Book Review – Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

In the wake of a love spell gone horribly wrong, Sophie Mercer, a sixteen-year-old witch, is shipped off to Hecate Hall, a boarding school for witches, shapeshifters and faeries. The traumas of mortal high school are nothing compared to the goings on at “Freak High”. It’s bad enough that she has to deal with a trio of mean girls led by the glamorous Elodie, but it’s even worse when she begins to fall for Elodie’s gorgeous boyfriend, Archer Cross, and frankly terrifying that the trio are an extremely powerful coven of dark witches. But when Sophie begins to learn the disturbing truth about her father, she is forced to face demons both metaphorical and real, and come to terms with her own growing power as a witch.

I’ve been wanting to read Hex Hall for a while now so I took the opportunity to download it for my new Kindle and read it as my first book of the New Year. Hex Hall is the short name for Hecate Hall; an ‘out of the way’ specialist boarding school aimed at protecting and reforming wayward witches, shapeshifters, fairies – collectively known as Prodigium.

Main character Sophie Mercer is shipped off to Hex Hall after her attempts to use her magic to help a girl at her high school, go drastically (and quite amusingly) wrong. The opening of the book where Sophie tries to cast a love spell to help a classmate who doesn’t have a date for the prom, made me laugh and really sets the tone for the book well. Hex Hall is a lighthearted and witty read with a main character who doesn’t take herself too seriously and is very likeable.

Sophie is sixteen and has lived with her human Mum all her life. She has never met her warlock Dad and having lived her life in the human world, she finds Hex Hall and it’s occupants both amazing and challenging at times. I liked that the book gave Sophie’s perspective as an outsider and I’m sure many readers will identify with the challenges she faces settling into a new place and making new friends.

Sophie immediately makes both friends and enemies. She gets on the wrong side of the schools ‘it’ girls by refusing to join their coven and develops a crush on coven leader Elodie’s boyfriend Archer Cross.  Elodie, Anna and Chaston, the three dark coven leaders were fairly typical ‘mean girl’ types, determined to make Sophie and room mate Jenna’s lives difficult. Jenna was my favourite character in the book. She is the token vampire student at Hex Hall and loves the colour pink! Despite the supernatural setting, many of the trials and tribulations that Sophie and Jenna face are those faced by every teenager; detention, fitting in and developing a crush and I think there is a lot in the book for younger teenage readers to identify with.

The story steps up a gear as Sophie learns that the previous occupant of her room died, mysteriously drained of blood. As further attacks take place, the finger points at Jenna and Sophie is determined to prove her friend’s innocence with the help of her grandmother’s ghost but all is not what it seems and Sophie finds herself in danger with the person she least expected!

Hex Hall appealed to my love of school based stories in a Mallory Towers meets Hogwarts meets Mean Girls way. Although the mythology and background isn’t as detailed as some books, there were enough twists to the story to keep me turning the pages and I found this book a quick and enjoyable read with an ending that left me looking forward to the next book.

4/5