Jinx

Jinx is the best book I have read in ages. It is written in verse, which I absolutely love. It is the story of Jen, who seems somehow cursed, as all of her boyfriends seem to die. She changes her name from Jen to Jinx in her bitterness.

Jen lives with her mother and her sister, Grace, who is special needs. Her father, whom she class The Rat, abandoned them, and remarried Sheila. Jen begins dating Charlie, who she falls very deeply for. He is a troubled young man who commits suicide. Jen struggles to deal with his loss, and watches his family crumble from the grief. She spends the evenings in the park getting drunk with boys. One boy helps her when she blacks out. His name is Ben, and he suffers from short man complex. He gets into a show more fight with another boy, Hal, who calls him short, hits his head on the ground and dies. Jen hears the whispers around her that she is a jinx, and decides the name is apt. She begins torturing Hal and his family with crank phone calls.

Jinx learns a bit more about life as she begins to try to see things through a different perspective. She opens her mind and heart to those she kept at a distance for so long, her mother, father, Sheila, and even Hal. She comes clean to Hal, and they begin a tentative relationship. She comes good and is able to start anew, as Jen.

This book has some fantastic characters, and many of the chapters/ poems are told from their differing points of view, adding to the richness of omniscience for the reader. Jen is the primary character, but we are able to see into all of the other character’s minds as well. We see the pain and loneliness of her single mother, the pain and suffering of her boyfriends, Charlie and Ben, the grief and loss suffered by their families at their demise. We see into the minds of her friends as well, and understand the pain and frustration of feeling abandoned by family, the horror of clinical depression, and the isolation of teenage sexuality, specifically homosexuality, and the difficulties of being different. This is a book that is both dark and funny, poignant and brutally honest.

I think books in verse may be my favorite genre, and something I am going to attempt in my own writing. It takes an incredible writer to convey such meaning in so few words, and this book has so much under the surface. Each poem is a window into the mind and heart of the speaker, and it is extremely powerful. Six Stars. Ages 13-20. show less

Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com

Jinx (formerly Jen) has really bad luck with relationships - to say the least!

Her first boyfriend dies and she gets upset but eventually gets over it. Then her second boyfriend dies and now she is Jinx, not Jen. Her teachers, friends, and her parents all call her Jinx. She says that if you go out with her you will die.

Before she started dating, she was boring old Jen who never stayed out late and always turned her homework in on time. Now she is all alone, boyfriend-less and depressed.

Towards the end of the book we find her trying to find her way back to being Jen, and no longer Jinx.

Written in poetry style, JINX is kind of depressing, even the end of the book. You feel sorry for Jen/Jinx, show more but at the same time I felt that I couldn't get to know her enough as a character to really care about her. This is a super-fast read, at times interesting, but I wish there had been more to the story. show less

Told in creative poetry form, this story unveils the unhappy life of a depressed teenager trying to pull herself out of a dark phase in her life.

A blank verse novel about love & friendship. Jen (Jinx) has no luck with boyfriends – her first Charlie, kills himself. Her second, Ben dies when he hits his head on the pavement in a fight outside a pub. From that moment, Jen wants to be known as Jinx (the girl who’s bad luck kills guys). Her sister Grace has Down Syndrome & can see things more clearly. Her mother is in love with a man who doesn’t know she exists. Then Jinx decides to stalk Hal the boy who (accidentally) killed Ben.p.16 Santa’s knee

Det är en riktigt, riktigt bra bok som jag rekommenderar även till vuxna läsare. Fina personskildringar av både vuxna och barn. Här finns svärta, sorg och allvar; en bok om både livet och döden.