Review: SPELL BOUND by Rachel Hawkins

The last book in the Hex Hall trilogy starts pretty much where Demonglass (review here) left off: Sophie coming out of the Itineris in search of her mom and the Brannicks, a group of Amazonian-esque redheads who want to destroy people like Sophie--i.e., demons, witches, werewolves, fairies, etc. With her best friend, dad, fiance, and boyfriend all possibly dead, Sophie has to figure out a way to stop the Casnoffs from turning the rest of her high school into a demon army.

That plot sounds like bit of a potboiler, doesn't it? Actually, Spell Bound is a very light, fun read with a lot of humor. I think it's a successful conclusion to the Hex Hall series, although not as good as Demonglass. Sophie is always quick with the one-liners, and that gives Spell Bound some much-needed humor (my personal favorite was, "Jackass, jackass on the wall, where's the info on Hex Hall?").

That being said, it doesn't feel like a lot goes on in Spell Bound. For most of the book Sophie is recovering from her adventures in Demonglass and trying to figure out how to defeat the Casnoffs. There is a lot of build-up to the final battle, but the solution feels too easy and pat. I also have issues with the events that happened in the last fifty pages--again, it was all just too convenient. There wasn't really a sense of emotional resonance at the conclusion of the series that I would have liked.

Overall, though, I think Hex Hall has been a pretty successful YA trilogy. I had some doubts when I read the first book (review here), and there are things in the plot that are very cheesy and predictable; but Rachel Hawkins manages to pull it off with great writing that makes the novels fun and enjoyable.

Book Review: DEMONGLASS by Rachel Hawkins

After a challenging first year at Hex Hall, Sophie Mercer is going to England to spend the summer with her father and have her powers permanently Removed. But seeing as she's staying with the rest of the Council in the same house where her grandmother was turned into a demon, chances are good that Sophie will stumble upon some dangerous secrets.

I read Hex Hall, the first book in this series, when it came out, and here's what I remembered from it: Hex Hall is a high school. For... witches? Otherwise, my recall was embarrassingly blank. I remembered liking Hex Hall but thinking it was fairly predictable. Nevertheless, I heard a lot of good stuff about Demonglass, so I decided to keep on going with the series, and I'm definitely glad I did. Demonglass develops the story in new directions and is a big improvement from the first novel.

One of the things I really liked about this book was the "love triangle" between Sophie, Cam, and Archer (don't pretend you didn't know there wouldn't be a love triangle). Sophie knows both Cam and Archer from Hex Hall, but for various reasons, Archer is extremely unsuitable as boyfriend material--so, naturally, he's the one she's attracted to. Cam is Hex Hall's adorable groundskeeper who likes taking his shirt off (*rowl*), and the guy Sophie's best friend is rooting for. Sophie should really spend more time listening to her bestie. I love Cam so hard... but Archer is pretty awesome, too. Gah! Such a difficult decision!

As for what I didn't like, Sophie's relationship with her dad didn't make a lot of sense to me. She says herself that the only contact she's ever had with him during the entire course of her life are birthday cards obviously picked out by his secretary and tersely signed, "Your Father." WOW. Given that, I would think there'd be way more tension in that relationship than there was, especially with his super-sketchy behavior and the fact that he never explains why he's ignored her existence for the last seventeen years. It also bothered me when Sophie would think something along the lines of, "Oh, I'm seventeen now, so I have to respond to this like an adult." How realistic. Yes, by all means, consciously decide to deal with something as an adult, despite the fact that by our cultural and legal standards you are not.

Aside from that, this was a very quick, fun book, on the edge of being unputdownable (unfortunately I had to put it down because I have job. Stupid job). Outside the walls of Hex Hall, the books' world of magic feels much broader and more developed, and Hawkins really ups the ante for the main characters in this volume. The last fifty pages are incredibly intense, and the ending was a cliffhanger that left me wanting the third book in the series like NOW. I also love Sophie's humor and snark, which keeps the book feeling light even with all the serious events happening around her. I definitely recommend trying this series or the second book if you haven't already!



Musical notes: "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga, mainly because Sophie mentions she was "born this way" (i.e., with demon powers) several times during the course of the novel.

Hex Hall Discussion

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!

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