Jinxed

I absolutely adored this book. If you ever loved the sarcastic and funny one-liners delivered by Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, then you will love Jinx. The futuristic world built by Amy McCulloch is full of robots, intrigue and school competitions.

In this world, the must-have technologic companion is a baku (pronounced ‘Back-you‘ and not ‘Bar-que‘ as I mistakenly kept calling it). Lacey, our protagonist comes across a damaged baku and decides to fix it in time to start her first day at her new school. Along the way we meet an interesting cast of characters and are given a preview of what life in the future holds for us if companies like Apple and Google are left to play unchecked.

Jinxed is an easy read and kept me entertained all the way to the end. I’m not sure if there will be a sequel, though, given the cliffhanger ending, I sure hope there is one. If you enjoy science fiction, robots, and suspense than you will enjoy Jinxed.

Jinxed is a fun, near-futuristic science-fiction novel that will appeal to young teen readers, especially those interested in STEM.

Lacey Chu’s one dream is to become a companioneer with the biggest tech company Moncha, the creators of the Baku - part smartphone part animal companion. But when she is rejected entry to the prestigious academy Profectus, a second chance unexpectedly arrives in the form of a broken Level 3 Baku. Lacey spends the summer fixing the robotic cat before joining her new classmates. She hopes no one will discover the way she was admitted or Jinx’s secret - he doesn’t act or communicate like a normal Baku. But the school-run Baku Battles throw Lacey and Jinx into the spotlight.

Like robot wars and high school, Jinx mixes advanced technology with friendship dramas and fights to the death (for the robots). Lacey is a keen companioneer - an engineer who specialises in tinkering and fixing the mechanics of the robotic pet companions. Lacey’s best friend is a gifted coder and both young ladies promote strong role models for young girls interested in the fields of science, technology and engineering, as does the founder and creator of the Baku technology, Monica Chan. Lacey greatly idolises Monica, her inventions, company, community and cities that have sprung up around the company and everything from the schools and employment programs she has created. I was a little suspicious of Lacey’s unwavering devotion to Monica and the technology. While this is slightly explored later in the novel, the focus on the Baku technology remains largely positive. It warrants further discussion with readers about such technology, the possibility of its creation in our own world and one’s response to it.

The Baku Battles bring plenty of action and drama to the pages of Jinx, heightening the stakes around Lacey and Jinx’s secret, exposing their strengths, and complicating Lacey’s life with both enemies and allies. With a dash of developing romance, friendship complications, plenty of intrigue still to be unraveled and a big cliffhanger ending, readers will be eager to get their hands on Jinx’s sequel.

Jinxed is a lighthearted and fun novel, perfect for young teen readers. With diverse characters and a focus on strong, talented females, it is an easy book to recommend.

The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.

This is the very first book I've been unable to choose between 3 or 4 stars and HAD to go with a half-rating to split the difference! 

I want to give it 4 stars because 'Jinxed' is the definition of ADDICTIVE. I stayed up past midnight finishing this in one hit because I was hooked on the story and couldn't put it down. I knew I'd regret it in the morning when I had to get up for work, but still I continued to the very last page! 

I was quite fond of the protagonist Lacey and adored her ambition and laser-sharp focus on robotics; it's fantastic to see a YA heroine who is so passionate about STEM and who is allowed to care about her future career more than her love life! This isn't to say that there is no room for romance, as there is a cute little romantic arc in the story, but in the larger picture, Lacey's interests are more aligned with bakus and the technology behind developing them, as she basically has just as much of a crush on Monica Chan, the genius who invented the bakus.

Her fervent desire to prove worthy of interning under her mentor drives Lacey throughout the story, and I love seeing her be nerdy and owning it! There's not even a hint of false modesty or hiding her light under a bushel, Lacey is an intellectual badass and she has no hesitation showing her skills off and being better than everyone!

Another positive is the easy diversity on display with the main cast of characters - Lacey and her hero, Monica, are Chinese, and Lacey's best friend Zora is described as having dark brown skin. What I also like is that a lot of YA books go with the contrast between BFFs with one being a shy bookworm and the other being a social butterfly prom queen type, but here it's more realistic with the two having bonded as little girls over being just as nerdy as the other. While Zora isn't a constant presence in storyline given that she isn't attending Profectus, what we see of their friendship is heartwarming.

Best of all is Jinx, the snarky feline companion who is at the root of the central mystery and cause of all the chaos and conflict in this book! For all his artificial nature, Jinx is the quintessential cat who does what he wants, when he wants, and won't take direction or behave as expected at any stage. He's such a trouble-maker and gets Lacey into a lot of strife, but Jinx is totally endearing and I fell in love with him just as much as Lacey did. 

So why did I have trouble choosing a rating? Because the world-building doesn't quite make sense to me. I completely agree that there would be a huge market for animal robotic companions, they sound ridiculously cute and handy. But I was jarred out of the story every time I came across a scene where a character read a text message displayed on their baku's back or projected as a hologram in the air. Even if we assume that these are only visible to the person they're meant for (which isn't specified, but I don't believe people would be happy having their personal messages publicly displayed!), it seems to be a very inconvenient method of reading text.

And the only scene I remember where Lacey sends a reply is by dictating to Jinx - they have a telepathic connection, so she can maintain her privacy, but this is highly unusual and only possible between the two of them. So how do regular people send replies? Do they have to speak out loud to their baku? There certainly aren't any keypads mentioned! I'm also dubious that basically every adult in the country now owns a baku and presumably nobody has pets anymore because why would you need a flesh-and-blood pet when you have its robotic equivalent?

The antagonist of the story is almost cartoonish - think Dracy Malfoy, but even more of a drama queen, if you can imagine! I was surprised at who Lacey's love interest ended up being given his introduction, but learned that appearances can be deceiving - if only this nuance had been applied to the villain! I don't need to be surprised at who the bad guy ends up being, it doesn't bother me if he's a visible thorn in Lacey's side the whole way through, but he's the most obvious element of this being skewed towards the younger spectrum of the teen reading audience with his preening cockiness and red-faced tantrums.

Finally, be warned that there is an unbelievably cruel cliffhanger ending. I think it's the most abrupt one I've ever come across - usually there's some momentum leading up to the cliffhanger, you can see it coming, but here things appear to be well on their way to being resolved with a major obstacle having been overcome, and then everything is upended in the space of two lines. 'Jinxed' isn't advertised as part of a series and there's no indication on Goodreads that it's book 1, so I was completely taken aback and internally screaming at the sudden turn of events. 

I'm leaning towards 4 stars on sites like Goodreads where you need to pick a whole number (someone needs to fix that!) because even with these flaws, I still enjoyed reading the story on the whole and was strongly invested in its heroine and her journey. As a massive cat-lover, I'll admit that Jinx is a strong motivating factor!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book!

Argh, I absolutely adored this, and I'm so excited to think that this is a part of a series and not just a stand alone, because I am so not done with this yet. I love cats, and that's what first appealed to me with this cover, but then you throw into the ring that they're ROBOTIC animals that kind of act like a smartphone but with more personality, and well Jinx. Jinx absolutely makes this book.

I said in my status update that this feels like a mix of Beyblades and Pokemon, and it really was. Lacey ends up in a world of battling baku. She ends up meeting a mix of people along the way, and a simmering kind of romance that never really gets off it's feet? (yet another reason for book two as soon as possible!)

If this is on your radar forupcoming releases, I can't recommend it highly enough. One of my favorite reads of the year! Five stars.

I like YA books, Science Fiction and cats and JINXED has all these elements rolled into one story. I loved, at first, the idea of having a Baku – but these gorgeous little critters go above and beyond being a communications device and companion. Baku are increasingly social status markers, the higher you rise within the company, or society, the more complex in both design and size your Baku gets to be. This works the other way too the lower you are the less impressive is your Baku.

Lacey Chu’s one dream is to join the biggest tech company Moncha, the creators of the Baku - part smartphone part animal companion to do this she needs to be accepted into the elite academy once she finishes school – instead it looks like she hasn’t made the grade and instead of getting the expected level 3 Baku (a furry critter like a dog or a cat) she’s stuck with a level one (a bug)

Despondent she comes across the thrown away wreckage of a cat like Baku. It is very badly damaged but she decides to fix it and soon Jinx comes alive. Jinx is not at all like other Bakus he is able to think and act independently, and go where he wants rather than where he is instructed to go. As soon as Lacey has got Jinx up and running she finds that she has been accepted into the elite collage and her future in robotics seems assured.

I loved the world building, and the fact that no matter how far in the future you go there will still be teen angst. Lacey’s best friend through High School is following a different career path – and so their friendship is hard to maintain – however making new friends is hard too. Author, Amy McCulloch, has this torn loyalties bit down pat. The story focusses on Jinx – who made it and why. There is an unresolved back story of Lacey’s father – he disappeared when she was young and her mother won’t talk about it. I suspect that this story will be expanded on as JINXED is the first of a series.

For the most part I really enjoyed the story – although I have to confess my eyes glazed over at the Baku battles that started midway through the story – they just went on and one and on without very much progression in the story, well other than it becomes very obvious to other people that Jinx is different. Fortunately the battles came to an end and Lacey discovered something not quite right was going on at the academy and a cliff hanger ending is the result, so we are now set up nicely for the next book in the series.

Overall JINXED is a light-hearted and action filled book. There is plenty of humour, danger, friendship, a smidge of romance and plenty of intrigue. Oh, and did I say I loved Jinx? He certainly had a mind of his own, and his own agenda, he is cheeky, unruly, sarcastic and certainly intrigued by real cats.