School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins

Summary (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!

Review:

So, I was beyond excited to learn that Hawkins was doing a spin-off series. I absolutely loved the Hex Hall books. And I was fascinated by the Brannicks in the previous books as well.

It wasn’t quite as good as I was so hoping it would be. All the wit, sarcasm, and teen angst was still there. And it was definitely fun to have such a kick butt main character. Just none of the original uniqueness was there. This story read almost too much like every other supernatural story out there. New girl at new school –check. Cute boy you might not be able to trust –check. Moment where you can be popular and bully someone or where you can side with the underdog and be a better person –check.

Things kind of ran a little too much like a Disney channel original movie and not enough like the stand-out series of the past. However, I still pretty much ate it up. Watching Izzy try to be normal reminded me so much of Evie from Kiersten White’s Paranormalcy trying to fit in too. And it was hard to not make a lot of comparisons.

However, it was adorable. And there are some bonus awesome details in this series that were not in the last one. For instance there is the prince in the mirror that only sometimes gives good advice. There’s hedge witches. There’s a missing sister. And there’s a mom who pushes more for hard training and exercise than she does anything else.

Also, this was another case where the description of the book was kind of false. Izzy and her mom did not under any circumstances take a break from their job. They moved because of a job. And they moved to find out more details about Izzy’s missing sister.

I thought the romance was cute. I liked the friends Izzy made. I liked that Izzy fit right in with the ghost-hunting club, and how she had to undermine her club at each step because in actuality supernatural things did exist and were much more dangerous than her teen friends could ever know. There’s first dates, basket ball games, ghosts, witches, magic, talking mirrors, high school drama, love spells, and plenty of family drama and mystery.

I read the book rather quickly. I loved the characters. And I loved it’s cuteness. It was just missing some of the originality that I was hoping for (that the earlier series had). It was a little too formulaic for me with not enough surprises. Overall, I still did enjoy it. And I give it an 8/10.