The 13th Sign by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb (review)

Thirteen-year-old Jalen Jones has never quite bought into the astrological nonsense that her grandmother adores, but when Jalen accidentally unlocks the thirteenth zodiac sign, shifting the personalities of everyone around her, she’s forced to reconsider her stance. A woman claiming to be Gemini shows up on Jalen’s doorstep and informs her that unless Jalen wants the personality changes to be permanent, she has to put the cosmos back in order. To do that, Jalen has to defeat the Keepers of the eleven other zodiac signs, then find and return the Keeper of the thirteenth sign to the heavens. Oh, and, the thirteenth Keeper has magical healing properties that would cure Jalen’s beloved grandmother’s cancer, but Jalen would have to pay for such powers with her own life. Oh, and, she has to restore order and make that decision in the next twenty-three hours. It’s a lot to pack into a middle-school fantasy; the pieces don’t always mesh, and the ailing grandmother and missing father subplot is over the top. Mostly, though, this is an engaging, fast-paced adventure through both the streets of New Orleans and the astrological map of the sky. Tubb skillfully blends campiness and creepiness, imbuing the various Keepers with wonderfully snarky attitudes while calling on the darker aspects of NOLA’s more haunted areas to chill the atmosphere. Character development is at a minimum, relying mostly on the zodiac for the defining traits of both Jalen and her supporting cast. Nonetheless, readers whose daily routine involves checking their horoscopes will be similarly intrigued by Tubb’s interpretation of the stars.