There have never been so many books centred around magical worlds and their creatures than after the appearance of Harry Potter series on the literary scene. Weird characters, magical spells and enchanted places abound in these books. Sometimes all these elements jell well together to please readers with an engaging tale, at other times there is simply no magic in the magic.

Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, is a suspenseful and delightful tale for children and even adults because of the well-crafted characters and a believable supernatural world with both good and bad wizards and witches, werewolves, trolls and so much more that the writer was able to craft with a fertile imagination.

The young protagonist Jinx, is practically an orphan as he lives with his stepfather and both his parents have died. The stepfather leaves him in the treacherous forest of Urwald near his house. Danger lurks in every corner of Urwald. Luckily, Jinx is saved by a wizard, Simon, who takes him home and makes him work. This part seemed very much like the Hansel and Gretel tale to me, but never mind. And many of the things in this book are reminiscent of other fairy tales, but it’s not a bad thing as the writer is able to give them her own touch of magic.

Jinx runs away when Simon hurts Jinx by a curse that makes him lose the ability to see the colour of people’s thoughts. Yes our hero too has some magic in him. And now we are not sure if the wizard is good or evil, and this theme of deceptive appearances is central to the plot.

Jinx befriends Reven and Elfwyn, who are also under mysterious spells, and the friends set about to rid themselves of their respective curses and encounter many adventures. The story sees Jinx learning lessons as he struggles to understand the true nature of people as what appears on the surface is not actually the reality.

This is the first book in the Jinx series and worth reading by adventure fans.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 24th, 2018