Hex Hall: Hex Hall Series, Book 1

By: Rachel Hawkins

Narrated by: Cris Dukehart

Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

On her 12th birthday, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. Three bumpy years later, after a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, she's exiled to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.

By the end of her first day, 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 on campus. Then, when a mysterious predator begins attacking students, and Sophie's only friend is the number-one suspect, a horrifying plot begins to surface. Soon, Sophie is preparing for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

©2010 Rachel Hawkins (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The story is well paced and plotted with tween-friendly humor and well-developed characters." ( Publishers Weekly)

Mean girls with spells

This book is full of twists and turns reveling enough to make in interested but not so much to make it predictable. Defiantly worth the credit. So very excited to keep reading more work by Rachel Hawkins.

Her characterizations and full and complete. The narration was great. I could easily tell what character was speaking..

Good story!

I read this series before, a long time ago, but the details were fuzzy. I just remembered it was pretty good, so I thought I'd try the audio books. I enjoyed them. The narrator did a great job.

Great fun!

Would you listen to Hex Hall: Hex Hall Series, Book 1 again? Why?

Maybe - it's not a super complicated book, but it was a lot of fun to listen to.

What did you like best about this story?

The setting - a boarding school for naughty supernaturals.

What does Cris Dukehart bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

If I ever read the book, I would still hear Dukehart's voice in my head as Sophie.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I may have snickered silently to myself a few times - a bit too fluffy for anything more.

Could.not.finish

One-liner heaven, aka a sit-com. Updated premise replaced orphan with single -parented kid. However, with something like only 300 boarding schools in the US (even counting the nearly equal number of secret magical academies these days) the average reader likely has never met anyone who attended one, not even to the 4th degree of social separation. The result is a reality-streamlined story eliminating adults (except obnoxious staff). Not like the Hogwarts saga. The narrator should avoid attempting regional matronly voices. I did skip to book 2, and found it more tolerable even if not a better story.

All around awesome!!

This book is full of flips and turns. I did see a few of them coming but wasn't sure but the biggest surprise of them all I would not have guessed!! Seriously you can't help but love this book and not only is the book good but so is the narration.

enthralling story!

I absolutely became enthralled in this story, and was captivated in the storyline and arc through most of the book.

I definitely would recommend it!

Surprisingly Awesome

Hex Hall is one of those books I've been seeing/hearing about for a while now. I've been interested in reading/listening to it, and fully expected to enjoy it. What I didn't expect was to LOVE it. The book starts off with a love spell gone wrong and just gets better from there. One of the twists at the end (there are several) I really didn't see coming - don't want to spoil it for anyone. I hate to compare Hex Hall to Harry Potter just because it takes place at a school for witches and wizards (all supernaturals really), but it did remind me a little of the Potter series. Only, Hex Hall isn't a place where witches learn to use their abilities, it is a reform school for those who have messed up. I cannot wait to continue with the series!

spell bound

What made the experience of listening to Hex Hall: Hex Hall Series, Book 1 the most enjoyable?

I so injoyed the book nice lison too. voice was easy to picture diferent faces

Familiar BUT good.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, I enjoyed it. I love YA and who wouldn't love a YA book with a supernatural magic school?

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The least interesting aspect of the book was the fact that it had a familiar feel about it. The misunderstood teenage girl with her even more misunderstood best friend face off with the three mean girls....we've all seen this story played out one too many times. But I think that involving magic and the twist that gets thrown in there really help spice up this novel. And I think that there is enough originality in it to keep you interested.

Have you listened to any of Cris Dukehart’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I really liked her performance.

AWESOME!

This book was awesome. It is simply cute, adorable, and awesome. I just loved it.