Jinx is a Young Adult novel by Meg Cabot. It is one of her standalone works.
Jean Honeychurch knows that she's been unlucky since she was born, hence why her nickname is Jinx. After a bad altercation with a boyfriend, her family sends her to New York to live with her aunt and uncle's family. Jean thinks the only good thing out of the situation is she gets to see her beloved childhood cousin Tory. Only Tory has dyed her hair, drinks and does drugs, and calls herself Torrance now. She's also doing witchcraft and gets insulted when Jean refuses to participate. As Jean tries to be a Positive Friend Influence to her cousin and encourage her to not get involved in bad magic, she fails miserably.
Unrelated to the 2003 PlayStation 1 game Jinx, or the 2005 Flash game Jinx and its sequels.
Tropes for this include:
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted. Petra goes Oh, Crap! when Zach takes an injured Jean to her, explaining that Tory tied her up and was trying to drink her blood. She notices that Jean's wrists are rubbed raw from the ropes and immediately says they need to tell Tory's parents.
- Everyone Has Standards: The climax has a lot of this.
- Petra takes charge when Zach arrives with an injured Jean in turn, explaining that Tory was trying to murder her. When Tory tries to defend herself, Petra tells her she doesn't have time to listen to her and goes to get the Gardiners.
- Zach also calls out Tory for bullying her own cousin, planting a dead rat in her locker, and making people think she narced on the local drug dealer in their school.
- Good Parents: Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Todd are this, doubling as the Cool Aunt and Cool Uncle to Jean. They take in Jean and pay for her tuition after hearing that she's getting away from a possessive ex-boyfriend, giving her space to practice violin. When pressed, they say it's what any decent parent would do and say she's becoming part of their family. What's more, they react in an appropriate way on learning that Tory tried to murder Jean: sent her to boot camp and a reform school to change her attitude. They also make sure that Teddy and Alice have a more positive influence in Jean and keep her cat safe.
- Gone Horribly Right: Jean thinks this happened with her love spell. It worked too well, with the boy in question becoming obsessed with her. Zach dismisses this, saying that it was just timing and Dylan was naturally interested in Jean, having an obsessive personality. He may be right, given Dylan demonstrates immaturity when Tory looks him up, and spending several hundred dollars on restaurant services in one night.
- Karma Houdini: By all accounts, Gretchen and Lindsey ought to be in jail for assisting in attempting to murder Jean. They lie that it was just a prank to exchange magic, but it's implied that the Gardiners told their parents. The girls seem to shed Tory's Toxic Friend Influence at least.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Tory spends the whole year bullying Jean, for the crime of the latter having magic and attracting Zach's attention. Then she goes too far by tying up Jean, wanting to drink her blood and make her drink a mushroom poison. Zach finds out when Jean manages to get his attention with magic, rescues Jean, and tells her parents. Even though Jean by all means points out that any other person would be in jail, Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Todd punish her regardless by sending Tory to boot camp and reform school, essentially exiling her from the house. They also make her spend hours in therapy. Jean notes that it's not reform school that is making Tory suffer, but spending weekends with the Honeychurches.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: As Zach points out, all the magic that supposedly happen could have rational explanations. Some guys do get naturally obsessive with the girl they like, without any magic or Love Potion. Also, it may have been timing that Jean pushed him out of the way before a bike messenger ran him over. Jean can't argue with it and decides to let him find out on his own.
- Oblivious to Love: Jean is painfully oblivious to Zach crushing on her, mainly because she's traumatized from her breakup. She thinks he's crushing on Petra, the girls' housekeeper, because she is pretty and polite, ignoring that Zach asked her out several times. Zach has to spell it out at the end, though he also says he was giving her space knowing that she came out of a bad relationship.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Everyone turns on Tory, including her own parents, when they find out that she was trying to murder Jean. At least, that's how it looked to Zach when he saw Tory with the knife. As punishment, she's sent to boot camp and then to a reform school in Iowa, where she spends weekends with Jean's preacher family.
