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I have to say that this book pleasantly surprised me. Lately I've been used to expecting mediocre or just 'okay-ish' paranormal books. I mean in comparison to books of the genre's like Grave Mercy, or Graceling. This one took me be surprise. Relief washed over me as I suddenly realised I was quite enjoying this book, and it was exciting to read!
Sophie is a witch, her father was a warlock and her mother a normal human being. They fell in love and had Sophie, but just before Sophie was born her mother found out what her father really was and separated all ties with him. Therefore Sophie was brought up by her mother and when she came into her powers at 13 she only had the knowledge that her mother could find out about witches. So she hesitantly let Sophie's father back in to help with these things.
One day Sophie uses her magic and it turns out very bad and nearly exposes her 'kind' -the prodigium's- which are beings that are not humans such as witches, fairy's, and werewolves. Her father finally intervenes and sends her to Hecate Hall where she must go to school until she's 18 years old.
Hecate Hall
Hecate Hall (Hex Hall for short) slightly reminded me of Hogwarts. I honestly think that's only because of the name of the classes. The classes were named things like 'Magical Evolution', 'Magical History' and the P.E. class was actually a 'Defense' class where they were taught how to physically fight to defend themselves and protect themselves from the L'Occhio di Dio (The evil that hunts prodigium). I was waiting for 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' to pop up in there somewhere. But there were also classes like 'Classifications of Vampires' and 'Personal Grooming of Werewolves'. They sounded interesting, I wanted to know what thing's they were taught in these classes.
Witches
The witches were either white witches or black witches. White witches had the ability to do small thing's like love spells, powerful white witches can heal others of their injuries but they cannot raise the dead. Then there are black witches, black witches are much more powerful and can do stronger and, if they so wish, more evil magic. Sophie was classed as a black witch, there were only three other black witches at Hecate; Chaston, Anna and Elodie.
Faeries, Were's and Shapeshifters
We didn't get to see many fairies but they were described. They all had different coloured hair and their wings looked more like butterfly wings than anything. We also didn't get to learn much about these were's or shapeshifters but that they could lose control of their changing when their emotions got high, like anger. Were's and shapeshifters were seen as different prodigiums all together.
Hex Hall
This book was fun and I found it kept me on my toes. Most of the twists I predicted were wrong, or the twists that happened hadn't even occurred to me. That was great, it kept me guessing and wondering what on earth was going on. We all know I love being as clueless as the MC until they find out the reveal themselves! Well if you've read any of my other reviews then you do, if not then you do now!
Although other supporting characters felt very vague. Elodie, Chaston and Anna felt like they were going to be a bigger part of the story so I was surprised to find they weren't really as big as I expected. Although Elodie ended up suddenly being a bigger part than I expected once I had gotten used to the idea. I felt like she jumped from 'supporting' to 'near lead'. Archer was the male love interest, and I'm pretty sure there was insta-love there. How I loathe insta-love. Sophie decided she liked him after only have talked to him a few times, both conversations would not have lead her to like him. Then we met characters at the beginning of the book that I thought we were going to see again but we never did. Maybe we'll see them in the next books?
Hex Hall was a good, fun paranormal that mixes witchery in with faeries, were's, shape shifter's and vampires.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a little more than just fun and entertaining. I'm really interested to read the next book because I want to know what Sophie does next and where the story goes. I'm hooked!
Miss J
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*Actually 3.5 Stars