326 reviews for:

School Spirits

Rachel Hawkins

3.75 AVERAGE

ace97's profile picture

ace97's review

4.0

This book was great! The plot and the actions came together nicely :)
adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

noura_rizk's review

3.0

I felt like I'm watching a movie, a kind of movie that you watch it one time only.

sarahelainereads's review

3.0

School Spirits




15826934Book 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.
aburchard's profile picture

aburchard's review

2.0

I read it for more Torin. Didn't get enough Torin. Now I'm sad. 2.5 stars.

bookishnicole's review

4.0

This was a fabulous read. I was surprised to have gotten it in the mail, but I was super thrilled when it showed up on my door step. I have never read the Hex Hall series, but this still looked really interesting to me and like something I may want to try out. I've always been a big fan of supernatural books, and this was really hit it on the head.

For starters, I loved that it stuck with the covers like the original book series "Hex Hall" Nothing aggravates me more than when book series changes around the covers. But I digress. I suppose the biggest reason that this book scored a little lower than it would have was that I felt the entire book was written in cliche's. One of the things that stuck with me when I took a creative writing class was how you need to avoid cliche's, once in a while its okay, but every other paragraph had some kind of cliche. It was really irritating.

I really loved the characters that we were introduced to including Romy, Anderson and Dex. I sort of wish that Izzy had opened up to them earlier and talk to them about what was happening in the school. I really liked Izzy although she seemed to have no idea what was happening in the world around her outside of the magic.

I wish that her mother had stopped being so cagey about everything. What she was doing about Finn being missing, her different activities, all of it she was so cagey about and I feel that when its just you and one of your daughters, you can't afford to keep things from each other. Especially when one of them has already gone missing. I think the same also goes from Izzy to her mother even though she was a lot more up front about some of her problems.

I liked the whole ghosty problem that they had, it was a typical haunting but its own in a few ways. Then again, doing a ghost story isn't terribly hard, but making it special and creepy is important. I liked that this book wasn't so much with the creepy as it was with just being thrilling. I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going to happen next. It was a terrifically fast read, and clearly there is more to come which I can't wait for. In the mean time, maybe I'll hit up the Hex Hall Series. (But probably not because as it stands, I have 200 unread books without adding new ones.)
novelheartbeat's profile picture

novelheartbeat's review

4.0



I had heard many people saying that this had nothing to do with Hex Hall whatsoever, even though it was a spin-off, so I knew going in that there would be none of the characters I loved so much from Rachel’s first trilogy. And they were right – Sophie was only mentioned twice in passing – but that’s okay. I still enjoyed the world! And while it didn’t quite hold the magic that Hex Hall did, it was still a cute read.

I suppose it could have been much better if I had blocked Hex Hall completely from my mind. But I couldn’t help it! This one was much more juvenile than Hex Hall – in fact, it read a bit closer to Middle Grade than Young Adult. Which I suppose reflects on Rachel Hawkins’ talent as a writer, because you could tell the age difference between reading Sophie’s POV (in Hex Hall) and Izzy’s. Izzy was much younger, and as a result, read younger. So it wasn’t necessarily a negative thing.

I still liked her, though! Despite being a bit naive (again, an age thing), she had a strong voice and a quick wit. I was glad to see that sense of humor make a return in the spin off series! I found Izzy’s innocence endearing, and her monologue about her kissing worries cracked me up. I look forward to more of her point of view in the next book!

As soon as Dex came into the story, I kind of loved him already. He was quirky and a little nerdy, but he was sincere and stayed true to himself no matter what. The romance between Dex and Izzy was adorable and realistic and I found myself wanting them to end up together despite their ‘just friends’ mantra!

The surprise at the end didn’t shock me quite as much as it probably should have, but it was a nice twist. This book was a light, fluffy read, and I recommend giving it a try!

Favorite quotes
That was as far as Mom had gotten in her Facts of Life talk a few years back: “Don’t let boys touch you in the bathing suit zone.” Then the warlock she and Finn had been chasing chose that moment to leap onto the hood of our car, and the rest of her talk had gone unfinished.

“Whatever shall you wear?” Torin observed, propping his chin on his hand. “Let’s see, there’s the black T-shirt with black jeans. Ooh!” He sat up, widening his eyes. “Do you know what would be particularly fetching? The black-”
“T-shirt with black jeans,” I finished for him. “Hilarious.”

“You’ve completely cracked.”
Scowling, Torin folded his arms over his chest. “You know I don’t appreciate mirror jokes.”
Doing my best to look contrite, I picked up my backpack. “I’m sorry, Torin. I’ll try to reflect on my actions.”


ASSESSMENT
Plot: 4/5
Writing style: 4/5
Originality: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
World-building: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Cover: 4.5/5

mary_r_m's review

3.0

Thank you to Net Galley and Disney Book Group for allowing me access to this title.

While this was a fun ans easy book to read. I feel it didn't have as much meat in it as her Hex Hall books. The cover makes it look like a Hex Hall novel, but it just doesn't seem to have the same quality.

Still, I will read the next one for entertainment purposes.
patrizreads's profile picture

patrizreads's review

4.0

I... I need a second book. Rachel Hawkins, you have done it again!