Hexed (Hexed, #1)

by Michelle Krys

[Katie King]

**I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

**2 stars**

Our story begins with cheerleader Indigo ("Indie") and her frankly bitchy supposed best friend Bianca at cheer practice. If there were ever a name to give a mean girl in a young adult novel, it's 'Bianca.' For a best friend, this girl is seriously rude and mean-spirited. Anyways, en route to her mother's occult shop, the Black Cat, Bianca witnesses the death of a man in all black - who seemed to have dropped out of the sky. In his pocket lies a note with only the address of her mother's store. In a strange twist of events, Indie finds out that she is a witch battling against the sorcerers in the world that would love to kill her and every other witch. Thus launches an adventure filled with weird guys in black, petty high school drama, and magic.

Except this novel really relies more on the high school drama than anything else. There's flirting, cheaters, crumbling friendships, and jealousy. There's sport competitions, concerts, and wild parties. There's even conflict and death. But what there is not any of is magic. We don't receive any information on the supposed paranormal/fantasy style of this novel until about 35% in, and it's a Cliffsnotes-style rundown. Every time somebody uses magic, it comes across as dull and forced, like an afterthought.

Indie was possibly the dumbest character in the whole book. Numerous times people tried to give her solid advice and she was just like, "NOPE I'M DOING THIS MY POORLY THOUGHT OUT WAY." Having a plan to rescue her mom instead of busting in on powerful sorcerers while not knowing how to use your powers? SO CRAZY. Indie then gets frustrated and yells at Bishop for not having a plan after SHE was the one who decided it wasn't necessary. Leave behind Paige, a useless human that will only get in the way and possibly get hurt? AWFUL IDEA. Indie then tells Paige to run away for her own safety. Speaking of Paige, while Indie had her own problems, she also used Paige a lot. Paige gets treated like crap and she just takes it every single time. She always comes running when Indie deems her useful. The worst part is Indie knows how badly she treats Paige and doesn't do anything to try to fix it. At the end, Indie realizes she never answered Paige's frantic calls from the previous night...come to find out Paige has been kidnapped.

Bishop is by far the best character. He is sarcastic and inappropriate, in a charming way. Even he isn't safe from Indie, however. She demands he help her, save her, tell her things, take her places, and what does she do for him? She ignores his advice, pushes him away, complains, and criticizes him constantly. Their romance (but, of course) was better before the sexual tension was broken. After they kiss, it's all awkward and baseless. Indie never shuts up about how hot and/or sexy he was, and he never stops making sexual jokes about her.

Summary
A debut novel with a seriously annoying protagonist. Lacking on the magic, fantasy, or paranormal fronts, this novel reads more like a teen girl's diary of high school's ups and downs. Expanding the magic would have helped immensely. I really wanted to like this one, but several moments were too thin to hold this one together.