The plot, the setting, the lack of Archer Cross, and the twists. Hated her in the first book, but as a pissy “told you I’d haunt your ass” ghost, I liked her. Not too many teen books are set in my home state, so I had to have some love there. He’s quiet and really almost kind of pointless outside of saving everyone when needed (he is the most powerful healer ever, basically), but he seemed like a solid voice of reason….when he actually is allowed to speak. A lesbian vampire who has a pink fetish who also has a good bit of teenage angst cracked me up. It may be easiest to bullet point what I liked about this series, because there wasn’t much. With the help of her estranged father, roommate slash outcast best friend slash vampire Jenna, Hex Hall’s groundskeeper Alexander “Cal” Callahan, and school’s hottie Archer, Sophie tries to stop the oncoming war between the Prodigium and regular ole humans. She gets caught up in a strange love triangle, and finds out that The Eye is specifically out to get her.

The series progresses with Sophie learning some dark things about her family as she tries to adjust to going to an all magic school. Hex Hall or Hecate Hall as it is really called is a reform school for Prodigium (witches/warlocks – both light/white and dark, were-animals and faeries….and the random pink loving vampire.) I still haven’t figured out if it’s irony to call magically inclined creatures “prodigy,” but to each her own.īy the end of the first day, she’s met the school’s mean girls ( Elodie, Anna, and Chaston), befriended the school freak ( Jenna), gained a crush on the school’s hottie ( Archer Cross), a creepy ghost keeps following her around, and learned that there are two groups that hate Prodigium – L’Occhio di Dio commonly called “The Eye” and the Brannicks. Turns out Daddy dearest is also Head of the Council, so it is more like a serious grounding than anything else. Her magically inclined father is more or less estranged, sending random birthday cards or letters.Īfter a love spell gone terribly awry on prom night no less, she is sent by the Council to Hex Hall. And instead of witchy aunts to help, she’s living with her non-magical mother. Remember the television series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and how she was constantly messing things up with her magic? Sophie is like this, but worse. Unfortunately for her, this isn’t an easy thing to live with. Warning: Minor spoiler, as I am discussing the whole series.Īt the age of thirteen, Sophie Mercer found out she was a witch. Strangely enough, only the first book really takes place at a boarding school. This is a second series I read in my hunt to understand how boarding schools are portrayed in YA literature. But as hard of a time as I had getting through the first book, I figured I would go this route one more time.

This will probably be the last time I review something as an entire series, and instead focus on each book individually.

Hex hall books in order