Hex Hall (Hex Hall, #1)

by Rachel Hawkins

[Angie]

Hex Hall was fun. That's really the best word to describe it, since I had a good time reading it, but I suspect it won't be very memorable. Sophie is a witch, but she doesn't have a good grasp on her powers, since she was raised by her human mother. She screws up big time at a school dance, and that's the final straw. Now she's the newest student at Hecate Hall, a kind of reform school for wayward magical beings.

Of course, there's a lot of similarities between Hex Hall and Harry Potter, but I won't get into that. I'm sure you can imagine what those are (in fact, Hagrid was mentioned once). But I did still like the world-building for the most part, since special schools are one of my favorite settings. I really liked how each group was distinct yet connected. There is a kind of strange history of magical beings, which seems...well, strange. I don't really have an opinion on it other than strange. Other than that, I still enjoyed the school setting a lot.

The plot of Hex Hall is pretty typical. New girl arrives at strange school, weird things happen, but no one does anything about it except for said new girl. New girl saves the day with her limited knowledge of the magical world! Hooray! There was a death before Sophie arrived, and while she's there two more girls are attacked and left for dead. Everyone suspects her vampire roommate, since all the girls had two puncture wounds on their neck. It's not as simple as that though. I totally didn't see the twist coming, but it also didn't really surprise me either. Nothing about the near-murders had me on the edge of my seat, so I was just reading to be reading and not fully engaged.

I still liked Hex Hall a lot. It's not too original or exciting, but like I said, it was fun. That's enough to make me curious about what's to come now that Sophie knows the truth.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.