"Hex Hall" by Rachel Hawkins

"On her 12th birthday, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. Three bumpy years later, after a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, she's exiled to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
By the end of her first day, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus. Then when a mysterious predator begins attacking students, and Sophie's only friend is the number-one suspect, a horrifying plot begins to surface. Soon, Sophie is preparing for the biggest threat of all: an ancient society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her."-goodreads

Hex Hall was a funny, cute book that was a relatively quick read. I enjoyed it, and I liked Sophie, who was a pretty good narrator. I thought it was interesting, with Sophie not really knowing what was going on with her being a witch or anything about her dad. The whole concept of Hecate Hall, where all the misbehaving creatures went was great.


I liked this book, but I admittedly had a problem with some character flaws. Sophie falls for Archer, the gorgeous warlock, which is fine and everything, predictable, but cute. The problem I had is that Archer was pretty mean to her, and regardless of how that suddenly changes, I don't really like it when books go all, girl likes boy, boy is mean, girl still likes boy, and acts like he has no flaws. Also, Sophie swore a lot, which is perfectly fine, I don't care, it was just that she seemed pretty logical and intelligent and everything and then she seemed to say things that didn't go along with that at all. So, those two things got on my nerves, although they didn't ruin the book for me or anything, I still enjoyed it.


My favorite elements of the book were probably the way the story ended up; who the 'ghost' was, how Sophie didn't know about what she was or what her family was, and the whole thing didn't end up the way I thought it would. I thought it was interesting how the school had all these creatures, the fairies, vampires, witches, warlocks, werewolves, and all of them were there because they'd done something or other they shouldn't have.


Anyway, if you're looking for a cute read, or if you need something light to get you out of a reading rut, this would probably be good. As well as if you want a written version of something kind of reminiscent of the Halloweentown movies for older audiences. I'll definitely be reading Demonglass soon. Also, I like the cover, even more so after reading the book-- but I do think it's a bit preppy/young girly looking for the book.