Arty -- Jinx by Sage Blackwood

Heeere's Arty!

Yeah, I'm colossally late.  Who's surprised by now.

Okay.  Jinx.  I picked this up initially because all there was on the spine was 'Blackwood' and I really, really hoped Gary Blackwood had a new book out.  If he does, this isn't it, but it was still a really great book to pick out.

Jinx has a pretty basic premise, one I didn't have much hope for.  I mainly kept it because, let's face it, that cover is gorgeous, and I was probably still subconsciously affected by the magical Blackwood surname.  Here's the summary from Goodreads:

In the Urwald, you don't step off the path.  Trolls, werewolves, and butterchurn riding witches lurk amid the clawing branches, eager to swoop up the unwary.  Jinx has always feared leaving th epath - then he meets the wizard Simon Magus.

Jinx knows that wizards are evil.  But Simon's kitchen is cozy, and he seems cranky rather than wicked.  Staying with him appears to be Jinx's safest, and perhaps only, option.  As Jinx's curiosity about magic grows, he learns to listen to the trees as closely as he does to Simon's unusual visitors.  The more Jinx discovers, the more determined he becomes to explore beyond the security of the well-trod paths.  But in the Urwald, a little healthy fear is never out of place, for magic - and magicians - can be as dangerous as the forest, and soon Jinx must decide which is the greater threat.

Pretty simple.  Or so it seems.

Jinx, for a book firmly in the children's section of the library, goes surprisingly deep into characterization - there aren't any blazing pieces of brilliance like Sydney Carton or Severus Snape, but Jinx, Simon, the Bonemaster, Sophie, and even characters I didn't think I'd like much were well-written.  The story, too, dives off the expected end of "as-good-as orphan gets taken in by a wizard and learns that he's three times as powerful as anyone else after he beats the Big Bad."

Jinx has a great ability - a sixth sense, rather - of being able to see the thoughts of others as colored clouds of emotion.  I love what Blackwood does with the ability - no spoilers, but the different twists and turns the story takes around this ability and around Jinx himself actually caught me by surprise.  That's not easy to do.  Simon and Sophie, too, are anything but cliché characters.  (Even though they greatly reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle, down to Sophie's name - turns out Blackwood is a Diana Wynne Jones fan, and it shows by the way her plot/magic/character development works.)  I could never really tell where either of them came from until the end, some good writing that actually made Jinx's conundrums feel real.

I was reading with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm until about halfway through.  Then the story took another turn, in which Simon and Sophie greatly leave the picture, the story takes on a more adventurous turn, and two characters take Simon and Sophie's places - Reven the thief, and Elfwyn the granddaughter of a witch.  I did not like Reven or Elfwyn.  I wanted Sophie and Simon (especially Simon) back.  Especially when Elfwyn started turning into your usual girl-with-two-boys-as-friends girl, an obnoxious, domineering sort that the boys tolerated because - well, they liked her for some reason.

But, as much as I hate to admit it, they did grow on me - a little.  Their curses amused me.  Reven, especially, with his antiquarian way of speech and his more interesting curse, got to be one of my favorites.  They made suitable replacements for Simon and Sophie - logical ones, since Jinx couldn't have too much magic on his side, or everything would be too easy.

The book ends slowly, but in a good way.  The climax occurs and then another sixty or so pages are dedicated to resolution - which is something I really enjoyed.  Even if the ending as is dragged a bit, rushed would have been worse.  And while I think Blackwood could have taken more time sewing up loose subplot ends, the main plot was magnificently concluded.

Jinx is a great book with a great main character and a great supporting cast and a great plot and I'm hoping for a sequel sometime.  Definitely a recommendation.

Arty -- The Time Of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Freakin' Jones!

If you've been with us for a while - like, since the beginning of the Library - you'll remember that our first review ever was by yours truly, on the inimitable Howl's Moving Castle by the sadly late Mrs. Jones. My estimation of her work has only gotten better now that my biggest book collection is of her books, and my only complaint is that she isn't more widely read in the US. (Not sure about the UK.)

Now about The Time of the Ghost instead of mindless fangirling.

She doesn't know who she is, and doesn't know why she's invisibly floating through the buildings and grounds of a half-remembered boarding school. Then, to her horror, she encounters the ancient evil that four peculiar sisters have unwittingly woken - and learns she is their only hope against a deadly danger.

I gave you the summary from the back of the book because you really shouldn't go into Ghost knowing too much about it. The fun of Jones's books is learning alongside the main character, and that's especially true in this book. Ghosty (just calling her 'the ghost' is so cold, isn't it?) is completely clueless, and I can imagine that it wouldn't be half as intriguing if you aren't, too. Therefore, I won't go too much into plot or individual character, and therefore, this is going to be a very short review.

BUT! I'm not going to let you go with some more fangirling, so I am going to expound on the general plot and characters.

The plot is, as I said, a bit confusing at first, because you have no idea what's going on. No idea. It's confusing, it's bewildering, and you can feel exactly how Ghosty feels. And though you eventually get your sea legs, to mix my metaphors, there are still points where you scratch your head and think, 'But I thought it went THIS way...' And then you have to scrap your preconceived notions about the lot of it and start again.

Which, for me, is just fun.

The characters are typically amazing for Jones. None of them are quite what you think they are at first or second or even third glance. Ghosty, for the most part a mere observer in her quest for victory over the ancient evil, is a pretty interesting main character. The 'four sisters' mentioned in the summary are a wild, varied bunch of witches that would make Macbeth's hags run away in terror, but at the end of it all, I actually really liked all four of them. And the two villains, though extremely different, are both detestable, and you dearly want them both to go die in a hole by the time the book ends.

Oh, and that ending is wonderful. Just so you know.

There's very little I can say against The Time of the Ghost. Maybe that one character swears a bit more often than is typical for a Jones book? It's still not bad. In other words, go read this book. And all of her others. Because Diana Wynne Jones is amazing.