their triumph becomes your own.” — Australian Women's Weekly

"A compelling story. Once you’ve started this, you won’t want to put it down.” — Cleo

" Three Wishes is a funny, light novel drawing on themes that anyone who has struggled with their identity as part of, and separate from, their family will thoroughly enjoy.” — Good Reading (Australia)

“A quick read and a great debut.” — San Antonio Express-News

“Moriarty has written a cheeky, chunky first novel with wit, humor and a lively story that is just the thing to stick in a beach bag.” — Melbourne Herald Sun

“I adored Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty... it’s fresh, very, very funny, accessible and entertaining. But it’s also intelligent and unsentimental about family dynamics. Moriarty doesn’t pull any punches, and I appreciated how she didn’t produce any last-minute sugar-coating out of the hat. I really did believe in the strength of the characters to pull through; in fact it made me believe in the resilience of the human race!” — Marian Keyes, author of Sushi For Beginners and Under the Duvet

From the Back Cover

Lyn, Cat, and Gemma Kettle, beautiful thirty-three-year-old triplets, seem to attract attention everywhere they go. Together, laughter, drama, and mayhem seem to follow them. But apart, each is dealing with her own share of ups and downs.

Lyn has organized her life into one big checklist, Cat has just learned a startling secret about her marriage, and Gemma, who bolts every time a relationship hits the six-month mark, holds out hope for lasting love.

In this wise, witty, and hilarious novel, we follow the Kettle sisters through their tumultuous thirty-third year as they deal with sibling rivalry and secrets, revelations and relationships, unfaithful husbands and unthinkable decisions, and the fabulous, frustrating life of forever being part of a trio.

About the Author

Liane Moriarty is the number-one  New York Times  bestselling author of  Big Little Lies, The Husband's Secret ,  and  What Alice Forgot , as well as  The Hypnotist's Love Story ,  Three Wishes ,  The Last Anniversary , and the Nicola Berry series for children. Liane lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and two children. www.lianemoriarty.com.au

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper; Reprint edition (Feb. 28 2017)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062669257
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062669254
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 227 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.64 x 2.95 x 17.15 cm

About the author

Liane moriarty.

Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of eight internationally best-selling novels: Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist’s Love Story, Nine Perfect Strangers and the number one New York Times bestsellers: The Husband's Secret, Big Little Lies and Truly Madly Guilty. Her books have been translated into over forty languages and sold more than 20 million copies.

Big Little Lies and Truly Madly Guilty both debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list - the first time this was ever achieved by an Australian author. Big Little Lies was adapted into a multiple award-winning HBO series with a star-studded cast including Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. Hulu is adapting Nine Perfect Strangers into a limited series starring Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy for release in 2021.

Her new novel, Apples Never Fall, will be released in September 2021.

Liane lives in Sydney, Australia, together with her husband, son and daughter. You can find out more at www.lianemoriarty.com and www.facebook.com/LianeMoriartyAuthor

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• Book to Screen

Best Wishes Film Series in the Works

BY Amy Reiter • March 22, 2024

Lion Forge Entertainment has acquired the rights to Sarah Mlynowski’s bestselling middle-grade book series Best Wishes and enlisted The Slumber Party writer Eydie Faye to adapt the first installment in a planned multipicture, live-action film series, Deadline  reports .

The series’ first book, which Faye has been tasked with adapting, follows Becca Singer, a middle-school girl in New York City who yearns for popularity and then grapples with the consequences, ultimately learning the meaning of true friendship. A Kirkus reviewer called the book “a coming-of-age tale told with humor, compassion, and more than a touch of magic.”

The Sister Switch , co-written with Debbie Rigaud, and  Time After Time , co-written with Christina Soontornvat, are the second and third volumes in the series. The fourth book, Like a Boss , co-written by Hena Khan, is due out in November.

“We immediately knew we wanted to make these movies because of Sarah’s unique and incredible ability to speak authentically to the tween audience and also because of the diversity of the characters and stories in each book,” said Lion Forge CEO David Steward II and Chief Creative Officer Stephanie Sperber. “We love the idea of a series of movies that are aspirational, fun, and linked together by a mythology to create a world and a franchise that deal with today’s challenges and themes that are important to families.”

Mlynowski, who has written or co-written more than 50 books for kids, teens, and adults, said she is “thrilled” to be working with Lion Forge and Faye and “beyond excited for the readers of Best Wishes to see these four strong heroines come to life.”

Amy Reiter is a writer in Brooklyn .

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Three Wishes: A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak, and Astonishing Luck on Our Way to Love and Motherhood Hardcover – April 6, 2010

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• Print length 288 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date April 6, 2010
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
• ISBN-10 0316079065
• ISBN-13 978-0316079068
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (April 6, 2010)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316079065
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316079068
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
• #9,672 in Marriage
• #21,850 in Women's Biographies
• #60,162 in Memoirs (Books)

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About the authors

Carey goldberg.

Carey Goldberg has been a Moscow correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Boston bureau chief for the New York Times, and most recently a health and science reporter at The Boston Globe. She now writes and edits happily at home.

I've wanted to publish a book since I was eight years old. Before achieving that goal, I was a journalist (Boston Globe, NY Times, various magazines), an educator - teaching stress resiliency in urban schools from Newark, NJ to Boston, to East and South Central LA. I taught creative writing and literature in the Massachusetts prison system, as well as at Boston University and Emerson College. I was once a pretty good rock and ice climber, and now I don't do much of either, but one day, I will again. I have a great road bike and a mountain bike, and I'm very proud that I learned to ride them with cleats (it might have been a prouder accomplishment than getting my driver's license all those years ago). I think life is fun, if you live it. But you have to grab it sometimes and hold on.

Pamela Ferdinand

An award-winning journalist for major U.S. newspapers-including The Boston Globe, Miami Herald, and Washington Post-for more than a decade, Pamela covered breaking news from Hurricane Andrew and the crash of TWA Flight 800 to the Roman Catholic church crisis and New England's connections to the September 11 terrorism attacks. She served as The Washington Post's New England correspondent in Boston for six years and was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003-2004.

She has written on a wide range of topics for magazines and Web sites such as The Economist, Boston, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and National Geographic News, among others, and she has been an associate producer for WBUR-FM in Boston and an adjunct journalism professor at Boston University. She also has enjoyed writer residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Dorset Colony House in Vermont.

A lifelong romantic, she assumed she would meet her soulmate along the way, fall in love, and have children. Nearing 40, she realized that assumption might be wrong and prepared for single motherhood with anonymous donor sperm given to her by "Three Wishes" co-author Beth Jones. (Beth received it from co-author Carey Goldberg.) No sooner had she accepted the vials, then Pam encountered luck and love in unexpected ways. She lives in Chicago with her family, and remains a writer, editor, and journalist. Only a much happier one than ever before.

For more information, please visit "www.pamelaferdinand.com"

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