Hex Hall
It takes a heluva lot for me to say that I have enjoyed a YA. I haven't expected to like Hex Hall at all. To be honest I am still more than a little surprised that it managed to sneak up on me in the way it did, considering it had most of the usual cliches that make YA intolerable.I will have to chalk it down to the MC Sophie Mercer for not being complete and utter waste of space. Rachel Hawkins developed a nice heroine that despite the classic YA/NA theme, equipped with super-hot cheerleader type mean girls, a lame but not love interest that's dating head mean girl and our Soph is soooo crushing on him. There was a school dance – there's always a damned school dance. And yes – there are powers, and our girl is more speshul than the rest. Yadda, yadda, yadda...
There was talk of make up, clothes and the importance of accessories. There was menial banter, there was glitter....so why the hell didn't I hate it? I still don't know. Perhaps because Hawkins brought to life a young woman whose age wasn't displayed as a sign of shallow stupidity as many authors manage to do. In every part of our lives there are things that are more important than the rest, but for the love of God just because they're teenagers, doesn't mean they're morons. Most of YA themed novels out there present female protagonists as severe idiots that aren't capable of a straight thought unless it's about clothes or the cute guy. This is why there are a lot of people out there simply hating the hell out of this genre. Women are simply not as stupid as some of these authors present them to be.
Hex Hall could have been so much better, though if there was at least a little bit more effort invested in content originality. Even if it didn't suck ass, it was cheesetastic. Cliche, after cliché, after cliché, and with that much cheese there wasn't enough wine to balance it out. Refreshing as Sophie Mercer was, the story was limited.
One other thing. Every time, well, not every, but most of the times in YA we seem to see this reoccurring theme where the young girls are presented in the sainted and virginal way their mothers want them to be, rather the way teenage girls are. I am not saying they are misrepresented, I am not saying that being a teenage girl you are unable to have morals, just that those teen years are a time of discovery and it's the element most commonly missing from these type of novels. As if the authors are not willing to rock the boat in any way, presenting us nothing but Hannah Montana, wishing damned Miley never existed.
When we all know …....
