Hexed Review!

Spoiler Free

October time last year I decided I would read Hexed (The Witch Hunter #1)  by Michelle Krys. In an obvious attempt to be festive I got a book that could pass as a Halloween book to read to get me all spooked. I was not impressed. I chose this book as it was a book that a booktuber I watch likes. The majority of the time I have the same opinion on books as her, however on this particular one I must disagree.

This book is the first book I have read that is primarily about Witches. For me, this sounds great. I'm all for spooky Witches and supernatural groovy times, however this book just did not do that for me. 

Indigo Blackwood is the most popular girl and cheerleader in school, aside from her best friend. She has everything you'd ever want - she's a great cheerleader, has the best friend ever, a fit footballer boyfriend. Who wouldn't want to be her?! (me) However, when Indigo meets 'sexy' Bishop, her life changes as she discovers that she is a Witch and that her mother owns a powerful book that a group of evil Witches are looking for (sigh). In order to protect the book, Witch Bishop attempts to teach Indigo how to use her powers.

...

To be honest, I found this book quite laughable. I finished it purely because I found the 'tense' and 'action' scenes to be quite comical rather than exciting and nail-biting. Reading was like watching a movie spoof. It didn't seem to take itself serious when it should have. The story had some comparisons to other books which I love, such as The Mortal Instruments: mother owns an extremely important object that bad guys try to get, daughter tries to save the day, discovers she has powers/ strange ability, falls for a sexy guy. In my opinion, these points were performed horrifically and here's why - 

I wanted to strangle our protagonist. She was literally a representation of a particulary stupid American cheerleader (blond-haired and perfect bod) . I don't really have anything against this however I was expecting some serious character development where she gets a reality check and changes into a nice, respectable heroine. Nope. Yes, she showed some signs of heroic behaviour. A very small amount. The way Indigo spoke was irritating and is made reading the book even more exasperating "Double Urg" being an example of face-palm, cringey, annoyance. The book is written in first person, Indigo's point of view. The first sentence of the book is - "Exactly twelve minutes into cheerleading practice, and I already wish I were dead." Is this to warn the readers that are reading the first page in the bookstore to put it down if they want to avoid over-dramatic, stupid, spoilt teenaged girl protagonists? Well darn I wished I read the sample on Amazon before buying. Also, Indigo brags about her perfect life, but then contradicts herself when complaining about her predictable and typical douchey boyfriend and best frenemy Bianca, who is even more annoying than Indigo.

Bishop is not the heart-throbbing guy that usually pops up in these kind of books. His appearance is no match to any of the other guys in books I am used to. However I am not vain. But his personality is awful. Instead of witty one liners that I love from Jace (TMI) or Daemon Black (Lux) Bishop's are stupid and awkward. His character comes across more stalkerish than protective and instead of the hilarious love/hate relationship between many love interests in YA fantasy books, this one was done complete wrong and was like some weird flirtatious banter that would happen at school between two twelve year olds. No no. It was ridiculous. 

I think the main point that made the book so disappointing was the antagonists. They were not threatening, scary, frightening or deadly. They were too, quite comical which I believe was not what the author was going for. Also, when the characters were attempting to be evil (yanoe, how villains should be) it came across ridiculous. For example, without giving away a spoiler to those who still want to read this, an important scene in the book and the big 'scary' witchery spell that the villains used was to create a tiger which that just flapped its paws at a victim. Create. A. Tiger. I am open minded when it comes to books. I mean, my favourite series is the LUX series for goodness sake! A series based on Aliens in high school but I could not get past the inane resolution in this book. I know books are an opportunity to be imaginative, and I'm all for that. I don't necessarily expect a book about Witches to be realistic but maybe it was the writing style (?) that just made this book a bit pathetic for me. Another example of how ridiculous this book is, is when the world appears to be over but Indigo decides to fly up to the Hollywood sign with Bishop? Nope, I'm out. 

Overall not a book for me I guess. If the book focused more on the Witch background and supernatural element rather that hormonal, dramatic teenage 'problems' it may have been better. I'd be interested in hearing your views on this book in the comment section below. Sorry if I sounded too harsh, but there won't be another review like this, as I think this is the worst book I own so I don't actually have another book to critique this much! Also, sorry for not being very active, my laptop has been broken but all is well now! See you next post.

Hannah

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