Go Hex Yourself by Jessica Clare Contemporary Paranormal Romance Published April 19, 2022 by Berkley Reviewed by Kate
I have been enjoying the influx of witchy romances onto the romance market right now, but Go Hex Yourself by Jessica Clare fell short for me. To illustrate just how much, I will share that when it came down to finishing my taxes, or finishing this book, my taxes were done first.
The main issue that I had with Go Hex Yourself is the inconsistent pacing. The first half of the book is slow and meandering (at one point the book completely skips two entire months!) and a lot of time is spent convincing Reggie that magic is real. I typically am not a fan of the type of book where the woman encounters a secret magical society existing amongst our modern-day living and jumps in with no questions, but Reggie was so stubborn about it. I personally could have done with a little less of her denial, because the result was nearly the entire first half was taken up by various situations created by the need to convince Reggie that she is, in fact, acting as a familiar for a witch. Then, the real plot/conflict didn’t start until about 60% of the way through, which I felt was way too late.
Go Hex Yourself also suffered from both what felt like an abundance of material, and yet, not enough plot. There was SO MUCH going on in this book. There’s Reggie’s friendship with her roommate, her obsession with Spellcraft: The Magicking game, her relationship with her parents, Ben’s parent drama, the various magical characters that Ben and Reggie interact with, not to mention the actual magical system and mythology around it. Maybe all of these pieces were included to make Reggie and Ben seem like fully fleshed out characters, but it just felt like throwing a lot of different things at a wall to see what would stick. Additionally, the main conflict ends up being so late in the book and feels disconnected from all of the other preceding elements.
I have two other somewhat minor issues that are less overarching than the pacing or plot. The first is the sheer number of times the Golden Girls are used for characterization. People are referred to as a “Dorothy” or a “Blanche” repeatedly. As a person who has no familiarity with the Golden Girls, this meant nothing to me. Had it only been used once or twice, I would have skimmed over it and moved on. But it was brought up enough that I started to get annoyed, and felt like I was missing out on a joke.
My other complaint is a scene about halfway through the book where Reggie decides to try magic. She uses a crystal ball and decides to spy on Ben. She catches him taking care of some business (if you know what I mean) in the shower. This situation made me feel very icky. I did not like that she didn’t immediately stop once she noticed what was happening, and she didn’t apologize to him for violating his privacy, just told him that she saw him. The whole scene didn’t feel necessary and after reading it, I almost put the book down and didn’t finish it.
Overall, Go Hex Yourself felt all over the place, like Clare wasn’t sure where she wanted to go with the plot. It might have been a better book if it was shorter or better edited, but in its current state, I don’t really recommend it.
Grade: D
Content notes: Reggie’s parents are emotionally abusive and open up credit cards in her name and steal her money, as well as stalk her to find out where she is living. There are references to Reggie’s family being homeless when she was growing up. Ben’s parents basically abandoned him as a child. Also, an above-referenced situation where Reggie spies on Ben in a compromising position without his permission.
Not for me either. Imagine if the genders were reversed in that “crystal ball” scene! Voyeurism and non-consent should not be hand-waved just because the gender dynamic is reversed.
Yes, agreed!! That was partly what I thought when I was reading it- “there’s no way this scene would have happened with reversed genders.”