Demonglass (Hex Hall, #2)

by Rachel Hawkins

[Angie]

Demonglass is another super quick installment of this series, but it's sadly less interesting and even less memorable than the first book. It's a few weeks before the end of the school year and Sophie is finally face-to-face with her father. He wants her to come back to England and spend the summer with him, so he can teach her more about being demon before she decides if she wants to go through the Removal. Well, Sophie doesn't get the summer with her father that was planned, since there's nefarious deeds going on right under the head of the Council's nose.

I was quite bummed when it became clear that Demonglass was not going to be set at Hectate Hall. Most of this series' appeal for me was the special school setting, and it has now been lost. I was eager to learn more about what being a demon means along side Sophie, but that didn't totally hold my interest either. She does spend a lot of time training with her father, but it didn't seem like stuff that would actually help her. It was more of what would benefit him, but at least Sophie catches on to this and calls him out.

Then there's this totally annoying romance element which I never saw coming, and really feel like it added nothing to the overall story. Sophie is worried about running into Archer in England, which of course means that she's going to run into him. But Cal has joined her (and Jenna) on her trip and she's learned some very shocking news about him, which I think I assumed in the first book, but can't really remember. So there's this kind of love-triangle, but not really. The whole Archer situation just got on my nerves, because it was so typical. Sophie also pulls the "you're the only real thing in my life even though I have to lie about you" card, and that just completely lost me. I hate that whole spiel.

The big conflict was pretty good. Someone is raising demons, which is very bad. Who is doing it is super obvious, and Sophie does guess who early on, and then it's confirmed by a villain monologue. I suppose I understand why they think they need to do this, but I don't actually think they do. They're just making things harder on themselves and the cause they're supposedly fighting for, and it's just a mess.

Demonglass was kind of disappointing. I didn't expect greatness, but this was kind of dull. I didn't wholly dislike it, since stuff does happen, it just wasn't super interesting stuff. Even if I hadn't checked out Spell Bound at the same time, I do think I'd still have picked it up to find out what happens next. Mostly because I have no clue what the overarching plot is suppose to me, so I'm curious to see where this goes.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.