JINXED

Everyone knows that mobile phones have taken over our lives – we’re constantly checking our messages and social media updates, with people worried we’re getting more and more disconnected from the real world around us. But what if we could stay in the moment, build our IRL relationships, and get our notifications at the same time?

Jinxed is set in a world where everyone has their own “baku” – a synthetic pet that’s also a smartphone; a friend and companion that can also navigate you to your next class and recommend places to eat your favourite food. Lacey Chu desperately wants to work with bakus, but for that she needs to be accepted into the elite Profectus Academy, and she also needs a powerful baku of her own. Unfortunately she can’t afford one – until she finds a bashed-up cat that doesn’t seem to have an owner. She names him Jinx, but he’s not your average smartpet...

Jinxed contains some interesting ideas but hammers them a bit too bluntly – we’re certainly not as convinced as Lacey that robotic pets would solve so many problems – and the book is at its best when dealing with normal teen interactions: friendships, feuds and fallings-out. There are some interesting mysteries as well, but unfortunately they’re not all resolved in this volume, with an abrupt cliffhanger ending leaving annoyance in its wake. Rhian Drinkwater