Spell Bound

Hailed as “impossible to put down,” the Hex Hall series has both critics and teens cheering. With a winning combination of romance, action, magic and humor, this third volume will leave readers enchanted.

Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies—the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium. Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn’t as confident.

Sophie’s bound for one hell of a ride—can she get her powers back before it’s too late?

This trilogy is just so good. 

It’s one of the first trilogies I’ve read where I’ve loved each book equally, and each book was just fantastic in its own right. They’re just so good. Like, the magic in it isn’t anything new or unusual, it’s a really standard magic system, but it’s still fantastic and it works really well for the purpose and I just love everything about this series. 

That said, this book picks up literally right where Demon Glass dropped off (and dropped off rather suddenly. Cliff hanger much? I’m so glad I didn’t have to wait between books.) Basically, everything has gone to hell. People who Sophie thought were friends turned out to be enemies and vice versa. Basically, I’m not going to give anything away because I love how everything turned out too much to ruin it for anyone else. 

Archer is brilliant, as usual. I adore how the relationship dynamics work in this book. Like, there was enough of a love triangle to say that there was a love triangle. But it was one that wasn’t mind numbingly irritating. I appreciated the fact that it was there, but the characters could all function with each other. 

Also, I don’t think I’ve talked about how much I love Sophie yet in any of these reviews? Because I basically adore her. Usually, a book in first person doesn’t lend itself any favours in getting me to like the main character. I’m usually drawn to them way less if the book is written in first person, because I’m having the story told to me, but I’m not really seeing the character. 

Not the case with Sophie Mercer. She’s just so great. She’s strong willed and cracks terrible jokes when she’s freaked out or nervous and I love how she handles the whole ‘oh btw you’re a demon’ bit. I actually love how she handles every situation.

You know what else I love? Great lady friendships. Sophie and Jenna’s relationship is just the best thing and I looooove that it never gets overshadowed by her relationship with Archer. In fact there were a few moments when I was pondering how, in any other book, the main character would have probably been thinking about the potential love interest during a certain scenario. Not the case with these, like, ugh I just love how she handled the relationships in these because it was just so great. Even Elodie and Sophie was handled perfectly (yes, if you’ve read the first book you know about Elodie and what happens to her. Turns out she’s quite an important character in this book), everything, everything was just great. 

The only thing that’s not great is that these are over. Honestly the final climax was perfect. I really love how the ending was handled, actually the endings of each book were pretty fantastic. They were fast paced but not too much. Like, I mean I would have liked a longer conflict at the very end with more dilapidated Hex Hall and fun stuff like that, but the ending was still great (and sad yet not. Great kind of ending).

It was all just perfect, that’s all I can say. 

10/10 stars all around. For the whole series. Honestly these books are just the best I’m so happy that they exist.

Demonglass

Sophie Mercer thought she was a witch. 

That was the whole reason she was sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for delinquent Prodigium (aka witches, shapeshifters, and fairies). But that was before she discovered the family secret, and that her hot crush, Archer Cross, is an agent for The Eye, a group bent on wiping Prodigium off the face of the earth.

Turns out, Sophie’s a demon, one of only two in the world—the other being her father. What’s worse, she has powers that threaten the lives of everyone she loves. Which is precisely why Sophie decides she must go to London for the Removal, a dangerous procedure that will destroy her powers.

But once Sophie arrives she makes a shocking discovery. Her new friends? They’re demons too. Meaning someone is raising them in secret with creepy plans to use their powers, and probably not for good. Meanwhile, The Eye is set on hunting Sophie down, and they’re using Archer to do it. But it’s not like she has feelings for him anymore. Does she?

I posted this statement on various websites when it happened, but when a book causes me to swear vehemently at it for the last half, and then force me after finishing it to lay facedown on my bed saying: Ican’tican’tican’tican’t over and over again. That is a sure sign that it is a great book. 

I was actually a little bit worried about this one at the beginning, mostly because I was worried that it would succumb to the trilogy problem of the second book. This book also introduces something of a love triangle so I was really worried about that as well (1. Because I don’t really like love triangles much, and 2. Having the love triangle introduced in the second book is an interesting tactic that I wasn’t sure would actually work.) 

I can assure you, however, that this book does not disappoint. In fact, in some ways it’s better. 

This book takes place in England, away from Hex Hall. Sophie, Jenna and Cal are taken by Sophie’s father to England. Mostly to keep Sophie safe over the summer, but there are other reasons as well. 

Like I said before, something of a love triangle is introduced in this book. Except, it’s kind of not. Like, in Prodigium society witches and warlocks are betrothed, except they don’t necessarily have to go through with those betrothals if they don’t want to. So, yes, Cal and Sophie are betrothed. Except she’s not really interested and aside from a few sweet moments they share, it’s pretty obvious she’s still in love with Archer - the warlock who works for the anti-Prodigium group. 

Which is good. Because I adore Archer. Really I do. In a lot of recent YA books, the bad boy type is attempted and fails miserably. But Archer does a pretty good job of it (he also is a toned down version of the evil!boyfriend trope. And we all know how much I adore that trope). He doesn’t make as many appearances in this book as in the previous one, but when he is in the story it’s pretty great.

In essence, Sophie is taken to the current Council headquarters in England, were she meets two other demon kids - Nick and Daisy (oh, Nick. I couldn’t help comparing him to Nick Ryves, my dear favourite demon/human from The Demon’s Lexicon.) She was under the impression that her family were the only ones who were actually demons, but then she meets these kids. Her father then explains to her that Nick and Daisy were created much like Sophie’s ancestor, Alice, and he was searching for a way to reverse the process. 

Now, ok, I was a bit put out - I guess - about the fact that Sophie gets along so well with her absentee father. I mean, I’m not entirely sure that it would work like that. I didn’t mind that she got along really well with him, because I thought he was a great character. I guess I just wanted a little more teenage abandonment angst. Then again, Sophie isn’t an angsty character so I guess that does explain that. 

During the course of the summer, though, Sophie (with the help of Archer) discovers a plot that could prove even more dangerous to the Prodigium than both their current enemies combined. 

Then, I mean, just as a note I spent the entire last 50 pages swearing at the pages. Because the ending is AMAZING. I really like the pacing of these books. The endings are just complete rushes of action and it’s great. I also wasn’t expecting the end at all so that was just great.

Also Rachel Hawkins is one of us (the infected few who watched Hex and spawned these kinds of novels) so, basically, she’s the greatest and I really would like to meet her. To sob about Hex, mostly. 

10/10

Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.

This was, in fact, my first go at reading Margaret Atwood. I’m not entirely sure why I chose this one to read first, I think I saw a glowing review for it’s sequel on tumblr and decide that, well, I might as well start here. And, yes that was a pretty good decision as this book floored me.

Like, I’m not even sure how to review it. 

Like, I’m not even entirely sure what happened. 

But it was amazing. 

It was also incredibly unsettling. The book dumps you in the beginning in a bleak landscape and the character of Snowman. The only human left, Snowman is basically alone except for the Children of Crake - who are portrayed as eery almost animalistic people.  Through a series of flash back like chapters, the picture is painted of a world in which progress has, well, progressed as it would and the rich and the well off live in the Compounds and the poor and the masses live in the cities - the pleeblands as it were. Jimmy - known as Snowman in the ‘present’ - is a child living in the Compounds, whose father works for a company working on, well, extravagant processes involving pigs with human organs and other things too technical for me to sum up in an understandable manner. Jimmy grows up in this controlled and clean environment but there’s always something off. 

In the present narrative, there’s always something about two people that he knew - Oryx and Crake - and through a long process of weaving in backstory with the current events, we are given the story of how the world became the desolate nightmare, and how Jimmy survived when basically no one else did and who the Children of the Crake are. 

The book is unsettling because it’s dangerously close to the world as it is. Like, it’s a legitimate path that the world could take. Of course, that is the nature of science fiction, and this is definitely that. This world is so bleak, though, the characters live these lives that feel so meaningless. Jimmy and Crake live essentially the best lives that the world can offer and yet their lives are sad and meaningless. Oryx lives the traumatising life of a child sold into sex trafficking and yet she remains totally detached from the world - probably as a result of it. In reality, I never cared much for Jimmy, he was just the vessel that the story was told through.

In reality, Crake was my favourite character. Jimmy’s best friend growing up and a complete genius. He was also pretty much crazy. I mean, maybe he was the main character, it’s definitely something that could be speculated with in this kind of book. Because, Jimmy wasn’t a character anyone would really love. He didn’t have any real good qualities to him that you would grow attached to. He was a narrative vessel, but a pretty damn good one. Crake was an enigmatic character and you always knew that he was important, not just because the present narrative was always hinting at his importance as the past narrative caught up. He was just so interesting because his ideas were so ingenious and yet terrible and led to so many terrible things. 

Oryx was the same kind of character as Crake. Her story unfolded as the past narrative caught up. And she basically remained a mystery throughout the entire story. You got what Jimmy thought her life story was - born in some far off country and sold into the sex industry - eventually her story intertwines with Jimmy’s but in a way that … almost is too implausible to be true. And yet there it is. I’ve never seen it done before in which the character’s backstory and story are laid out right in front of the reader, and yet she still remains a complete and total mystery. 

I just, this is one of those books that you have to experience for yourself, I guess. Because the plot is too complex for me to explain and feel like I did it justice. It just needs to be read. I mean, in no way is it an uplifting story. No, actually it was incredibly disturbing and completely unsettling. But, it was also amazing. The way the narrative weaves itself together was basically brilliant. 

I have a bunch of Margaret Atwood’s books lined up to read this summer, and this was definitely a good place to start. 

10/10 

Hex Hall

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 am about 90% certain that Rachel Hawkins fell under the very same Hex curse that has befallen myself and so many others. The curse in which one watches the British television show Hex and then somehow finds themselves writing a supernatural boarding school trilogy. It happened to me. It obviously happened to her as well. I don't know if I can find any information to confirm my suspicions, but i'm pretty certain that I'm correct. 

This book was actually kind of perfect in a kind of strange way. I read it in one sitting, breezed right through, couldn't put it down actually. It was pretty simply written. First person which we all know is not my favourite, but i actually really liked Sophie and felt like i knew her as a character, which isn't something that usually happens in first person POV books. 

Sophie is a witch with some problems, any time she does a spell something usually goes pretty wrong. So, she's sent to Hecate Hall, AKA. Hex Hall, the school where those with magic (witches/warlocks, shifters, werewolves, and faeries) are sent to keep them out of the way until their eighteenth birthday where they can be trusted to not reveal themselves to any humans. Sophie, a social pariah in the human world - just so happens to be something of a social pariah in this world as well, especially when she's placed as a roommate with the only vampire in the school. A vampire whose last roommate died under suspicious circumstances the year prior. 

Parts of this book were actually really cliche. Sophie is kind of awkward, the trio of pretty witches at first try to get her to be a part of their coven, but then become nasty when she turns them down, Sophie develops a crush on school heartthrob Archer (but he just so happens to be dating the leader of the witch trio, Elodie), and so on and so forth. Strangely though, i didn't care at all. While reading it all I could think was, 'wow, these are themes i've seen done a million times before, but i really really like them being done in this way.' Like, usually characters like Archer get on my nerves because they come across as trying too hard to be aloof and nonchalant and just ~*so attractive*~, but in this book i actually genuinely really liked him. He was a good character. And i'm usually really bothered by the 'mean girl' trend, but i dunno i really liked how it was worked into this book. 

Then, of course, when more mysterious near deaths occur that all point to Sophie's roommate, she's really the only one that believes otherwise and works to find out. Which is a nice thing, especially after she's told that she's potentially the strongest witch ever (though she doesn't see it herself, as she's pretty terrible with magic during this book). 

I just... really loved this book a whole lot. The ending was actually brilliant and actually perfect. It was what basically confirmed, oh yes, this author watched Hex, this author is one of us. So maybe there's a little bit of bias there too? I can't hate a book when I'm pretty much certain that it was inspired by the same brilliantly terrible show that inspired one of my books as well. 

But no, this was actually just a really great read. I've got the other two lined up to read and I'm probably going to start immediately.

9/10 stars.  

Abhorsen

The Ninth was strong

and fought with might, 

But lone Orannis

was put out of the light, 

Broken in two

and buried under hill, 

Forever to lie there, 

wishing us ill.

So says the song. But Orannis, the Destroyer, is no longer buried under hill. It has been freed from its subterranean prison and now seeks to escape the silver hemispheres, the final barrier to the unleashing of its terrible powers.

Only Lirael, newly come into her inheritance as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, has any chance of stopping the Destroyer. She and her companions -- Sam, the Disreputable Dog, and Mogget -- have to take that chance. For the Destroyer is the enemy of all Life, and it must be stopped, though Lirael does not know how.

To make matters worse, Sam's best friend, Nick, is helping the Destroyer, as are the necromancer Hedge and the Greater Dead Chlorr, and there has been no word from the Abhorsen Sabriel or King Touchstone.

Everything depends upon Lirael. A heavy, perhaps even impossible burden for a young woman who just days ago was merely a Second Assistant Librarian. With only a vision from the Clayr to guide her, and the rather mixed help of her companions, Lirael must search in both Life and Death for some means to defeat the Destroyer.

Before it is too late. . . .

Well, I seem to have found my new favourite trilogy. Honestly, these are the most perfect books to me. They're basically everything I have been looking for in a YA series for a really long time. Abhorsen begins right at the end of Lirael and is the culmination of all of the build up that went on in Lirael. So, needless to say, it was very dramatic. 

I can't really do any form of plot summary without spoiling, as everything that occurs in this book is built up to in the previous book. So, the pacing of this book was spectacular. Actually, the pacing to the entire series has been absolutely brilliant. On top of the world building and the brilliant magic system, the pacing of the series is actually perfect. It's slower in the previous book, but it was so well done with this one. A lot of times, when an entire book is the climactic ending to a series, it can feel incredibly rushed and messy, or so chaotic that nothing really makes sense, but this was set up in such a way that everything made sense and ended in a way that was just perfect. Like, the ending was legitimately perfect. The ending was terrifying and shocking and just everything about this book was perfect. 

Lirael is a brilliant protagonist and this book is easily where she shines the most. (Also, if you have contentions with either Sabriel or Lirael being strong female protagonists then you and I need to have a serious discussion because you are crazy and i think current YA trends may have brainwashed you. Shhh, it's ok, come here, we can make it better.) Also her relationship with Sabriel is one that I wish we got to see more of. This book does kind of end right at the finality of the resolution (Though, I have a short story to read that apparently occurs right after the happenings in this book, so maybe I'll get a little bit of that there). 

I was just really worried that this book was going to succumb to the frequent fate of the final novel of a trilogy (*coughMockingjay*), when the ending comes too rushed and too messy and makes too much of an attempt to live up to the previous books and falls flat or doesn't make sense or just ends wrong. That was not the case here. The build up to the final showdown was tense and dramatic as needed, the actual final showdown itself did not disappoint (which I was a bit worried that it would. I noticed that frequently any clashes with the enemy tend to end very quickly. Nix doesn't draw anything out needlessly, including the battle scenes. They are usually just long enough to get the point across). In this case, though, the magic lined up with final showdown, everything made sense and lined up and was basically perfect. Even though it had the potential to be cliché, (they were fighting "The Destroyer") it definitely wasn't. 

There were a few unanswered questions (the ultimate fate of the Southerlings? Nothing was ever said. I suppose in the long run it wasn't totally relevant, but it would have been nice to know what happened to them at the end...). Though, in all honesty I preferred the ending that way. The last thing I wanted here was a happily ever after kind of ending. I actually love how Nix ends his novels (Sabriel's ending was probably one of my favourite endings to a book ever). This one was no different. It ended exactly where I wanted it to. It didn't drag out the happy feelings any more than it needed to and in reality it was quite bittersweet. 

Basically, though, this series has just fought a valiant battle for my favourite series ever. I mean, comparatively the writing might be a little straightforward (honestly, Nix's writing style is amazing to me. He doesn't overdue anything, he gives you exactly what you need to keep your imagination going and really no more than that), but I really adore it. I really love these books and I'm going to force literally everyone I know that hasn't read them already to read them. I am still kicking myself for not reading them when I was younger and constantly picking them up. I can't believe myself. 

Also, did I mention in my last review that I read that he is currently working on Clariel which is apparently a prequel novel, as well as another Old Kingdom novel? I am really excited about that because I feel like this is a world that deserves more than just three books and I'm really glad that he's planning on expanding upon it. 

10/10 stars. obviously.