The book that I read was ‘Jinx’ by the world famous author, Meg Cabot.  The story has some really nice characters which made it very appealing to me.  The story is mostly fantasy and touches on the witch thing.  It is also ‘chick Lit’ and a romance so I bet that boys our age would not want to read this book.  They might think that it is humdrum.

Misfortune has followed Jean Honeychurch all her life - which is how she earned the nickname ‘Jinx’.  And now her parents have shipped her off to New York city to stay with relatives, including her sophisticated cousin Tory, until the trouble she’s caused back home dies down.

The story is set in New York in the present day.  The book starts by telling us how the main character, Jean Honeychurch, is jinxed.  Her family think that she is prone to mishaps.  For example, there was no one to welcome her when she arrived in New York to her aunt’s.  When she finally arrives, she finds her teen cousin Tory getting drugs and smoking weed in the gazebo in the backyard.  One boy in the group who doesn’t seem to fit in either is Zack, a really cute senior neighbour.  Jean is determined not to cast any spells in her new life but when she flashes on a scene where Zach gets run over by a bike messenger, she can’t help but jump and save him.  Tory was the only one who knows the reason for her fast acting.

The main message of the story is that it’s all right to be different no matter how unlucky you are.  The story was really good and it was a pleasure to read.  There are some parts where the author has created some suspense.  I like the character of Jean very much as the character was very confident and this reminded me of myself.  In my opinion, the dialogue was very realistic.  In fact, some parts actually made me laugh out loud!

The ending of the book was excellent and made me crave a sequel.  In general, the English in the book was easy to understand but I did have to search the meaning of a few long words in the dictionary.  The author’s use of adjectives was really descriptive and believable. 

I would recommend this book to those who are more into witch craft because some spells are mentioned in the book.  I would also recommend this book to teenage girls aged between 12 and 14 as they would understand Jean’s situation.  People who won’t enjoy the book are those people who don’t like a little bit of fantasy and mostly boys.

By Rojen Lojo