Lovely Assistant: my review

Lovely Assistant: Geoph Essex

Looking through a mirror what images do you see? Imagine seeing yourself and then another image of you but within the glass of a special mirror in a different world. What happens to Jenny Ng might startled, frighten, scare or even surprise some of you as you take a ride on her horse Rex and find yourself going through the Looking Glass like Alice and meet the many interesting people that she does along her journey from being Jenny to Mirror Jenny. Author Geoph Essex introduces a new type or paranormal, magical, wizardry world when one young girl finds herself on the other side of life or shall I say Death helping people on their way to their final stop. Just what that means you will find out when you open the pages of this book, go through the Looking Glass to Wonderland, find out how you can see yourself in two places at once and then what happens when situations come up and need special handling. Where is your last stop? What roads lead to where you are going? Is there really an end or are you just at the crossroads? Let’s start at the beginning!

What would you do if you were fired from your job, missed your last appointment and then was hit by a car? What would you do if when hit by a car your leg came off and then you managed to reattach it by yourself? Would you wonder why or would you do what Jenny Ng did? Enter a diner, order coffee and oh yeah why not a steak knife to try out her new found powers! Taking a napkin placing one of her digits underneath it she took the knife and hacked one off hoping that the magic she tried when reattaching her leg would work on her finger. Low and behold would you believe it did! So, what happens next is it also fate, kismet or just plain luck that she bumped into a guy looking for an assistant who happened to be a magician. What else can a girl want? A new career, a magical way of hacking off digits and replacing them and meeting a cute guy what more can she wants? But, this is just the beginning of the wild and zany things that are about to happen to Jenny Ng. Strange things happen to all of us but you won’t believe what happens next. First, she performs on stage with Calvin the magician. Then she learns more about how he creates his tricks, where the rabbit named Colby came from and what happened to the 13 mice that mysteriously disappeared. I can’t tell you the answers to these questions because a true reviewer and magician never reveal their secrets. Poor Jenny living in New York encounters some very strange people along the way. After performing and realizing that she might need somewhere to stay she calls her friend Keith and attempts to find her way to his apartment but along the way she encounters a very large horse, ends up with a magic sword, severed limbs and weird pictures or images Jenny is a trooper and she can weather just about anything so she thinks.
Jenny learns something in quite a unique way about the truth behind her existence, the accident and the parallel world she lives in. With her horse named Rex, a special pair of glasses, a mirror and her friend Calvin Jenny finds herself altering between the real world and a parallel world that allows her to go through a glass mirror like the looking glass in Alice In Wonderland and assess her life in both realms. Situations can be recreated and answers come about as Jenny Ng finds herself confused at first and not understanding why in one world she sees things one way and in another more clearly. Working with Calvin she becomes his assistant in his magic show as Jade of the East. A stage magician and quite talented the author shares his magic, stage presence and a friendship that forms but there is much more. As Jenny/Jade finds herself inside the looking glass she meets someone named Caravel. So, is Jenny really indestructible or is there a real reason why she can mutilate herself, hack away at fingers and digits, feel little or no pain and then become whole again? But, something is odd and when Jenny looks through the glasses she sees numbers and dates. Just what do these figures of numbers mean? Added in she has two friends that were with her before she got into the accident and their behavior at first seems normal but waits until you learn more about Dr. Vincent Raymond and his wife Carrie. So, what exactly does she think is going to happen? What about a young man named John who Jenny says will die on a specific date and time? How does she know this? Well, Jenny folks is really not indestructible she is really DEAD! You heard me. DEAD! She is now what you call for those of us that are fans of Dead Like Me a grim reaper who helps others find their way to the next step. With her horse Rex who guides her in the right direction, Jenny will be given appointments that will cause her to have to direct people young, old and middle age to their next world. Her career as a magician’s assistant is really fun for her and the author describes the tricks as if a real magician was doing them and putting on a show for readers. You can picture the tricks in your mind and see the end result because of the vivid descriptions. But, there is sadness, joy and sorrow as the end of the world is marked for Halloween or October 31^st according to Jenny. Jenny teams up with a clever conjurer, Calvin, several wild and zany friends, some Grim Reapers, one police detective and tries to stop what someone has started.

But, just how is the world supposed to end? Who is behind what is supposed to happen and can Jenny figure out a way to stop it? What happens when a group of thieves steal all of Calvin’s props? What happens when they wind up in the wrong hands? Jenny is determined to stop what two people she thought were her friends started in a chase that takes her across many realms, into many homes, handcuffed, shot at, keeping track of the real world while monitoring the actions and events in Wonderland. When a group of cultists so brainwashed and out of their minds team up with a married couple who think that the world should end and things are about to come full circle, wait until you find out just what Jenny, her friends, Calvin, Mr. Heckler and two guys named Louis and Lyle do in order to protect the world from collapsing. “Endings are just the start of beginnings,” as one of person states. Just what it means you won’t believe as the ramblings continue, Jenny is captured and the world seems bleak. But, Jenny has some powerful friends that come to her rescue. Learning more about herself, her powers and where she really belongs she has to make some serious choices, say goodbye to someone she loves and understand that her life or death as she knows it means going it alone. An ending that will surprise readers and a battle that is quite unique, different and will make you smile.
Where does she wind up and what happens to Calvin? With her sword, mirror and all of the artifacts she can stir up just what happens to the world and to Jenny you will have to find out for yourself.

The issues in this novel deal with love, friendship, loyalty, forgiveness and loss. What would you do if you were Jenny? A story that is quite unique, makes you wonder about life, death, just what would happen if you were Jenny and where you go when your time to make your choice and find your next path is there. Will you be given the choice or has your fate been decided?
Fran Lewis Reviewer