Review for BWB: Hex Hall

Hex Hall (Book 1) by Rachel Hawkins

Product Description
Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It’s gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie’s estranged father–an elusive European warlock–only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it’s her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.

By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

Review:
WTH?? As in What The HEX?!

Hex Hall was the April YA section of the month for Blog with Bite. And, evil chiffies aside, this was such a great YA book!  I really enjoyed the story of Sophie, a witty young witch who discovers that with great power comes great responsibility. Okay, that was lame, even for me.

But seriously, Sophie was one rad witch who is have a bit of trouble adjusting to using her magic.  The opening scene alone was very entertaining, with a love spell gone awry.  From there, Sophie is sent to Hex Hall to be among other outcasts who have had trouble concealing their true nature from humans, including warlocks, fairies, shifters and weres, oh and even a vampire or two. 

Hex Hall felt very much like the alternative school for Hogwarts, with ghost wandering through walls and the different supernatural races making fun of each other.  By the ends, I was kind of expecting Harry to pop in at any moment and offer to teach Sophie how to play quidditch with her new broom.   

And why do hot guy, with no visible imperfections, always have hot names? Step aside perfectly named Edward Cullen, because Sophie’s love interest, Archer Cross, is on the move. *le sigh* Names like that just roll off your tongue the way you wish the guy’s tongue would roll against yours.  Opps! or Ewwww as Sophie (and possibly Archer) would say if she caught me having a cougar moment.

The writing was fun to read and even a bit snarky, which totally added to the enjoyment of the book!  The abrupt departure of Archer left me heartbroken, and after I picked my jaw off the floor at Sophie’s final statement at the end of the book, I discovered that I was kind of peeved with all the unresolved issues to come in the following books that readers will have to wait to read about in HH books 2 and 3.  Yes, the book stands on its own with shaky legs in the fact that one incident was dealt with, but the bigger items (Where is Archer, What of Sophie’s dad, Will she really go through with the Removal, And what about Cal?) leave you wishing you had magical abilities to bring forth the rest of the series with just a twitch of your nose.  

1. Sophie is abandoned by her father for her supposed protection. Do you believe there is anything that justifies abandoning your child?  To me, there doesn’t seem to be reasonable excuse to justify abandoning your child, but sacrifices like this are made all the time, for a variety of reasons, from the insignificant to those that are of pure intentions.  While Sophie’s father thought it would be best for her to be protected, I do think he could have done a much better job of letting her know more about her true natures so that she might have been more prepared.
2. Did Hex Hall remind you of any other series?  For some reason, when Sophie was so trying to make her dress for the ball, I kept wanting to give her a wand and say, “It’s levi-o-sa, not leviosa.”  LOL! This book definitely had a Teen Witch/Harry Potter vibe, which I didn’t mind in the least. 
3. Normally when you think of Dark Witches and White Witches, you think good and evil. This series seemed to have a different take on that all together. It almost had an apathetic take on human life with only care taken if their secret might be revealed. Do you find this disturbing or real?  Maybe a bit of both.  In the book, this whole argument kind of played itself out (in part) when Sophie and Archer were discussing how Sophie’s mother would feel about witches if she weren’t raising one. 
4. Looking forward to the next book, or pass on it? Why? Yes! I thought HH was a fun, quick read and my curiosity is sparked.  I am definitely looking forward to more Archer.  

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Posted at 4:41 pm  •  Labels: 2010, 3 stars, Blog with Bite, Book Review, debut, Hex Hall, Rachel Hawkins, Vampires, witches, YA