Review--Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

Sophie Mercer thought she was a witch.

That was the whole reason she was sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for delinquent Prodigium (aka witches, shapeshifters, and fairies). But that was before she discovered the family secret, and that her hot crush, Archer Cross, is an agent for The Eye, a group bent on wiping Prodigium off the face of the earth.

Turns out, Sophie’s a demon, one of only two in the world—the other being her father. What’s worse, she has powers that threaten the lives of everyone she loves. Which is precisely why Sophie decides she must go to London for the Removal, a dangerous procedure that will destroy her powers.

But once Sophie arrives she makes a shocking discovery. Her new friends? They’re demons too. Meaning someone is raising them in secret with creepy plans to use their powers, and probably not for good. Meanwhile, The Eye is set on hunting Sophie down, and they’re using Archer to do it. But it’s not like she has feelings for him anymore. Does she?


It's been over a year since I last read Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins and I was worried going into Demonglass that I would be totally lost, not remembering much of anything. I recalled a few details, but luckily Rachel does some nice easy-peasy recapping, mentioning an event here, a factoid there, that I quickly remember the important bits.

Demonglass really starts off with a bang in some ways. Sophie, having learned that she is a demon, is finishing off her school year at Hex Hall, as the students call it, with plans made to go see her father in London. She plans to go through the Removal to rid herself of her "demon-ness", but her father wants to try to convince her to not go through with that and try to tame her demon side. She agrees to go, as long as Jenna, her vampire BFF is allowed to come along. Needless to say her father didn't require much swaying. And for some reason unknown to Sophie, Cal comes along too.

When she gets to her father's house, she quickly learns that there are two other demon teenagers living there along with the council members, one even being Mrs. Casnoff's sister. Nick and Daisy are more comfortable with their demon-ness than Sophie is. Granted, they don't enjoy it, but have at least come to accept it and Sophie's father hopes that they can be an example to Sophie that being a demon isn't all that bad.

In this world, demons are really creatures, it's just something that people are. Like being a witch, werewolf, vampire, etc. They are still human, but have stronger abilities that make them paranormal.

Sophie learns a lot about herself and other things in London, say like Cal being her betrothed. Yeah. That was a shocker! And it came pretty early on, hence the reason why I'm telling it. It becomes a rift of sorts between the two. Sophie has a nice friendship with Cal and doesn't want to complicate things. Plus, much to her shame of admitting to herself, she is still hopelessly in love with Archer, the boy who works for The Eye--the group set out to destroy supernaturals--and who pulled a knife on her.

I admit, since the end of Hex Hall, I did not like Archer. I didn't like how he betrayed Sophie's trust with lies. I don't like liars in real life, so in books I tend not to like them either. So I was all for Cal! Cal is truly amazing and caring, yet for Sophie, there just isn't that same spark. What makes things worse for poor Sophie's heart is that Archer is in London too.

They have a few brief encounters, but it's not til the last half of the book that they are together more. The romance they thought was gone, turns out, isn't quite dead yet. Sophie feels strong emotions when she's around him, although Archer acts aloof and cold. So yeah, it wasn't til the near very end that I was back to liking Archer and of course that then made my heart break for Cal. 

There were some random moments between him and Sophie that looked like something could start, but then the ending came. Basically what we have here is the typical love triangle where the girl feels strongly for one guy but yet still "cares" for the other and he is always the one to be hurt. Of course, I still have one more book to read in this trilogy.

Sophie is still such a joy to have as a heroine! She's so snarky and witty at times. Looove her humor! She's a good person too. A little miffed with her being in the middle of a love triangle, but still gotta love this girl! Some of the things she says are just hilarious and can come at the worst possible moment, like a life or death moment! Yet I can so see me saying something snarky like she did in her moments!

One of the other interesting things about this story is that Elodie Paris, the girl who was trying to raise Sophie's demon grandmother, is a ghost. Normally ghosts of Hex Hall students who died at the school, remain there forever haunting the place. Sucks, right? Yet Sophie is astounded when she happens to find Elodie hanging out in her bedroom in London one day. Yeah, that opens up a whole new set of problems for Sophie that she gets to add to her ever long list! Which is were the new series will spin off! I have yet to read the first description of that book yet, since I want to finish off this trilogy first!

The ending was pretty intense! Not wanting to get into it for spoiler reasons, but it turns out there are a few enemies of both Sophie and her father in London living among them. One I was able to deduce for myself, because a moment came that seemed too out of the ordinary and I was like, "that person is in on it!" See how I avoided the gender there? No spoilers here!

And yes, there is a cliffhanger in this one! As I said, the ending was running ramp with action and it was very intense. And then suddenly, it's over! Luckily I waited so long to read this trilogy that I have the final book in my bag ready to go. It's definitely been an intriguing trilogy so far, my memory still hazy on the first book. But in a way, it's like Harry Potter, yet with more paranormal creatures and people and a little more mature in the romantic sense. So like the later Harry Potter books, but still having time for more romance! Definitely an awesome read!


Overall rating 4.5/5 stars