Coolsville is shaken up when eco-goth band The Hex Girls move to town. Teenagers Thorn, Luna, and Dusk are looking for a fresh start for themselves and their band after the disastrous events that destroyed their hometown and Thorn’s reputation. But things take a turn for the worse when a mysterious mist starts killing crops and making people sick wherever Thorn goes. She quickly becomes the town’s prime suspect and is outcast once again.

As her band falls apart, Thorn turns to the Mystery Inc. gang, especially Velma, for help as they try to solve the mystery and prove Thorn’s innocence. While the gang thinks that Thorn’s magical powers are the key to stopping the growing threat to Coolsville, Thorn is sure magic will only bring more harm than good—and that revealing her true nature would make her an outsider forever. Can they solve the mystery and save Coolsville before someone gets seriously hurt. . . or worse?

Since corporate Warner Bros doesn’t know a good thing when they have it, we have no Hex Girls movie.

But Lily Meade’s book more than makes up for that travesty!

For those Scooby Doo fans who like a bit of real supernatural, and for those who like real people trying to get rich being the bad guys, it has both. Plus it has references from all sorts of Scooby Doo media like the famous Velma catchphrase, “My glasses! I lost my glasses!”; the perky, small town that is Coolsville that turns against the troublemaking mystery solvers of the movies; Fred and Daphne having cold, uncaring parents like in Mystery Incorporated; the Poppenbacher farm from What’s New Scooby Doo (I know that’s a super obscure reference) and so much more. It’s a feast for the fans.

But it’s not all easter egg references. The characterization is on-point too.

The Hex Girls have always been fan favorites, so I enjoyed seeing deeper characterization for the girls, primarily for Thorn. We get to see how she uses music as a weapon onstage, as a outlet for her feelings, its her one passion in life, and its her dream. But for all her brashness onstage, being the outcast at Oakhaven, and at her new school begins to grind her. Primarily for how it may affect Dusk and Luna. I adore getting to see their sisterly/best friend dynamic here. You can tell that they’d defend each other to the end, and Thorn takes that seriously as the leader.

However, leadership and being the face of the band (and of wicca outrage) has its downsides. It leads to her blind spot that everything tends to be about her, even when she doesn’t mean it to be, and causes friction with Dusk. It shows how even with close friendships, there still needs to be communication. Even when you’re trying to protect them, you should talk and find out what they need instead of “knowing what’s best.”

To be fair, Thorn is dealing a lot with the move, and no one trusting her, and her estranged relationship with her dad. One can see who she gets her lack of communication/I know what’s best attitude from. Plus her crush on Velma.

The fermenting relationship with the two is sweet, bolstered that they’ve kept in touch since the events of the Witch’s Ghost, and now, so it doesn’t feel out of nowhere when they tease and flirt with each other in class. The mystery only brings them closer and allows for some nice bonding moments about being outcast in their respective ways, and their passions. What I enjoy most is that the tension of them getting together is not due to the cliche “Does she really like me?” but because of the more important danger/ghost targeting them so there’s not much time to dwell on relationship drama. These girls are on a mission, and they know their relationship can wait till later.

I also enjoyed how Meade created some background dynamics between the rest of the group like Luna getting into engineering and trapping with Fred, the classic Fred and Daphne romance, Dusk being partial to Scooby, and so on. Even though there’s tension between the Hex Girls because Mystery Inc feels more like Thorn’s friends than their friends, it’s nice to see them working together.

The mystery was well-done too, twisty and amping up the stakes from harmless mist to murder, and like I said above, there’s a supernatural explanation, and a human one, so readers can have fun trying to parse out which is which.

With so much going on (and less than 250 pages), it’s understandably Lily wouldn’t be able to cover everything. But I wish there had been a little more characterization for Luna. We have bits of her being “the glass half full” and the peacemaker to Dusk’s pessimism, but the conflict is primarily tied between Thorn and Dusk, leaving her sidelined. Shaggy and Scooby are also side-lined, but perhaps that’s for the best since they’re the face of the brand.

Otherwise, it was an enjoyable mystery for fans and new readers that give the Hex Girls the spotlight they deserve. I only hope we get a chance for two more so we can see Luna, and Dusk have their time to shine. Like Dusk Before Dawn where they travel to Australia for a gig and end up in an adventure with Melbourne O’Reilly or something. Or have their first music video or so many options from there.

5 stars, and I’ll totally be rereading this for Halloween.