Imagine my surprise when a swag kit showed up for Hex You, including a lovely finished hardcover and audio code! I have a rocky relationship with Wednesday Books’ content trends so I appreciate their consideration here!!
I was curious about this series because I’ve seen the Casts all over bookstagram and never read the books, so I am glad to have a chance to do that. Hex you is the end of a trilogy and seeing as I haven’t read the first two, I can only rate it as a standalone YA urban fantasy
Seeing as I pretty much live for audiobooks these days, I also want to thank MacMillan Audio for including this audiobook code! It’s only 9 hours and 49 minutes. Cassandra Campbell narrates so many books and she’s very good. I read the first half and listened to the second, and can say I enjoyed it more on audio because the immaturity of the writing and dialogue felt less important while listening.
These stickers were also included!
Ok let’s talk about the book
- Title: Hex You
- Series: Sisters of Salem, #3
- Authors: P.C. & Kristin Cast
- Publisher & Release: Wednesday Books, 01/31/23
- Length: 295 pages
- Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐✨ for younger readers, I would say 14-17
Here’s the synopsis from Am*zon:
Twin sisters, Mercy and Hunter are witches, direct descendants of the Goode family, the founders of their town. After the murder of their mother at the hands of a foul demon, they have become the protectors of the Gates to different underworlds–ancient portals between their world and realms where mythology rules and the darkest of creatures exist.
Mercy and Khenti are trapped in the Ancient Egyptian Underworld and need Hunter’s help to escape. But while Hunter searches for a way to save them, other evil threatens Goodeville. Amphitrite is still looming–and she wants vengeance against Hunter. With the gates rapidly weakening, Amphitrite lures out a deadly creature and sets it free on the residents of Goodeville. It will take everything in Mercy and Hunter’s power to stop the goddess and seal the gates once and for all
My thoughts:
Overall I have mixed feelings on the book. If you don’t think too hard this is a fairly entertaining and fast paced read. It actually had fairly decent themes for teens. I think you’d get more out of having read the first two books but it was easy to pick up the storyline.
I never got into much YA of this contemporary nature. It strikes me as silly that a powerful goddess would give two shits about antagonizing an American teenager. Amphitrite isn’t a goddess who shows up too much in American literature so that was briefly interesting, then disappointing because there’s not much actual mythology here. There’s a hodgepodge of different mythologies and underworlds and while it’s not hard to just read and jump into the story, I do think with a background it would (hopefully) all make more sense.
This is where I surrender my safety pin and stop poking holes in the plot, because I could go all day. (This is why I don’t read much YA)
All plot hole poking aside, it wasn’t a bad story. The dialogue felt immature and the fast pacing felt geared towards younger teens, but then a character casually mentions “bjs” and something about “slut-shaming”, a term which I had to Google. Apparently we are encouraging teens to sleep around now, so that’s… Uh…what? Besides those two instances the book is tame from a sex and mature content standpoint, but I’d still recommend for older teens.
Themes for teens? One thing I liked. The sisters have to resolve their internal & interpersonal conflicts and choose love over power & selfishness. I liked some of the friendships and the emphasis on doing the right thing after learning from one’s mistakes. Actions have consequences!
Character wise, personally I hardly ever enjoy teenage characters anymore. These felt very teenage and self centered, volatile, and changing their minds every ten seconds, so, like normal teenage girls. I liked them well enough and assumed that the characters have been established in the prior books, so there wasn’t as much development in this third novel. I won’t hold that against the book.
Xena the cat person familiar and Khenti were my favorites, I did love their dialogue.
So… overall?
Fast paced plot, some good banter, and a snarky cat person. The ending was actually sad as hell to me so I give the authors credit for that. I enjoyed the audiobook and the narrator tampered down the feel of the writing. It’s a solid YA read with a thankfully cute prologue to take the edge off.
TL: DR – I liked it but it’s definitely geared towards teenagers.
Here is the candle ♥️ thanks again to the publisher for this!
I obtained my free copy from Wednesday Books and am leaving this honest assessment of the book and materials provided. As always, all opinions are my own
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