REVIEW : Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

REVIEW : Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

   11:29 AM       Elisa

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Hex Hall

Author     : Rachel Hawkins
Publisher  : UFUK
Source     : Bought
Pages       : 420

Summary from Goodreads :

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, 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 student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

I was really happy when publisher here announced they'd release Hex Hall right after I just read about it. The cover's exciting, the premise sounds sooo amazing about a pack of young supernatural creatures schooling in one place and that instantly gripped me, the sucker of paranormal stories. And gladly it didn't disappoint me =)

Hex Hall is a delightful, light and refreshing reading and also would make you laugh a bit out loud like I did, because too many sarcasm and witty lines in it. It was a fast pace read and there were some little scary and tense parts that made me flipping the pages faster, wanted to know what happen next. Very exciting reading!

The background situation reminded me a bit with Harry Potter but of course it's different and has its own enchantment, an old castle turn to school and boarding house for problematic witches, warlocks, werewolves,*faeries, and only 2 vampires; no single human and some of them even hate each other.
We read this story through Sophie Mercer's head, the main character in this story and she's one reason why you would enjoy this book. She's so honest to others and herself so her voices and lines are super hillarious and full of sarcasm. I found myself giggling and kept giggling and giggling because of it. She's really easy to be loved! And also what I like more about Sophie is despite her foolish acts and thoughts, she's not a fool. Well, maybe there's a part that annoyed me because she trusted someone suspicious very easily, but she paid it with her clever act. She's also down-to-earth enough to choose her killer-suspected 'pinky' vampire friend, Jenna, than 3 popular witches who want to recruit her.

Then, there's Archer, Sophie's love interest.
Hm... what can I say about him... he's pretty cute, kind, mysterious (well, we know his true identity at last), and still his feeling for Sophie was still unpredictable here, is it sincerely or not. Honestly I don't know him very well except he sometimes threw cute jokes and I still need to find out more about him. I pretty confuse myself that everyone already like him at first, but not me. Odd right? I even more curious about Callahan, who just makes short appearances, who mostly just acted but less talked. Interesting, and I think I'll read more about him at next book =)

Overall, the story quite amusing and very entertaining. But there was something bothered me at translation version, and I'll tell it in Bahasa.

Ini untuk masukan aja buat translatornya (yang mungkin ngga akan dibaca sih disini, secara blog indo yang pakai bahasa Inggris sangat ngga populer =p). Entah memang mungkin di versi aslinya juga seperti itu, saya mendapati cukup banyak pengulangan kalimat 'atau apalah'. Kalau kadang2 saja mungkin tidak masalah, cuma karena sering banget jadi rada2 gimana gt. Kalo misal memang di versi aslinya seperti ya mau gimana lagi emang. Just sayin' =)

Hex Hall is recommended if you need light paranormal story with witty and satire writing style which makes you laugh. I can't wait to read the next sequel, Demon Glass that will be released next month based on publisher's info.