A review by nonesensed
Dora's Jinx by Boom Baumgartner

5.0

Dora's 16th birthday is approaching and she couldn't be more thrilled. See, sixteen isn't only sweet, it's a limit; if you pass that limit, you know you won't become a witch. Dora is convinced being a witch would mean eternal loneliness – most importantly, eternal singlehood – due to a natural defense mechanism all witches have; they're very hard to notice. And Dora...well, Dora's teachers barely see her putting her hand up in class, and her aunt is a witch, so the signs are dire. But you can always hope, right?

I'm giving this book five stars because it does exactly what a book with a teenage protagonist should do; it gets you into the mindset of said teenager. Now, it's been many years since I myself was that age, but it's hard to forget how life-or-death things could feel, how I could obsess over things that wouldn't matter in the long run because they were important that second. I can't related to the romantic despair Dora feels, being aromantic and all, but her sense that her decisions and experiences in high school will affect her entire life to a degree that never can be "fixed" if anything goes wrong, I definitely can relate to.

If you want to read about a teenager having reluctant magical adventures that start out rather small and then grow exponentially, and if you like cats, I recommend this book to you!

PS. I really like this cover art both because it's pretty and because of the clues you get to what will happen in the book!