Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: 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: This trilogy was a really fast read - I think I read all three books in as many days. The only thing that I didn't like about the series was that it really mirrored the Evernight series by Claudia Gray. I'm not sure which came first but I did read Evernight before Hex Hall and the similarities between them are alarming. Don't get me wrong, it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the series in any way and the similarities are mainly in the first two books then they kind of split apart but it was something that I noticed twenty pages or so into the book.

Apart from that, I did enjoy this series and I think the main reason for that is the sass. Sophie is so sarcastic and her relationship with Archer is literally them just passing insults back and forth. There doesn't seem to be a page where there isn't something for you to laugh about; whether it's Sophie's problems with magic or her friendship with Jenna. This is probably the reason I sped through this series so fast - the humour is so compelling and I think that spurred me on to read rather than the plot itself which, like I said, is similar to Evernight so I could guess what happened.

For a little while, Sophie almost reminded me of Jace in the Mortal Instruments. She doesn't know her father, she doesn't know what kind of witch she is and there are just a whole lot of secrets surrounding her life, reminding me of Jace's story - unknown father and practically every last name under the sun. I did like that despite everything that Sophie's had to deal with in her life - the numerous moves and new schools for examples - she tries to use her powers to help - even if it doesn't always end well. I did love the fact that, in the first book, Sophie struggled so much with using her powers. It meant there were quite a lot of funny mishaps and problems for her.

I want to mention Elodie as well. In the first book she's displayed as your typical mean girl who wants Sophie to join her coven. Sophie refuses and they become instant enemies. Except, that's where the plot twist comes in. The other two members of the coven are being killed/hurt and they're on the hunt for either Elodie or Sophie next. I thought this was an interesting plot point in the first book but I didn't really connect with Elodie until the second and third book, which is where I thought she really came into her own. The conversations between Sophie and Elodie in these books in particular were incredible and so funny. The difficult relationship between the pair never disappears which I thought was a brilliant thing to do because many authors would make the pair reconcile and it just wouldn't have worked and I'm so glad Rachel didn't do that with Sophie and Elodie.

I'm not too sure how I felt about Archer as a character, especially in the first book. The romance/crush aspect was just too sudden and, since I guessed what was coming, it spoiled that a little for me. He grew on me in the other two books but in the first one - I don't know - he just felt a little flat to me. There wasn't really anything redeeming about him - he was too arrogant to begin with and by the time he started to change I'd already formed an opinion on him that stuck throughout the first book. Like with Elodie, he does get better in the second and third books so I would definitely stick with it.

All in all, I did like the series and I think if you haven't read the Evernight series then a lot of the issues I had with the series will disappear. Even if you have read Evernight, I'd definitely recommend picking these books up as a quick summer read that will keep you laughing the entire time.

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