In case it wasn’t obvious, I had a thing for witch stories even as a kid. Last year, I reviewed the nostalgic Magic in Manhattan series, which I read countless times growing up and still hold very close to me, despite the series’ more apparent flaws. Although Bras and Broomsticks is my most nostalgic young adult witch book, Hex Education comes in close second.
Fourteen-year-old Sophie Stone has moved with her horror movie director father and mother from Los Angeles to Mythic, Massechussetts. Her father is eager to help rebuild the town and scout filming locations for his next movie, but Sophie would rather be back in sunny LA than a rainy, witch-obsessed hamlet like Mythic. Sophie quickly makes friends and enemies at her new school, and soon discovers a shocking secret. Her three new friends are part of a coven of young witches, and Sophie is supposed to be the most powerful among them. Apparently, an evil witch has set their target on Mythic, and Sophie and her coven are the town’s only hope.
I’m not surprised at loving this book so much as a kid. It reminds me a lot of the W.I.T.C.H series, where a new girl in town makes some new friends and they all share a magical destiny to protect their home, despite only being high school freshmen. It’s also a lot frothier than my other nostalgic witch books, since the characters only have surface-level development and the twist is easy to see coming.
Sophie is relatable in her struggle to just fit in, but she is kind of your typical angsty teen who hates her parents and cares more about fashion than school. Her friends, Devon, Cella, and Katherine, are individually defined by pretty much one characteristic, and although I still remembered them now, the story could have safely spent more time developing the girls’ friendship before launching them into their destiny.
I’m not really into Sophie’s love interest, Linc, since he is a typical bad boy charmer. The only difference is that, rather than being tied to the ditsy blonde queen bee Corey, he is actually the reluctant object of the queen bee’s affections. So that kind of saves him.
And oh boy, is Corey a caricature. Sure, it’s easy to hate her, but she is the most archetypal YA character of them all here. She has Sharpay Evans’ looks from the High School Musical series but none of the loving-to-hate-them vibe.
The magical elements are honestly not in this book for very long. The girls learn of their destiny at the halfway point, but keep in mind that this book is only 182 pages long. That’s not a long time to spend with these characters and enjoy their magical discoveries. It feels like you learn about the magic, see the coven get formed, and then defeat the bad guy without much of a cooling period in between. There could have been some real The Craft bits in there with the girls playing around with different spells and rituals and just having fun with the magic. After all, isn’t that the prime enjoyment of these stories: to see ourselves enjoying the same magic that the characters do? We literally see the girls do two big bits of real magic, with some silly bits in between, so the magical spectacle feels kind of lame.
I always thought the ending was the worst thing about this book, and the same holds true now. So much happens in the last nine pages that it hardly feels like a proper climax. Just goes to show this book could have used at least another fifty, even one hundred, pages, to keep the pace from suddenly going to Mach speed.
Despite all that, I did still enjoy this book as a fluffy, magical time. I just wish we could have gotten more magical stuff to make these girls feel like more powerful and interesting witches.
The Library Key 