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.
Hello from California my peeps! This past week my husband and I have been in the sunny state of California. We went to Los Angeles to start off the trip and loved it! I have a few friends there from high school and they showed us around town, took us hiking, and let us eat all the delicious food we could handle. We are now in San Diego for a friend's wedding and I finally have time to discuss my most recent read…Hex Hall.
I read most of the book on my 6-hour flight from North Carolina to Los Angeles then finished the last few chapters in little breaks from all the touring. My first impression was that this book is a more girly, dramatic Harry Potter. I have no idea if that is a good thing or bad thing, but in many ways it works. This is of course the first one in yet another YA series. I just can't catch a break with these. They all have these cliffhangers and it just feels like I will never have closure.
Back to the Harry Potter esque plot, Sophie knew that she was a witch from an early age, but has a mother who is a (and I'm just gonna come right out and use it) "muggle." Sophie's spells tend to go horribly awry and after a major fiasco at muggle high school prom, land her in a reform school for magical beings (Prodigium). There are all these cliques among the magical beings and of course spiffy uniforms, but instead of awesome classes where they learn about magic, they have pretty much the History of Magic and Gym. I guess since they are in a reform school, they do not deserve to learn more about magic. Totes the lamest of punishments.
There is one thing I like about this story as oppose to many others in the genre, which is that this novel recognizes that there is potential for many magical creatures in one continuous universe. You have faeries, werewolves/shapeshifters, vampires, and warlocks/witches. Besides say the Sookie Stackhouse series, many books in this genre tend to stick to just one of these races of fantastical beings, but Hawkins brings us all of them. I believe it worked well considering the reform school scenery.
The reform school aspect I have to admit I loved. Many books tend to do a private, college preparatory school, but this is one where it felt like juvenile hall rather than elitist snobbery. There was definitely cliques and elitist feelings among the multi-racial students of Hecate Hall (its nickname among students being Hex Hall), but everyone there was in trouble for something. All the creatures had secrets and were also a bit untamed.
On the level of relatability, I would give it a meh. Sophie being the new student, but also feeling like a freak among freaks can be relatable on many levels, but it just feels so over-the-top to me. This book is clearly for fun and excitement and would be a great series for the summer. I would recommend it for the YA collection of a library.
That's 10 down, 40 to go! I am 1/5 of the way there!
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