Since Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads and I were both planning on reading Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, we decided to discuss it for our book club, Romance Readers Anonymous. Here is part one; to read part two, go to Colette's blog!
Time: Very late Thursday night.
Place: Google Wave.
Heidenkind:
Hex Hall--Most brilliant YA book ever or... not?
Colette:
I'd say not the most brilliant YA book ever-it reminded me a little of HP for some reason. Not sure why, but I think this has a beginning of a great series. I think this will be a word of mouth kind of series.
Do you think this book was a little over the top on the cheesy line factor? My favorite was the witches of clinique.
Heidenkind:
There were a lot of good one-liners. My fave was when she said she always wanted to know what it was like to live in a mouth.
I agree--this book was just okay, but I can see it developing really well. It reminded me of a younger version of the Chicagoland Vampires Series, actually.
So let's start with the important questions--what do you think of Archer?
Colette:
I liked him, but had a hard time with believing in the romance between the two, I thought that the story could have almost done without him, except for the twist at the end. I just didn't want to believe it.
I thought the same thing with Elodie-I was sure it had to be a love spell, but it wasn't really ever explained. I think if I were in the age group this book was meant for I would have loved that love triangle.
Heidenkind:
You didn't want to believe the twists or that they were in lurv?
I had a hard time believing that Archer and Sophie were so hot for each other, too, but not as difficult a time as I had believing him and Elodie together. I just assumed he was under a love spell or something.
What about Cam? I think he has potential.
Colette:
Was he the groundskeeper? Def potential.
The problem with reading with this during the Readathon was that I read it a little too fast.
Heidenkind:
Yup, Cam was the groundskeeper. I think he's Sophie's betrothed.
Colette:
I got that feeling as well with him. I liked him much better than Archer. I wanted to see more of him :)
Heidenkind:
Too fast? Is there such a thing? I felt like it dragged even though it was a quick read. There still wasn't enough to justify the length, and it felt kind of predictable even though I didn't see some things coming.
Colette:
It did drag a little, maybe because it was predictable. There were a few surprises, but for the most part you knew what was going to happen way before the end of the book. I think the main problem I had with it was while it was cute, it was too similar to other books in the genre.
Heidenkind:
I definitely agree. Another thing I didn't like is that Sophie is supposed to be all smart, but she doesn't figure anything out and makes a lot of dumb moves. That's probably what bothered me the most and made it drag for me.
I don't know, I like Archer--especially now that he's a baddie. :) But Cam seemed super-sweet and I'd like to see more of him, too.
Colette:
Another thing that bothered me was that she is a pretty strong character, (which I think is good for YA readers) and that's why the whole thing with Archer bothered me. Why did she care so much if he liked her? But then that is the adult in me speaking.
Heidenkind:
Silly adult! ;) She cared because she liked him!
Colette:
One of the things that I loved about the book was that there weren't just witches at Hex Hall-it'll be interesting to see how some of the shifters and other supernatural beings factor into the next two books. (if they do)
Who were your favorite characters?
Heidenkind:
I expected the other supernatural creatures to play a much bigger role than they did in the book, to be honest. The shifters don't seem entirely trustworthy.
Hmm, probably Archer and Mrs. Casnoff.
To see how this conversation degenerates into near incomprehensibility due to lack of sleep, and why we end up talking about how much we love The Librarian, read part two at A Buckeye Girl Reads!
Powered by ScribeFire.
