(Warning. This review
contains plot spoilers.)
Looking through a pile of
children’s books, I opened up Jinx and was immediately drawn in to the fantasy.
Sage Blackwood’s writing has an attractive openness and confidence. Familiar
folk tale tropes appear in a nicely simple, matter-of-fact manner that
makes them perfectly acceptably to the
intended mid-junior fantasy reader.
The novel starts as young
Jinx is led, Hansel-like, by his stepfather away from the village and into the
Urwald, the dangerous forest that is almost a character in the book. Just as he
is about to abandon Jinx to the trolls and werewolves, Simon Magus appears on
the path. After some cunning trading, the wizard claims Jinx as his apprentice.
Jinx’s life as a servant
in the wizard’s strange cottage.is safer, better-fed and more interesting but
it is also full of contradictions. Is the short-tempered, self-centred magician
good or evil? What does Simon really want from young Jinx?
Grumpy and bad-tempered,
Simon insists the boy is too stupid to instruct in any magic or - at first -
allow into his secret workroom. Jinx tries to match what he sees, feels and
knows with the evidence around him, including Simon’s mysterious room.
Naturally, as time goes on, Jinx becomes curious, especially when he feels that
Simon is somehow travelling to other places and receiving visitors in his room,
and curiosity always causes trouble.
The book has an
interesting range of characters, all strongly depicted and often eccentric.
Jinx ends up with two young companions. The heroine is young Elfywn, a girl in
a red hood. Suffering from the curse of truthfulness, Elfwyn is trying to find
her grandmother so the curse can be removed. The other boy – and often the
source of Jinx’s jealousy - is Reven, the self-styled “king’s son” who speaks
and acts like a hero learned from a book. Reven has his own secret curse too,
one that brings fear to the forest.
There are magical adult
characters too. Jinx is partly terrified by Dame Glammer, a lively
sharp-tongued witch with her own morality and travelling butter churn. On the
other hand, he grows fond of the good wizard, Sophie, who arrives from a land
where magic is forbidden, even though her meetings with Simon often end up in
wrangling. I feel that many children will half-recognise this pair as two
adults who care for each other but who are unable to live together: the
couple’s squabbles are very convincing. Finally, the plot includes the most
powerful wizard of all - the evil Bonemaster – the enemy that Simon Magus warns
Jinx about, even though Jinx gradually discovers the two have a far more
complex relationship.
Simon is so busy with his
own plans and projects that he does not recognise Jinx’s own supernatural
gifts. The first is an ability to see the true feelings of people as swirls of
coloured light, as auras that help him know how they are feeling. Jinx imagines
everyone has this; he never thinks of it as just his power. However,
when Simon casts a power spell on Jinx, he removes this gift. Bereft of this
extra sense, Jinx’s faith in Simon’s intentions crumbles.
Jinx still has one secret
skill left. Jinx is the Listener, the one able to hear the conversation between
the trees, the one who can understand the voice of the vast Urwald, even if the
meanings are not always clear.
Eventually, trying to get
free of their curses, the three children are imprisoned in the Bonemaster’s
towering castle and the wizard decides to use Jinx to lure Simon into his
power. When Simon does not come, Jinx becomes convinced his old master is as
evil and uncaring as the Bonemaster, and enters his own world of sadness. Were
his worst fears right?
Nevertheless, the trio try
to get free. While Reven tries to find an escape route, Jinx and Elfwyn search
for the Bonemaster’s souce of power. Under the castle, in a hidden cellar, they
find rows of bottles. Each contains a small, silently screaming, human figure:
the Bonemaster uses these captive deaths as an energy source. Then, within a
second chamber, Jinx finds an even greater magical source, an object that makes
him feel even more confused about Simon’s possibly wicked intentions. But the
way out has been discovered!
Here comes the spoiler.
Trying to protect Elfwyn while she climbs down the Ladder of Bones, Jinx falls
to his death. His spirit floats above his body, floating over above the whole
Urwald. From high up, he witnesses the arrival of Dame Glammer and Simon Magus.
Eventually, with his power source gone, the wicked Bonemaster is imprisoned.
The grieving Simon makes
sure that Jinx’s body is carried to safety. There by a reversal of the big
mysterious spell, Simon returns Jinx to life again. One by one, the major
conflicts are resolved, especially between the wizard and his pupil, for as
Elfwyn points out, being rude and ill-mannered isn’t the same as being evil.
Personally, although I
really enjoyed the early part of the story, I rather feel that the hero’s death
and apparent restoration to life after sleeping for three days means that Jinx
may not be a book for children who have recently had a sudden death in the
family, even if the storyline is echoing the classic hero’s mythical journey
structure. Maybe my reaction was because the characters had felt so very believable
until that turn in the plot? And maybe top juniors are less sensitive and much
tougher than I am?
To conclude, I really
liked the brave and compelling young hero at the heart of this novel. I enjoyed
the writing, the characters, and the magical world described within these
pages, as well as the many twists and turns not yet mentioned. The ending
suggests “Jinx” is intended to re-appear in more books so here’s a few good
wishes to this particular wizard’s apprentice.
JINX, THE WIZARD’S
APPRENTICE by Sage Blackwood.
Published in 2013 by
Harper Collins (USA) and Quercus (UK)
Review by Penny Dolan
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3 comments:
Oh, I wish I'd thought of the curse that makes you tell the truth!
Very appetising review, Penny.
thank you for refreshing memory good summary as well
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