Review for The 13th Sign By Kristin Tubb (Book release day)

Title: The 13th Sign
Author: Kristin O'Donnell Tubb
Number of pages: 272
Release date: TODAY January 8,2013
      

What if there was a 13th zodiac sign? You’re no longer Sagittarius, but Ophiuchus, the healer, the 13th sign. Your personality has changed. So has your mom’s and your best friend’s. What about the rest of the world? What if you were the one who accidentally unlocked the 13th sign, causing this world-altering change—and infuriating the other 12 signs? Jalen did it, and now she must use every ounce of her strength and cunning to send the signs back where they belong. Lives, including her own, depend on it

First Thoughts

I loved the cover and the entire concept of a 13^th sign. Ok, Do you guys remember, not sure when this happened, but no more than a year ago they were telling us about this new sign? It was big news for a couple weeks and although I’m not one that believes in horoscopes and your sign dictating your personality; I am one that has had the same birth stone my entire life, to one day being told that I’m no longer a Sagittarius (Dec.13) but an Ophiuchus. Needless to say I was not a fan!  So this book really appealed to me.

My Thoughts

This was my first middle grade in years, and honestly I can’t remember why I don’t read them as often, but the 13^th sign was a great book to start off with!  This book is about Jalen (cool name), a girl every year on her birthday goes and visits Madame Beausoleil to have her horoscope read. She usually does this with her Nina every year, but this year her Nina is sick and she decides to keep with tradition and still go. After getting a false reading she then walks around the store and comes across a book labeled “The Keypers of The Zodiack”, a book not for sale but she takes it anyway. She later realizes that she has unlocked the 13^th Sign, the Ophiuchus, and the other signs are far from happy about this. They are sworn to protect Ophiuchus powers from humans. Jalen now has to defeat each keeper, or the alters to everyone personality well be permanent. The universe depends on her!

The Characters are Jalen, the strong challenger, and the girl who has the world on her shoulders, literally! Also, along for the ride, is Ellie and Brennan, a brother /sister duo that will be there to help her on her Journey.  Making a cameo is each other the signs, they bring a long their personalities, and action.

When I first starting reading the 13^th sign I was not invested at all. I wasn’t feeling the whole concept and I could only read a couple lines at a time. But by the second chapter I was ready for this journey. I realized how truly unique this book was from everything else I’d read before. The author had me thinking about the zodiac signs, and the back story, and basically just wanting to fully understand the Zodiac calendar.

What I didn’t like was the pacing. I felt that it wasn’t enough pages and time between signs before we were already jumping to the next thing. I would have loved to see each gatekeeper get their own story. I felt that only then, would we have a full understanding of the entire story and the history of each sign.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, and I take my hats off to the author for coming up with something both unique and interesting. Even though this is a middle grade I can see people of all ages enjoying this one, and I can easily see it being a movie or TV show! If you are looking for action and a story completely different than anything out, I would recommend the 13^th sign!