Jinx Paperback – March 1, 2004

Jen is good girl who becomes a troubled teen. All she wants is to be loved. But when her boyfriend Charlie dies in tragic circumstances, she starts drinking in order to escape. After a series of unfortunate accidents, Jen is nicknamed Jinx - "Jinx, they say, but she likes it and takes it as her new name." Will Jinx ever find happiness and find her way back to Jen?This novel-in-verse is written in a simple, yet lyrical manner, and is full of interesting characters: Jen's father (the Rat) who abandoned her when her sister was born, Jen's mother who is in love with a man who doesn't know she exists, Jen's friend Ruth who is known as Ruthless for being ruthlessly honest, Connie who hides from her Greek parents the fact that she is a lesbian, Serena who craves the attention of her parents, Jen's first love Charlie, Jen's sister Grace who has Down's Syndrome, the Rat's new wife Stella who is admitted to a psychiatric clinic for depression, Ben who has a chip on his shoulder about being short, and Hal who blames himself for an accident that wasn't his fault.The subject matter is heartbreaking and deals with many kinds of loss, but especially the loss of a child by their mother. As a mother of two teenage daughters, and having once been a teenage girl myself, I related to this book on many levels. I especially loved "what we don't like about our mums" and the later "what we like about our mums".Best read in one sitting, this book is sure to be a hit with teenage girls - and their mums.

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, 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.Reviewed by: Taylor Rector

JEN >>>dream machineCharlie loves two things:me!and his dream machine.It was a rusty old bombbut Charlie and his dadworked on it for a year.It's a Mazda RX2 Capellawith a rotary engine,lowered suspension,tinted windows,sports exhaust,alloy wheels,and a sound system withsubwoofers and an amp.You can hear it boominga mile away.Mom says it's embarrassing:"Testosterone on wheels."Once, she needed a lift--wore dark glassesand huddled in the backin case her friends saw her.I don't tell her how we cruiseup and down Norton Streetmaking the coffee drinkerscringe.Telling stories in verse goes back to Homer. More recently, there have been sacred texts of major religions, along with the likes of Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Ernest Thayer, Clement Clarke Moore, Bob Dylan, and Ani DiFranco. Verse is the genesis of literature. The language of verse is so appealing that the works of these poets has endured for hundreds or thousands of years.Nevertheless, if there were verse novels when I was a kid, it was a secret to me. It has been in the last dozen years that the genre has really taken off, with exceptional works by Karen Hesse, Mel Glenn, Sonya Sones, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Ron Koertge, and Ann Turner, among others.Great verse novels are typically filled with wonderful language. I love how the form permits an author to incorporate this language into a sophisticated story while paring the words to a minimum. How each poem in the book can present a complete, unique, little picture. How the form allows authors to present the perspectives of multiple characters in a single book.Such is the case with JINX, a gem of a verse novel, written by Australian author Margaret Wild. JINX is the name Jen gives herself when her teenage world comes completely unglued. We get to see and hear from Jen, as well as friends, parents, and stepparents, as they all try to find their way.jen's mom will writeJen's mom writes advertising copy.She specializes in white goods:washing machines, dryers, fridges,freezers, dishwashers.She hates these applianceshulkingin corners,power-hungry and fractious.One day, she will have a wood stove,and she'll write about things that matter--she will write about birth and death,about love and the absence of love,about fathers and children,about mothers and daughters,about lovers and friends.She'll write about the whole goddamnwonderful, awful businessof loving and being loved.One of the most intriguing characters of the book is Grace, Jen's sister whose Down's syndrome was detected early enough that her mom had the option of terminating the pregnancy. That Jen's mom chose not to do so was the cause of Jen's father leaving them.JEN >>>the smartest personGrace can read and write.She takes her homeworkvery seriously.She borrows my history textbookdetermined to read itfrom cover to cover.She can't get beyondthe first paragraph."I am stupid!I am a veggie!"She wants to be like other teenagers:experimentinglearninggrowing upunderstandingmore."In some ways," Mom tells her,"you are the smartest person I know,and the most loving.""Hear, hear," I say.and I mean it.Grace sniffs,then smilesand gives me back my book.She puts on her favorite video.She has watchedThe Sound of Musicmore than five hundred times,but she still loves it.Mom and I know it backward,every bloody song, every bloody word.We want to strangle Julie Andrews.The tale gets dark enough in spots that the publisher is recommending it for Ages 14 and up. But, as you'd expect from the author of OUR GRANNY, there is also a forthrightness and a deep joy to this poetic tale. Amazingly, in a book that can be read in a couple of hours, Ms. Wild deals with all sorts of issues including peer and parental relationships, love, lust, forgiveness, death, and self-image. Shortlisted by the Australian Children's Book Council for Book of the Year for Older Readers, it should gain similar attention here.And who knows? Maybe if we get enough of these great verse novels into kids' hands, more kids will grow up wanting to investigate the works of Homer, Chaucer, and the other golden oldies.specimensRuthless's father is a geologist,and ever since she was tiny,she has collectedrocks and minerals.She displays her specimensin cabinets with shallow drawersso she can handle them easily.It's becoming a joke amongRuthless's friendsthat she sees them as havingthe characteristics of rocks and minerals:Serena is an opal, fracturing and chipping easily,Connie is a volcanic bomb,and Jen is smoky quartz.Ruthless sees herself as granite(a common, coarse-grained rock),but to her friends she is gold.Richie Partington...

The book "Jinx" is and awesome book. This book is about a girls named Jen that gets the nickname Jinx. She gets this nickname because of really bad situations she has with a series of boyfriends. Jen starts hanging out with a bad crowd and starts doing more bad things. But in the end of this book she ends up happy. The author Margaret Wild is an really good witer. She keeps you from putting down the book with the exiting events in it. If you are a person who likes the kind of books that are dramatic and keep you exited then this is the book you want to read! Trust me it is GREAT!!

Jinx was a lot better than I thought it would be. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

About midway it has Jen and her boyfriend in the bathtub together while her parents aren't home. It tells of her putting soap on him and rinsing it, then drying each limb. Yeah, not too comfortable having my 12 year old read that. There are also several crude words, including the F-word.

A completely lifechanging book.You really grow with the characters.And if you're not a fan of poetry, you will still love it.So very sad, though.I'd cry on one page, get over it, turn to the next page, and then start crying all over again.Absolutely wonderful, though.Very touching.