Review: School Spirits

Title: School Spirits
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Format: eGalley

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?—via Goodreads 

Sometimes I just want to read a well-plotted book about a girl who is sort of like Buffy, you know?

Luckily Rachel Hawkins writes books.

School Spirits, a spin-off of Hawkins’s Hex Hall series centers around the youngest of the Brannick girls, Izzy who is briefly in the Hex Hall books. As the Brannick women dwindle in numbers, Izzy’s mom decides to move to a small town in Alabama (I think it’s Alabama. Could be Mississippi. But I’m pretty sure it’s Alabama). And for the first time, Izzy will go to a real school.

Enter Mary Evans High School. MEHS, y’all. I laughed out loud every time I read MEHS in this book. Hawkins, you are a funny lady and I like you.

My girl crush on the author aside, School Spirits is a lot of fun. Izzy gets to navigate the tropes of public school for the first time, including the daunting task of choosing her friends wisely, hunting a ghost, trying to decide if the boy you like likes you back, and solving a mystery. And while that might sound like something you’ve read before, I assure you that School Spirits will keep you on your toes and will have you turning the pages in an obsessive, feverish way that might make your friends and family worry for your sanity.

Your sanity is fine. You can glare at them and shush them and give off the general aura of GO AWAY until you are finished with School Spirits. Because you’ll want to read this book in one sitting. For real.