Review – Hex Hall (Bk 1)

Hex Hall (Hex Hall, Bk 1)

By Rachel Hawkins

I got this book through my swap site and then promised book two to someone else, so I needed to read them post-haste.  Luckily this book was cute and fast and easy.  I say it is easy because while there is some angst and evil, kids almost being killed and fighting, things happen so quickly that even if you are uncomfortable with a situation it moves so fast you won’t be nervous for long.  Those types of books are nice once in a while, though I will need to mix in a meaty story after these two books.  A Harry Potter-rich tapestry this is not.

This YA paranormal story is about Sophie, a girl who was raised human but came into witchy powers when she was 13.  At 16 a spell goes wrong in front of a bunch of normals and she gets shipped off to Hecate Hall, a school for witches, fairies and weres who can’t contain their magic within the normal world, a paranormal juvenile hall.  Of course pandemonium ensues.

It is a figuring out who you are, standing up for yourself, doing the right thing type of  book.  It is filled with teenage vampires, black magic and mayhem and the adults who rule their world.  It also has a few pop culture references which makes it kind of funny, a love interest and some pushy “mean girls”.

I enjoyed it. I felt like a speed reader and the story stuck with me for a couple of days.  I like that easy worldbuilding occasionally, but as I read book two the author adds in parts of the story that were skimmed over in book 1 when “three weeks pass” or something like that, so that irks me a little, but that isn’t about this book so I should just shut my mouth.  The publisher is Hyperion, so it is Disney sanctioned and “safe”.  The female protagonist is strong and tries to do the right thing, though she is hung up on a handsome fellow, of course.  Some issues arise around that, and pandemonium ensues.  🙂  3.5 pink hello kitty stars with fangs float around the room, did they try to drain the teenagers of blood?  You have to read the book to find out.