Book Review #737 - Raising Demons (Hex Hall 2) by Rachel Hawkins

Sophie Mercer's first term at Hex Hall turned out to be quite eventful. First the ghost of her evil grandmother haunted her every move, then her best friend was accused of murder and of course there was the discovery that Archer Cross, aka the boy of her dreams, was actually an undercover demon hunter - which would probably be something she could have worked on, if she hadn't also discovered that she was actually the demon Archer was hunting…

 
So, despite their issues, Sophie is actually relieved to be spending the summer in London with her father. But when your father is Head of The Council of Prodigium and your summer is being spent at the headquarters of everything magical, then a quiet holiday isn't really that likely. And, as Sophie struggles to come to terms with her new found demon powers, she finds herself thrust once again into a world of dark magic and conspiracies. The only thing that could possibly make things more complicated would be for Archer Cross to show up again, which of course he wouldn't, would he?

 

 

My Rating:  2.5/5

Having read Hex Hall back in 2011 its sequel Raising Demons is one of the oldest books on my TBR and so it was really satisfying to finally get around to reading it. 

I feel like I would have enjoyed this book a lot more had I read it back in 2011. I reread Hex Hall in preparation for finishing this series and did not like it anywhere near as much as I did back then. 

The amount of tropes this book contained showed just how much the YA genre has developed and matured over the last 7 years. I found I was a lot more aware of these than I had been in the past. 

Seeing as this book is somewhat oldish now it was fantastic to see LGBT representation in this book and this was given more attention than the first book.

The main issue I had with this book was Sophie's relationship with Archer. Sophie claims to be in love with him even though they have barely had any interactions with one another, he had a girlfriend for the whole of the first book and he tried to kill her. It was all a little to insta-love for me to believe. 

Sophie developed quite a lot in this book. She not only met her father for the first time but she also started to learn how to harness her powers that come with being a powerful demon.

 

I did find Sophie annoying at times though as she pined over Archer. I can see a dreaded love triangle forming in the third book which I am not looking forward to at all. 

I really liked the setting of Hex Hall in the first book but I liked the setting of the counsel headquarters especially as it was in England and we got to see a wider view of this world.