Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Title: Hex Hall
Series: Hex Hall
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: Hyperion
Page Count: 323

     On her 12th birthday, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. Three bumpy years later, after a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, she's exiled to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
     By the end of her first day, 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. Then when a mysterious predator begins attacking students, and Sophie's only friend is the number-one suspect, a horrifying plot begins to surface. Soon, Sophie is preparing for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her. 

My Thoughts

     I thought about reading this book for a while before I actually decided to pick it up and read it. I was intrigued by the description, but at the same time the cover (and parts of the description!) made me afraid that it might turn out to be a little cheesy. But after reading somewhere that it was a great boarding school drama, I finally decided to give it a chance.

     While I wasn't blown away by this story, it was definitely worth the time. Despite having a lot of references to dark magic and evil secret societies, it seemed to be a light read to me.          The characters were fun and likeable, although Sophie seemed a little inconsistent to me. I guess that does make sense considering what her character is going through, but there were some spots where her random behaviors irritated me a little bit. I wasn't a big fan of the guy she had a crush on, especially since she decided she had a crush on him after looking at him once. I get that girls (both real and fictional) are attracted to the bad boy, but it got to be a little irritating that she didn't like this guy's personality OR his girlfriend, yet she constantly talked about what a huge crush she had on him.

     The storyline was fun, and definitely kept moving right along. I never got bored or frustrated with the story itself, and was always curious to find out what would happen next. I don't like to take a break from reading in the middle of the chapter, but whenever I got to the end of a chapter in this book I found myself saying, "Ok, I'll just read one more..." The ending seemed to happen a little suddenly, but considering that this is part of a series, I guess I can actually understand why.

     Overall, I didn't love Hex Hall, but I definitely liked it a lot and will eventually read the other books in the series. I hope the storylines stay as fast-paced as this one, and Sophie finds someone more worthwhile to lust over!