School Spirits: 10/09/13

School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins is a companion piece to her Hex Hall series. Izzy Brannick and her mother, both trained monster fighters, have moved to a small town in Mississippi on their latest assignment. They're also looking for clues to the whereabouts of Izzy's older sister, who went missing while on assignment.

Izzy can sense when someone is a Prodigium (witch, werewolf, demon, etc). And she has the vibe big time from her new group of friends (who happen to be part of paranormal explorers club). Someone, or something is causing the ghost of teenage girl to wreck havoc on the school and town.

Compared to the BIG STUFF and love triangles going on in the Hex Hall series, School Spirits is rather light on plot. That, in my mind, is a huge bonus. Not all YAs have to be about BIG DAMN HEROES. Not all crises have to put the entire world in danger to be important to the folks affected.

The characters and plot remind me of two anime series — Is this a Zombie? and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. For the more domestically minded, it's also a bit like Mystery Incorporated from Hotdog Water's point of view.

Currently it appears to be a stand alone book, but it ends with enough wiggle room for a second or even third book, in that the sister isn't found and there are clues revealed about the nature of her disappearance. If more books are written and published, I plan to purchase and read them.

Five stars

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