Jinx (original 2007; edition 2009)

Fantasy,Contemporary Fantasy,YA

I liked the mix of magic with Cabot's trademark Romance Lite. It's just fun to read. ( )

July 31, 2007

This was a really cute book! It's about a girl named Jean... her family calls her "Jinx". Her great-grandmother was a witch, who was burned at the stake. Apparently she had prophesied that one of her female descendants would be a great witch. So this book is about Jean's adventures with wondering whether or not she's a witch. And of course, her adventures also center around a very very hott boy named Zach. :)

It's Meg Cabot, so of course it's good. [i]Pants On Fire[i/] was better, but this one was waaaaay cute. :) ( )

I don't know when I read this book the first time, but WOW, I didn't remember ANYTHING about it! I didn't even know who the love interest was (until he appeared on the page, then it was pretty obvious)...

So, Jean Honeychurch, called "Jinx" due to her incredible BAD LUCK, is a preacher's daughter from rural Iowa who gets into some trouble back home (in a trouble-happened-to-her, not she made the trouble, although technically.....) and moves to NYC to live with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. Cousin Tory (who is her age) is NOT like the girl Jinx remembers playing with a few years before... She's model-thin, has dyed her hair black, wears all black, does recreational prescription drugs, drinks alcohol, and is dabbling in witchcraft. Lovely. I dunno what else to say. Jinx moves to NYC, falls in love with Tory's crush, Zach, and makes an enemy of Tory.

This book was pretty good. 3.5 stars, I'd say. Jean was SO CLUELESS the whole time. I mean, I suppose we can blame that on the fact that she's a rural Iowan preacher's daughter... but I was a suburban Texan Bishop's Daughter, and there's NO WAY I was that clueless! I mean, about drugs and alcohol, sure. But about boys? No! Not even! It just kinda drives me crazy that she has no idea that Zach likes her. DUH. She's the worst heroine of Meg's, in that respect. Yep. The worst. I mean, it could NOT have been more obvious!

Anyway, I don't mind magic, but I'm not the hugest fan of witchcraft... It really creeps me out. So this book was already not going to be my favorite. But it was cute. Tory was a freaking psycho, though. LOVED Petra! ( )

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Tory’s secret wasn’t what I was expecting it to be, and neither was the book really, but not in a bad way. This story was a quick, enjoyable read; it would make a good book to sit and read in a day.

Jean (or Jinx) is a nice character, but she was a bit too naive when it came to some things. Even if she was raised in a completely different state, she would have to be blind not to see some of the things going on. Zach was a really good character, very laid back, unlike uptight Jean, the preacher’s daughter. Tory was surprising. She would go to any length to get what she wanted and she was incredibly selfish and self-centered. Petra was one of my favorite characters. She was so nice and maternal; there for whatever you need.

The narrator of the audiobook did pretty well. My favorite voice she did was Petra’s becuase of her accent and she made Tory sound like a malicious, immature child. The only voice she did that I didn’t care for much was Tory’s dad. I can’t really explain it, but it just sounded so…weird.

This is the first Meg Cabot book I have read and I’m not yet sure how I feel about her writing based on this book alone. It was fast and clear, but also repetative. I still want to read her Abandon and Princess Diaries series, then I can decide what I think of her writing after reading more. Though I did enjoy the book, I wasn’t overly impressed with it. I look forward to reading more of her books.

Quick, fun, good reader, a bit repetative. ( )