“I raced through this book…a little bit Golden Compassand all adventure.”—Amie Kaufman, New York Times bestselling author The Golden Compass for the digital age! When a coding star enters an elite technology academy, she discovers a world of competition, intrigue, and family secrets—plus a robotic companion that isn’t what it seems. Lacey Chu has always dreamed of working as an engineer for …
Lacey Chu has always dreamed of working as an engineer for MONCHA, the biggest tech firm in the world and the company behind the “baku”—a customizable “pet” with all the capabilities of a smartphone. But when Lacey is rejected by the elite academy that promises that future, she’s crushed.
One night, Lacey comes across the broken form of a highly advanced baku. After she repairs it, the cat-shaped baku she calls Jinx opens its eyes and somehow gets her into her dream school. But Jinx is different than any other baku she’s ever seen…He seems real.
As Lacey settles into life at school, competing with the best students in a battle of the bakus that tests her abilities, she learns that Jinx is part of a dangerous secret. Can Lacey hold on to Jinx and her dreams for the future?
“With a sharp eye toward the rising awareness of device addiction and a keen sense of wonder, McCulloch’s tale is a feast for the imagination that celebrates women in STEM fields.” —Publisher’s Weekly, STARRED review
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I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
This tense, smart middle grade book establishes a near-future Earth where only the poorest people have smart phones. Anyone who’s anyone has a baku, which is a companion robot, computer, and accessory all in one. Lacey Chu is a brilliant young engineer with her hopes set on getting into an elite school that fast-tracks graduates to the Moncha corporation, where Monica Chan invented bakus. Lacey is devastated when she isn’t accepted, and embarrassed when all she can afford is a measly level one scarab baku. But when she finds a piece of junk and hauls it home to her workshop, she’s stunned to find it’s a cat baku unlike any other. She fixes it up. Suddenly, her school rejection is undone. She’s in! But as she starts her dream school, she realizes her baku, Jinx, is truly unique. He doesn’t obey orders, as if he…. is alive.
This book is so much fun. You can’t help but love Jinx. He’s such a cat. Lacey is a great heroine, a kid with dreams and genuine drive. I found the book breathless in pace. I didn’t want to put it down! My only complaint is that the book ends on a tortuous cliffhanger.
Amazing details, great story, enough background to understand with it being all in the past.
Interesting middle grade STEM based story. Central character is a young girl who could have been written stronger without the need to include a “love interest.” Not sure why as it was immaterial to the overall story arc.
Imagine living in a high-tech world where your family pet also doubles as a smart device. Twelve-year-old Lacey’s world is just that. She lives with her mother in a corporate mini-town within Toronto, sponsored by Tech giant MONCHA. Ten years ago, MONCHA created robotic animal companions called bakus to provide people with companionship to help alleviate their smartphone-caused anxiety.
Lacey’s whipsmart and she’s long hoped of getting into Profectus, an elite tech school where she’d be well on her way to realizing her dream of being a companioneer for MONCHA like her father was. (Lacey’s father is missing.) But Lacey is rejected by Profectus, and even worse, she has to buy a baku before she starts seventh grade at St.Agnes, because all the “textbooks are stored in baku-encrypted software, and homework assignments are sent” straight to bakus. She can only afford the cheapest baku, a level one scarab beetle. (Bakus are graded from level one to level five and get progressively more complex and powerful.) Had she been accepted to Profectus, Lacey would have needed a level 3 baku.
While recovering her best friend Zora’s baku from a ravine into which it had fallen, Lacey also discovers another badly damaged baku, a level three cat. Lacey soon gets an email saying she was accepted to Profectus, after all. An expert tinkerer, Lacey spends all summer repairing the rescued baku cat, Jinx. It soon becomes clear that Jinx is more than your average baku. And mysterious, dangerous things are also afoot at Profectus.
Jinxed is a highly readable series starter. McCulloch has created a smart, likeable character in Lacey and given her a strong voice. Time and care is taken with characters and relationships, and readers are given a good look inside the school and all the ramifications of technology. The baku battles the students have at the school are riveting. Kids compete in teams with their bakus in a high-stakes battle (an internship is on the line) in which nothing seems out-of-bounds. In between rounds, the students have a limited amount of time to make repairs to their baku. Though not life or death for the humans involved, these mini-wars are reminiscent of the Hunger Games.
With a mix of adventure, mystery, tech, and just a dash of romance, Jinxed has elements that combine to make a great book for the in-between tween. It sits at the sweet spot between middle grade and young adult. Thematically, the story takes an intelligent look at science and technology, including its responsible, ethical design, marketing, and use, while also exploring the meaning of friendship. With its crazy cliff-hanger ending, readers of Jinxed are guaranteed to finish clamoring for more!
Verdict: 4.5 of 5 Hearts: A high-wired series starter with a crafty heroine and her robotic feline sidekick!
*Disclosure of Material Connection: I would like to thank Sourcebooks Young Readers and Netgalley for providing me a digital arc of Jinxed.