School Spirits
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: Disney Hyperion, 2013
Genre: YA Paranormal
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD
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?
The Brannicks are almost extinct. For the past couple of years it has only been Isolde with her mom and her sister Finley, but then one day on a routine mission her sister goes missing. A year has gone by with no signs of Fin, and now Izzy gets a chance at her first solo mission: Exorcising a ghost from a small town school. What Izzy didn’t count on was the forbidden friendships she would make, or the dashing boy that would make her heart race.
School Spirits is the beginnings of another great series by Rachel Hawkins!
Izzy is strong both physically and in attitude. So when she gets her first solo case, she doesn’t want to screw it up. Unfortunately, Izzy has never been to school before or dealt with other teenagers, so she’s a bit out of her league. The only way to remedy her lack of highschool knowledge is research right? So she buys books and TV series about highschool to learn all about it! Iz learns the hard way that TV and reality are very, very different. I loved it every time she wished for a magazine article that would help her with a situation, like “How To Tell if a Boy Likes You?”, “How To Go On a Normal Date Without Looking Like a Total Spaz?”, or my favorite “Meeting His Nana: What Does It Mean?”
Dex was perfection. He’s just all kinds of fun and sexy in a nerdy sort of way. At first, Izzy doesn’t even know if the tingling sensation she gets around his is because he’s Prodigum or because of her hormones. That’s how much he affects her! I’m excited to see what role he’ll take on in the next book, and I wonder if the other characters will go along for the adventure too.
This is a spinoff of the Hex Hall series, so of course I loved the references to things and people that appeared there, like Sophie, the War Room, and Torin. Oh yes. The warlock trapped in glass has a bigger role this time around, and he’s just as tricky and cunning as before. I’m was hoping we’d discover more about his mystery in this book, but we don’t. Maybe in future books? I hope so.
The ending was a shocking revelation where all the leads and false leads come together and blow your mind away. For a second there I was screaming at the book, because I thought one character wouldn’t survive to the next book. But it’s all good now! Though someone still dies… You’ll have to read to find out who *wink*
PS: I'm so happy they kept the style of the covers!♥!
*Arc copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley*
Favorite Quotes:
~One-liners~
Dex burst into laughter. “Oh my God, that is the greatest thing I’ve heard all week. You are my new hero.” Squinting at me, he leaned in and said, “Seriously, I might actually be in love with you now. Would it be awkward if we made out?”
Head spinning, I stepped back. I thought of my cousin Sophie and her boyfriend, Archer. The way they were always zinging one-liners back and forth. I should have a one-liner. Instead, I said, “Yes, it would be.”
~We lurk~
“Okay, see, I feel like when you’re saying ‘awesome,’ what you mean is ‘lame’ and ‘making me not want to be friends with you,’” Dex said. “No.” I shook my head. “That doesn’t sound lame at all. It’s just…I never head of a school-sponsored monster-hunting club. What do you guys do?”
“Mostly we lurk around places at night with dorky equipment purchased off the Internet,” Dex offered, making Romy smack his arm.
“We research local ghost legends, and then we…investigate them.”
Dex leaned over and said in a stage whisper, “‘Investigate’ is code for lurking around places at night with dorky equipment purchased off the Internet.”
“We’re working on doing more,” Romy said quickly.
~Better just to wonder~
“Last time I dealt with one of those civilian ghost hunter groups, they did a séance. Ended up opening a portal to the Unseelie court instead, and brought through some seriously nasty faeries. I don’t want to clean that up again.” I didn’t know if she meant clean up in the “closing the portal, banishing faeries” way, or if it was more a “and then I mopped the humans’ blood off the wall” kind of thing.
I decided maybe it was better just to wonder.
~Shady~
“A job” She shrugged. “Maybe. The other day I was having breakfast at the Waffle Hut, and these two guys there seemed shady, so—”
I rolled my eyes. “Mom, everyone at the Waffle Hut is shady. That’s why they go to the Waffle Hut. To…be shady. And eat waffles. Shadily.”
Mom sat back in her seat. “I just…I needed to do something.”
