School Spirits

Book Title: School Spirits

Author: Rachel Hawkins

Number of Pages: 297

Rating: 3.5 stars

Genres: Young Adult, YA Fiction, YA Romance, Magic-Fantasy,

Books like it: Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

My favorite quote:

“I don’t know what heaven smells like, but if it doesn’t smell like freshly baked cookies, I will be really disappointed.”   

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads:

Fifteen-year-old Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy’s older sister vanishes without a trace while on a job, Izzy's mom decides they need to take a break.

Izzy and her mom move to a new town, but they soon discover it’s not as normal as it appears. A series of hauntings has been plaguing the local high school, and Izzy is determined to prove her worth and investigate. But assuming the guise of an average teenager is easier said than done. For a tough girl who's always been on her own, it’s strange to suddenly make friends and maybe even have a crush.

Can Izzy trust her new friends to help find the secret behind the hauntings before more people get hurt?

Rachel Hawkins' delightful spin-off brings the same wit and charm as the New York Times best-selling Hex Hall series. Get ready for more magic, mystery and romance!

My Summary:

 

A huge disappointment considering the potential from the author. Intriguing, and an average read.

 

When I saw that my library FINALLY had School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins, I freaked out, having loved the Hex Hall series. Unfortunately, there is only a mention of Sophie in this book, and absolutely no Archer, which was disappointing.

And then you have Dex.

Dex was like, the complete opposite of Archer. Which was good, because some authors try to write different  series and all of their characters sound the exact same. Dex had some humor, but it wasn’t really the sarcastic humor of Archer Cross. Also, Dex was definitely shyer and showed his feelings for Izzy a lot faster than Archer did for Sophie.

Wait, who is Izzy? You might remember her being mentioned in the Hex Hall series. She is a Brannick, and also Sophie’s cousin. All Izzy is accustomed to is fighting vampires and fairies and other Prodigium creatures. Then one day her mom comes to her and tells her that she has decided it is time for Izzy to try and handle a case on her own. It is a case that takes place at Ideal High School. The thing Izzy needs to find? A ghost that is haunting the school. In order to do this, Izzy must enroll at the highschool and pretend to be a normal human being.

I snagged my black jacket from one of the hooks, and as I did, I caught a flash of movement.

Torin.

In the mirror, he leaned against the wall behind me. “Nervous?” he said, grinning.

Glancing down the hall towards the kitchen, I whispered, “No.”

His grin got bigger. “Yes, you are. You’re a Brannick, a Queen Among Women, and you’re scared of going to school. When really, it’s the school that should be scared of you.”

 

    Izzy has never been a regular girl. She doesn’t know about the square root of 36, she has never even heard of Shakespeare, and she definitely doesn’t know about the drama. No type of training could have prepared her for the relationships, the fights, and all the excitement that regular humans go through every day. Before she can find the ghost, she has to make friends and remember one thing:

Humans and Brannicks can never be real friends.

    Then Izzy meets Dex, a regular human boy that does weird things to her feelings. She could have sworn that when she shook his hand on the first day of school, she felt a tiny pulse of magic, and she immediately suspects him as an undercover Prodigium. But as she voices her concerns with her mother, her mom tells her that it might not be magic that Izzy is feeling when she is around Dex. Whatever the feeling is, Izzy knows that she needs to solve this case before things get out of hand.

    Maybe Dex wasn’t Prodigium. But if that was true, then what the heck was I feeling? No matter what everyone kept saying, I knew that little hum of magic when I touched him wasn’t just hormones.

    I turned my head and looked at him grinning at his Nana, his silver bracelet winking in the sun, his coat just impossibly, stupidly purple.

    Or did I just want Dex to be Prodigium because the idea of liking him was a lot  scarier?

    When strange things start happening to kids around the school, Izzy goes to investigate. When her friend Romy finds a newspaper article about family relationships in the school, Izzy realizes that the incidents are connected. This isn’t a school prankster, it is a ghost that wants revenge. Izzy must find the ghost and stop her before her friends get hurt.

    I really did enjoy this book. Really, I did. But it just wasn’t as awesome as Hex Hall, in my opinion. Maybe because this is a STANDALONE *alert: If you don’t like being devastated that a good book won’t have a sequel, this wouldn’t be the best one to read.*

 

I kind of felt like this book was just a YA Romance with some paranormal stuff that was forced into it. It wasn’t Hawkins best work. Sorry. That is all.