Wish fulfilment (spoiler free)

A few days ago I read All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye by Christopher Brookmyre and absolutely loved it. It's about a young grandmother who is leading a boring restricted life, and how she responds to the challenge when her family is under threat. She shows qualities she didn't know she had and finds adventure and excitement. It's gory in places but so much fun.

So then I decided to read Pandaemonium by the same author. It was a very gory read - I see now that it's advertised as a horror flick and in places it reminded me of Hot Fuzz. I skipped a whole chunk of the second half as I couldn't stand the gorefest. There were parts I did enjoy, like the scene when one of the girls does a tarot card cold reading on another girl, but it wasn't the reading experience I was after.

I wonder how much the difference was that I really related to the main character in the first book. Do you like wish fulfilment in your reading?