While at first I was a little confused, I soon got caught up with everything. Sophia, or Sophie is our main character and she is a witch. She has grown up with her completely human mother, her father is absent from her life and has been since before she was born. From what I could gather, she has never met or spoken to her father, he communicates with her mother or her by email only. The book starts off with Sophie casting a love spell, we soon see it go horribly wrong( guy drives his car into the school) and then the next thing we know, Sophie is being shipped off to a school for "Prodigium", or the supernatural. There she feels like a total outcast among the outcasts and soon befriends a vampire; the only one that attends the school (though there is a Vampire teacher). She meets the resident Dark Witches and when they ask her to join their coven she turns them down thinking that there is no way she could be capable of doing dark magic. She develops a crush on the boyfriend of one of the dark witches, and while the crush is innocent at first, things develope as you normally see in most YA books. Sophie is thrust into the school drama as soon as everyone realizes that her room mate and friend is the vampire that everyone thinks killed a girl last semester, but when another of the dark witch coven ends up being attacked in the same way that the other girl was killed, everyone but Sophie assumes that it is Jenna)the vampire) doing it. Sophie sets out to prove everyone wrong and along the way she meets her great-grandmother who is a "ghost". Ghosty grandma starts to teach Sophie how to control her magic and do spells, all the while there is still things going on at the school. Sophie's crush on Archer is escalating and it almost comes to a head during a "ball" held at the school, that is until another of the dark coven is attacked. Jenna and the vampire teacher are then removed from the school. And things become strained between Sophie and Archer. Elodie, the last of the dark coven and Archer's girlfriend, gets busted in the fact that they joined Sophie to their coven without her knowledge and then the two frenimies must look out for each other. Elodie catches Sophie sneeking out one night to meet Alice and when Sophie brings Elodie along, she realizes that Elodie is stronger than her; Alice places a protection spell on both of the girls so that they can recognize their enemies in the school. Things kind of spiral out of control after that, and without giving too much away, know that there is a "hunter" at the school and Alice wasn't exactly what she said she was. I couldn't wait to pick up the next book in the series, just to find out what happens next! ( )

Often while reading this I had to consciously slow myself down because I found myself tearing through it much too rapidly. Hex Hall is an easy, enjoyable read for me. Overall nothing really shocked me, a few surprises (such as Sophie's roommate Jenna, her father's role and certain character motivations), but nothing that made me go 'How did I miss that?'. For anyone who is currently reading young adult books with a boarding school and para-normalcy tied together a lot of the plot points will seem familiar. Shades of Claudia Grey's Evernight, Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy and even Rachel Cain's Morganville books come to mind immediately. This isn't to say that Hawkins shirked on the world-building; its more that the entire subgenre of paranormal YA's has exhausted the boarding school aspect.

Sophie was, despite her sullen attitude at first, an intriguing character to read about. She performs minor mischievous magicks that finally get her sent to Hecate Hall (better known as Hex Hall) until she turns eighteen (in two years) and hopefully learns some control over her reckless magic use. This, like much of the up-front plotlines of the book, isn't the complete truth however. Interestingly, Sophie's mother is completely human while her father is the warlock; however Sophie is raised as a human in human surroundings. She moves constantly, but she's happy enough with the life and is upset to find out she's being shipped to Hecate Hall.

A lot of the book is steeped in generations old mysteries, secrets and dark things. As I mentioned, everything that is directly said can be more or less not taken at its word. A lot of the reasoning seems to be to 'protect' Sophie, or her classmates. The whole adult mentality 'if they know too much it may corrupt them' seems to be the plan. Sophie unravels many of the mysteries herself, but some of them are shoved at her and she's forced to deal with them.

I liked Hex Hall itself. There's a spell cast, that is explained about halfway through the novel, that gives it a kind of interesting turn. The school's furniture represents the student's view of how they feel currently. It kind of raises issues of whether its actually physically changed, or just visually, but its a cool spell. This is also the second book I've read that has made a certain brooding poet from the 19th century into a vampire. Oh fun times.

Sophie was given much of the development, but the others weren't left hanging. Mostly their backstories came in spurts and sometimes (like Archer's, or Elodie's) just seemed to be there, to explain them a bit more, but didn't blend with the rest of the story as well. Sophie's great-grandmother's story was very revealing about how a tale can get twisted as things get re-told and her room mate Jenna's I wanted to know a bit more about.

I'm looking forward to the second novel, Demonglass due out in March of 2011. And point in fact, I like the UK cover moreso than the US one. ( )

A fairly breezy read, with predictable plot points and "twists," the apparently-now-mandatory lesbian character, profanity (including the names of God and Christ misused), sexual references and a make-out scene, and - in the audiobook format - truly awful attempts at Southern accents.

There's also a disturbing origin story where God and Satan are presented as equals, more or less, and there's a group of angels that rise above their feud, "refusing to take sides," and they become supernatural creatures like fairies, witches, werewolves, etc. The idea that they know better than God is distinctly heretical. ( )

I did it again, I touched young adult.
It's just very typically ya with all its flaws.
All the unbelievable supernatural school bs that I have read before dozens of times.
I didn't make it far enough to tell if the world or the magic have interesting or unique quirks.
I dropped on the first incredibly laughable evil witch trio setup about the tattoos. I couldn't even force myself to read on to see how it plays out.
( )

Many eons ago in my high school/teens years, I used to read J-14 magazine. That magazine was my lifeline to society - celebrity gossip, posters of the Jonas Brothers, and book recommendations! During those formative years, I remember seeing endless advertisements for Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins and I never truly forgot about this book... Fast forward to my mid-twenties! I'm at a local charity book sale and I see THE BOOK! The book was right there within my reach! I picked it up, put it on my book shelf and forgot about it... until recently when I cleaned my house and donated many books so I had room on my shelves.

I am SO glad I finally picked this book up. This was another one of those books that gets me hooked instantly and falling in love with some teenie bopper characters. Throw in fantasy, typical YA "I can save the world"-esque plots and magic and you've got me hooked!

This book is funny, super sweet and sometimes sassy. It's absolutely the first book in the series and it leaves off with one of those dreaded cliffhangers that makes me want to read the next book ASAP.

We follow Sophia (she goes by Sophie) in this adventure filled novel after she performed a love spell a little too well. She gets sent off to Hecate, Hex Hall, and the rest is history! Sophie gets roomed with Jenna the vampire, she holds classes with some 'Mean Girl' clique-y girls and might be falling for the school's bad boy. She's the daughter of a powerful warlock, everyone seems to hold that against her and she's got some wild family history behind her. Yes, this sounds like the typical YA plot but it's written so wonderfully that I didn't even care! Rachel opens this world and makes me feel like I was apart of the journey. I felt for Sophie and Jenna, I ogled after Archer and I absolutely HATED Elodie. Hey, I was a teenage girl once. I remember the mean girls ruining all of the fun.

My favourite part of this book is all of the sassy one liners thrown around. Sarcasm is the way I live my life, so I loved that this book is full of it! Sophie, Jenna and Archer are absolutely hilarious. I also adored the side characters, the Groundskeeper being my favourite.

My least favourite? STUPID CLIFFHANGERS. I hate them and I truly believe that a book should be able to stand on it's own. I hate when I'm left off feeling cheated at the ending. Yes, I know Rachel wants us to read the next book in the series but I don't like when I'm left feeling like I HAVE to read the next book - I WANT to.

Overall, this book is a real gem! I'm glad I finally found it. Back in my teenage years I didn't have the funds (I mean, I'm a college student...I still don't, but I know how to bargain hunt now!), so it's awesome that I found a book I've been dreaming of! I still remember that ad page distinctly...

Five out of five stars! ( )