Review Detail

Mix together angst and attitude. Then pile on the romance and rebellion. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins is an addicting read. I wanted to guzzle it like a fizzy soft drink. Unfortunately, by the end, I also felt as if my teeth had rotted.

Just prior to adolescence, Sophie discovered that she is a witch. Since that time, Sophie’s powers have gotten her into kicked out of nineteen schools in three years, but why should that stop her from using them again on prom night? To her credit, Sophie tries to use her powers for good. Poor Felicia doesn’t have a date and so Sophie steps in to solve that problem in a big way. It doesn’t faze Sophie when Felicia admits that she wants to date the same popular boy who is in every other young adult novel. Never mind that he is the SGA president, football captain, and everything good. Sophie can handle anything! She also has a soft heart. Still, you’d think someone who has been kicked out of nineteen schools might tone down the display of her powers, but Sophie apparently lacks that discretion. She conjures up a big dark cloud with purplish light, sends lightning racing across the sky, and…. The rest of the details aren’t important. All you really need to know is that this extravagant display of witchcraft lands Sophie in a reform school for wayward “Prodigium”; otherwise known as witches, faeries, and shape shifters.

I forgave Hawkins for that bizarre description of Sophie’s witchcraft, because of these two lines: “I kept concentrating, and as I did, the cloud swirled faster until it was a perfect circle with a hole in the center. The Magic Doughnut, as I’d dubbed it the first time I’d created one on my twelfth birthday.” Ah-ha! Upon reading those lines, I decided that Hex Hall would be a light teen romance and so I stuck with Hawkins even when the first chapter turned farcical. Unfortunately, all too quickly Sophie’s sense of humor morphs into plain old adolescent attitude and angst. My notes about the book’s best highlights stopped growing, with the one exception being the attempted murders that happen halfway through. It’s not a good sign in a book or a movie when you start wishing for slayings. Okay, I didn’t actually start WISHING for murders to happen. Hex Hall isn’t that bad. I just found the murders a refreshing break from the routine adolescent fare which filled the rest of Hex Hall. As such, my notes about the the book’s worst highlights grew longer and longer until I ran out of room.

When you think of female teen fiction, what comes to mind? If you said bad boys and mean girls, you’ll have nicely summarized the bulk of Hex Hall. In chapter two, Sophie meets Archer. He is leaning against a tree, his collar is unbuttoned, his tie hangs loose, and on his face is a smirk. Yup, that sounds about right for your typical “bad” boy. After rescuing her from a werewolf, he angers Sophie by insulting her powers. Yup, that also sounds about right for an opening scene. After all, if Archer was nice from the start, what would be his attraction? And, if Sophie liked him from the start, what fun would there be in his pursuit of her? Next, in chapter four, Sophie meets the three “charmed” ones. They are pretty and mean. What else would you expect? After all, if they were plain and kind, what would the pay-off be when they finally accept Sophie? Oh, there is one other thing that female teen fiction should bring to mind: friendship. My favorite character is Jenny. Besides being Sophie’s roommate, she’s loves pink and gets her beverages from a blood bank. She does the latter because is she’s also a vampire. Oh, she is also suspected of those attempted murders. She’s one of the more interesting characters in a parade of clichés.

To a certain extent, Hex Hall reminds me of the movie Mean Girls, because initially Sophie doesn’t want anything to do with the three “charmed” ones. From them, she learns that there are two different kinds of witches. White witches do minor spells such as love potions, fortune telling, and other seemingly innocent things such as make “bunnies and kittens and rainbows appear out of thin air.” Dark witches, on the other hand, cast major spells that as control weather, raise the dead and, as Sophie puts it “spells that hurt people”. When Sophie realizes exactly what kind of witches they are, she turns down their offer to join them. In turn, the leader Elodie accuses Sophie of thinking she is better of them, but Sophie claims that isn’t her reason. This scenario is one of several where I think Hawkins missed an opportunity to instill moral values into Hex Hall. While I dislike preachy novels, I also admire those authors who slip little snippets of wisdom into their books. Another missed opportunity occurs when Jenny tells Sophie that students aren’t allowed to use their powers to be lazy, but then nothing else is ever said about this idea.

The above criticisms aside, my biggest peeve is how much Hex Hall is a Harry Potter clone. To start, Hecate Hall is housed at a remote location. Students can reach this location only by ferry. Inside the school, a spiral staircase twists up three stories, seemingly supported by nothing. Pale and cold people sometimes sweep by the students. I’ll give you one guess as to what they are. There’s only one bathroom on the entire floor. One teacher picks on Sophie and even some of her peer despise her because, unbeknownst to Sophie, she possesses the strongest powers available to a witch. There is a groundskeeper and even a forbidden wood. While the young adult world could benefit from books that buck the trends, I wouldn’t have minded a good Harry Potter clone. The problem is that Sophie is sent to a reformatory school. With that little catch, Hawkins is off the hook when it comes to providing readers with a cleverly imaginative world such as Rowling provided in Harry Potter. Hecate Hall is pretty plain. For example, its dining room is simply a large room that has a jumble of tables shoved into it. While there are actually chandeliers, these are covered with what look like garbage bags. As for the food, even though it whets Sophie’s appetite, don’t you think a banquet should consist of more than macaroni and cheese, chicken, shrimp, and chocolate cake?

While I love a good fantasy, Hex Hall wasn’t one. Sadly, too many of the young adult paranormal books I’ve read have disappointed me. This puts me on the hunt for the exception. Or maybe I’ll just stick with young adult fiction that has nothing to do with witches, vampires, werewolves, and faeries.