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Jinx Sage Blackwood 9780062129901 Books

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Jinx Sage Blackwood 9780062129901 Books

I really liked this story until "the bottle spell." Simon clearly didn't understand Jinx's emotion-sensing gift--or the effect the spell would have on Jinx because of the gift--fully enough to understand the damage he did to their relationship as a result of the spell. As a result, I don't think he fully understood frustrated Jinx's reaction to losing the ability to "see" emotions. This wasn't a bad book, but I'm not sure if I'll read the second book in the future. Perhaps, due to life's little interruptions, I read this a little too slowly, but I had trouble staying connected to the story after the initial part involving the bottle spell. I liked Jinx well enough, for the most part and thought his role as "The Listener" was interesting. The story ended a bit abruptly, but this is the first book in a series.


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Jinx Sage Blackwood 9780062129901 Books Reviews

I first read this book not long after it first came out, and liked it so much that I preordered the paperback. When it came, I was very disappointed. The paper is extremely cheap, and you can easily see through it to the print on the other size. It's flimsy enough that I worried about damaging it (and I'm not at all hard on my books). When it came, although it was well packaged, the first few pages were crinkled. Such crinkles would not be enough to damage other books, but the paper on this one was so cheap that it had torn slightly in the crinkled areas!

As you can imagine, my five-star rating is for Blackwood, not for the publisher.

Jinx is a middle grade fantasy about Jinx, a boy who grows up in a forest where there are monsters everywhere that want to eat him and everybody else. There are trolls and elves and werewolves and werechipmunks and witches and evil wizards. Jinx is taken out into the woods to be abandoned by his step (step step) father, and rescued by a (possibly evil) wizard who then apprentices him.

The strongest points of this book are definitely the interactions between Jinx and the wizard (Simon). The book does follow a defeat-the-villain story also, but although well-executed, it was nothing particularly special. The book as a whole reminded me a bit of Diana Wynne Jones's "Howl's Moving Castle" (in Simon's character), a bit of Sarah Prineas's "The Magic Thief" (in Jinx's character), and a bit of D.J. Natelson's "Swallowgate" (in all the monsters), but it was definitely it's own unique and thoroughly enjoyable story.

Despite the monsters, by the way, the book is lighthearted through and through and, although not laugh-out-loud funny, decidedly charming. I never found it scary, although there is some action. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a well-written and thoroughly enjoyable fantasy.
JINX and JINX’S MAGIC are, like Diana Wynne Jones, the kind of MG that anybody can enjoy.

For the same reasons, too the characterization, worldbuilding and actual writing are all top-notch, and as icing on the cake, there’s a good bit of biting commentary on what I hesitate to call the human condition because doesn’t that sound stuffy, but still.

“What it [the Urwald, the enchanted forest] isn’t, good Jinx, is a nation. And that means it’s waiting to be taken over by anyone clever enough to try.”

That really caught me, because it’s quite clear from real history that one of the first and most important roles of a nation as it gets established is to defend its own people against conquest or slave raids by outsiders. I didn’t expect to see a line like that in a MG fantasy.

And let me just add that Reven is one creepy guy and I was personally rooting for the nixies, but we’ll see how that plotline works out, I guess.

Jinx himself is a great character with unique strengths and definite weaknesses – he’s interesting as well as sympathetic. I really enjoyed not only the way he can see people’s feelings, but also the way that this ability interfered at first with him learning to judge people’s intentions the way the rest of us do – by reading subtle body language and stuff. That was really clever.

The writing is clever, too, on so many levels.

So this was the Bonemaster! The wizard of horrible tales and bottle-shaped fears. He looked almost kindly. The things boiling in clouds around his head said he wasn’t, though. The pink clouds had knives in them. Jinx had never seen anyone whose feelings came out in cutlery before.

And later –

“But the Bonemaster’s evil,” [said Elfwyn.]
“I know that,” said Jinx. “But he can tell me what Simon’s done to me. I mean, he’d know if anybody would, right? He’s the expert.”
“But the Bonemaster sucks people’s souls out with a straw.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“He sucks the marrow from people’s bones and stacks them up crisscross.”
“I know.”
“He pries people’s eyeballs out and strings them to make necklaces.”
“He what?”

The Bonemaster really is evil. He actually does suck out people’s souls and stack up their bones crisscross, as you might guess since we already know he has thoughts like cutlery.

But is Simon actually an evil wizard, too? I mean, Simon is the wizard who saves Jinx from being abandoned in the forest and eaten by trolls . . . but *is* Simon evil? I love Simon; he’s my favorite character. He may or may not be evil, but he’s certainly brusque and irascible and self-absorbed. Also kind at unexpected moments, and the bit after Jinx falls off the cliff, well.

And I love Simon for the way he nails down uncomfortable truths “Well, if you never in your life find yourself making excuses for things you know are wrong, wonderful.” And again, later, “What, you’d rather be admired than useful? Plenty of people are neither.”

There, you see what I mean about capturing truths about the human condition? Simon is cynical enough to deliver lines like that. Oh, yeah, I’m a big fan of Simon. Even though he may be a little bit evil. You know, I just realized, if Simon is evil, it’s something he knows about himself; if Reven is evil, it’s because he is totally oblivious to everything and everyone that doesn’t line up with his own personal ambition — Reven is totally the hero of his own tale because he’s never been wrong about anything in his life. I really dislike Reven, if you can’t tell.

You can see how interesting and complex the secondary characters are. Readers could debate for ages about the nature of evil after reading these books. Or the role of knowledge in a society — I haven’t even mentioned the world of Samara. I’m starting to think these books should be assigned in school; there are great jostling hordes of discussion topics embedded in the stories.

Did I mention everyone in this story seems to be suffering from a permanent curse of one kind or another? (I’m exaggerating … I think.) It’s obvious to the reader what Elfwyn’s curse is; hers is my favorite she has to answer any question she’s asked, and she has to answer it truthfully. This could be played broadly, but in fact it’s handled with unusual subtlety. I just love how Elfwyn takes control of her curse and uses it to her own advantage. You probably know how much I like a character who is coolly practical. So it’s no surprise that I love Elfwyn, who is all, “Well, I have to get him used to taking a hot posset at bedtime in case I decide to poison him.” Hah!

I don’t want to belabor this because it would take forever to go through them all, but there’re a lot of important secondary characters in these books and they’re pretty much all well-drawn and complex and a real pleasure to encounter.

There are also an increasing number of loose threads as we go through the second book – the werewolf Malthus (entertaining name for a werewolf). Those spooky elves and whatever they’re up to. Reven’s plans are just really alarming. The Preceptress; is she really going to simply accept that Jinx shut the Urwald away from Samara? And MOST OF ALL, that thing with Simon. To me, that part reads as a cliffhanger – a rather slow-motion cliffhanger, granted.

My personal suggestion is, read the first book now to decide whether you’re going to like the stories (I bet you will). Then pick up the second book and set it aside until the third comes out, or else you will be fretting over that third book.
I really liked this story until "the bottle spell." Simon clearly didn't understand Jinx's emotion-sensing gift--or the effect the spell would have on Jinx because of the gift--fully enough to understand the damage he did to their relationship as a result of the spell. As a result, I don't think he fully understood frustrated Jinx's reaction to losing the ability to "see" emotions. This wasn't a bad book, but I'm not sure if I'll read the second book in the future. Perhaps, due to life's little interruptions, I read this a little too slowly, but I had trouble staying connected to the story after the initial part involving the bottle spell. I liked Jinx well enough, for the most part and thought his role as "The Listener" was interesting. The story ended a bit abruptly, but this is the first book in a series.