Name: Hex
ISBN: 9783453319066

Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Sasha Mann

Magic exists in the minds of those who believe in it, not in its actual influence on reality.

"Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's beds for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear. The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated by being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers, decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past."--Front dust jacket flap.

This book was phenomenal. The beginning was a little slow but once you get into it, it goes off like a rocket. Nonstop action. Plus, things you never expected. Highly recommend to all the horror lovers!

Stephanie Boisvert

Ryan Mateyk

Starting off, this seemed kind of juvenile. It wasn't so juvenile when it kept me up last night... Perfect fun and genuinely scary read for Halloween Month.

“This is totally, brilliantly original.” —Stephen King “HEX is creepy and gripping and original, sure to be one of the top horror novels of 2016.” —George R.R. Martin The English language debut of the bestselling Dutch novel, Hex, from Thomas Olde Heuvelt--a Hugo and World Fantasy award nominated talent to watch Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay 'til death. Whoever settles, never leaves. Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear. The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past. This chilling novel heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in mainstream horror and dark fantasy.

tori 👻

I feel like someone told this dude "say you are misogynistic without saying you are misogynistic" and then he released this book.

He was way too focused on describing nipples that he actually forgot to make us care about literally anyone or write a story that actually made sense.
Considering this is set in a small community, I wanted to actually get that atmosphere, but there is none. Everybody is extremely unlikeable and I honestly couldn't care less about what happened to them.
There is somewhat of a homage to King about 70% into the story but it's poorly executed.
And has this man ever interacted with a woman?
Honestly, what the fuck did I just read?

cloud

men writing horror books are like, "what's the most horrifying thing that can happen to a woman? r@pe and getting fucked by animals!"

i started a nipple counter, then immediately lost track. that's how bad it was. i know more about these characters' nipples than their lives.

Unique story that at times, I couldn't put down.  Some of the chapter POV changes were a little jarring, and I would have liked more wrap up for some of the characters.  Overall story/theme was sad/meaningful.

Jenny Engel

Hunty

Where do I even start with this? 

The premise is good and the blurb promising a viral witch ghost immediately piqued my interest, I am gen z after all. Unfortunately, whoever wrote the blurb only read like a quarter of the book because what is described is absolutely not the plot. 

The story reeled me in anyways - the town residents simply live their lives around being haunted by a creepy witch and don’t seem to care much about her. Of course, they are all scared of her, in theory at least. Most of the residents are too young to have actually seen her do something scary or moved to town after the fact.

No one takes it too seriously when the teens set out to create something that will go viral and expose their haunting to the outside world, except it never happens. That part of the plot got shut down maybe halfway through the book and left me confused as to what would happen in the rest. 

I also struggled with the writing. I understand that in translating this book from its original Dutch to English is bound to gloss over a few things that just don’t translate well, but a lot of the dialogue is just a little off. Particularly noticeable for me was the way the author failed to capture how teenagers actually talk and instead created one of those cartoons you see on Facebook made by boomers trying to show that the problem with this generation is technology. I can’t even attribute it to this being set 10 years ago either - I was a teenager on the internet in 2012 so I know what it was like. 

My biggest problem was the glaring misogyny. As others have mentioned, this guy is obsessed with nipples. All the horror coming from women in this book centers around their bodies and their looks. I’m a big fan of body horror but this wasn’t even body horror - it was just women’s bodies being presented as scary (don’t even get me started on the portrayal of fat women in this book). 

The writing doesn’t allow for any build up of tension because the author always ends the scene before something creepy happens with the narrator explicitly telling us that something creepy is about to happen. And the climax is spoiled by the author explaining why every thing that happens supports the thesis statement of the book that 21st century people are just as barbaric as 17th century people when there is mass hysteria, paranoia, fear, and hive-mind at work. It wasn’t difficult to pick up on that message and the explanations weren’t needed. 

Overall, HEX is a pretty entertaining read and there was some solid stuff in there.

The greats of fiction Stephen King and George R. R. Martin lead the fanfare for HEX, so be assured that Thomas Olde Heuvelt's debut English novel is both terrifying and unputdownable in equal measure. Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay until death. Whoever comes to stay, never leaves. Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Blind and silenced, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's beds for nights on end. So accustomed to her have the townsfolk become that they often forget she's there. Or what a threat she poses. Because if the stitches are ever cut open, the story goes, the whole town will die. The curse must not be allowed to spread. The elders of Black Spring have used high-tech surveillance to quarantine the town. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break the strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into a dark nightmare.

Nessa Luna

C. J. Daley 

My fiancé suggesting I listen to this because we are both from The Hudson River Valley, which is this novel’s setting. I was a bit surprised by this choice, as this novel is the author’s English language debut, and the setting is pretty damn accurate. I wonder if he lives there now? 

I listened to this on my way home to see my parents. Highland Mills, Central Valley, and Harriman we’re mentioned by name more than once, and all three are directly connected to my home town of 22 years, Monroe. West Point Military Academy, as well as 9W through Cornwall, Bear Mountain, and the novel’s featured hospital, St. Luke’s in Newburgh, are all places I’ve frequented as well. It was super cool and kind of eerie to read a novel like this about where I’m from. 

The town of Black Spring has a problem, what kind of old town doesn’t? This town’s problem just happens to be a 17th century immortal witch named Katherine. Since they were able to sew her eyes and mouth shut she hasn’t been too much of a problem, just creepy. And luckily she never breaks from her current schedule… 

So because I always listen to an audio and read a physical book at the same time, I had this really unique experience of reading these two very similar scenes in two drastically different novels within like an hour of each other. Both this novel and C.V. Hunt’s ‘Halloween Fiend’ (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) feature a fall festival that isn’t really dedicated to their town’s (I’ll say) affliction, but at the same time kind of is. It was cool to see how each framed how their town responded to what they had been forced to accept as normal over time. 

The climax of this novel does some really interesting things in its depiction of the degradation of humanity. Is it the witch causing it, or the town itself? Either way, they so easily are lead to depravity. Brothers, sisters, mothers, husbands…no one is safe and everyone is guilty. 

Personally a 4/5*. Spooky, atmospheric, dark. It looks like there’s a sequel to this but it’s only available in Dutch? I’m confused.

Sade A

Make no mistake, Hex wants to be a horror novel, it strikes the right cord in it's blurb and the initial chapters but like the majority of horror books with an abundance of chapters, it runs out of scare and even sinister before it can properly grip it's readers.

After reading the book, i happened to take a look at the acknowledgement and it turns out for the english version of this book, Heuvelt decided to take a chance and rework some elements of the book in his words:

"...i could create an enhanced version - Hex 2.0, if you will with new rich and layered details and culturally specific legends and superstitions, all without losing touch with the Dutch elements of the original".

Frankly i think maybe this is what killed the book. Now i haven't read the original version but i feel you could discern the diluted quality of Katherine's story. Yes witches are scary but setting also matters in notching up the scare factor. And unfortunately, Heuvelt was unable to properly milk the modern setting to benefit his book.

As i mentioned in my first paragraph, i honestly believe horror books do themselves a disservice when they're bulky. I'm firmly of the opinion that you're able to scare people better when the book isn't dragging into numerous chapters. Get in quick and get out just as quick. Where an author decides to brave (and make no mistake it requires an act of bravery) the side of endless chapters, they better make sure when the scares come, it completely erases all the torturous slow burn readers have to get through, something Scott Thomas's Kill Creek does beautifully.

In the end Katherine unfortunately never gets her time to shine, we are forever teased about what complete and utter catastrophe she could cause and when FINALLY she's given her moment on stage she ends up buried under a heap of psychological babble. 
Such a shame really.

2 stars for effort

Jayme Bosio

Interesting concept…but this book…got…weird.

Wouter ter Keurs

** spoiler alert **
           Hoewel het begin en midden heerlijk en origineel zijn, werkt het einde niet voor mij. Ja, ik kan de vraag van wie het kwaad nu echt is zeker waarderen, maar de gebeurtenissen lopen teveel door elkaar en waren voor mij niet eenduidig.

The first chapter seems normal on the surface for a brief moment but it quickly grabs your attention and by the end of the first chapter I am actively saying "what the fuck?" But I absolutely rushed to continue.

I'm honestly glad I read the synopsis because I would be feeling a bit lost otherwise.

The entire town of Black Spring has a sort of curse placed upon it. Those who move there can never truly escape and it all ties in to a witch. The whole town is actively aware and even sort of keep tabs on this spectre as well as having a strict policy set in place to keep this curse and this witch contained. Even now she is able to have a very horrible affect on the people of Black Spring, causing them to kill themselves if her eyes or mouth are ever unstitched.

A group of teens however, have been slowing pushing boundaries when it comes to the Witch and it is resulting in some nasty consequences around the town of Black Spring.

Things heat up and we watch as a town starts to turn in on itself and devolving. An absolutely shocking death rocks members of the town. Everyone growing more fearful as things continue to get worse. The last few chapters of this absolutely dread filled and kept me eagerly turning pages to see how it all ended. A very dark story as we watch the town dissolve on itself into pure chaos as Katherine holds sway over all. This was a truly stunning and gut wrenching read. I devoured and loved this book.

The first chapter seems normal on the surface for a brief moment but it quickly grabs your attention and by the end of the first chapter I am actively saying "what the fuck?" But I absolutely rushed to continue.
I'm honestly glad I read the synopsis because I would be feeling a bit lost otherwise.
The entire town of Black Spring has a sort of curse placed upon it. Those who move there can never truly escape and it all ties in to a witch. The whole town is actively aware and even sort of keep tabs on this spectre as well as having a strict policy set in place to keep this curse and this witch contained. Even now she is able to have a very horrible affect on the people of Black Spring, causing them to kill themselves if her eyes or mouth are ever unstitched.
A group of teens however, have been slowing pushing boundaries when it comes to the Witch and it is resulting in some nasty consequences around the town of Black Spring.
Things heat up and we watch as a town starts to turn in on itself and devolving. An absolutely shocking death rocks members of the town. Everyone growing more fearful as things continue to get worse. The last few chapters of this absolutely dread filled and kept me eagerly turning pages to see how it all ended. A very dark story as we watch the town dissolve on itself into pure chaos as Katherine holds sway over all. This was a truly stunning and gut wrenching read. I devoured and loved this book.


Cariena

Ik heb Hex in het Engels gelezen, wat iets afwijkt van het origineel (plaats waar het zich afspeelt, einde?). Het verhaal vond ik uniek, interessant en boeiend. Ik heb mij zeker vermaakt tijdens het lezen, maar verder deed het boek niet echt wat met me, vandaar 3 sterren. Ben op zich wel benieuwd naar de Nederlandse versie en die zou ik misschien in de toekomst nog wel willen lezen.

Samantha Shepherd 

Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay until death. Whoever comes to stay, never leaves. Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Blind and silenced, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's beds for nights on end. So accustomed to her have the townsfolk become that they often forget she's there. Or what a threat she poses. Because if the stitches are ever cut open, the story goes, the whole town will die. The curse must not be allowed to spread. The elders of Black Spring have used high-tech surveillance to quarantine the town. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break the strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into a dark nightmare.

Becky

This book seriously freaked me out and I loved it. I think it would be good read for any fan of the horror genre. It's an original and interesting read which may keep you awake at night.

Emily Glover

I struggled to get into this book initially, but I am so glad I pushed through those first few chapters because the journey that I went on was just amazing for this book. Katherine the witch was such a well rounded character for someone presented as an evil supernatural entity, and the reactions of everyone in town to what was happening in Black Spring made sense, even if I was hoping they would do something different. It is a horror, after all

Casie Blevins

I had questions for this book as soon as I began it and they werent the usual questions. For example, was this originally set in America or was it copy/pasted into a new location by the American team and translator? Why hadnt an American editor caught all the clunky sentences? Why did they use such awkward American cliches as metaphors? The story itself was entertaining but there was enough in the writing to make it jarring and drag me out of the story. I read the acknowledgments and discovered that not only did the writer speak fluent English, but that my favorite chapters (a new ending created for the American version of the novel) were written in English by him. Why use the translator at all if you speak English? Especially when your own voice would be preserved (and it's a far cry better than the translators!) I just dont understand it. Also, I was right. The original novel was set in the Netherlands, not America. American editors, you should trust that your potential American audience will read, buy, and enjoy an excellent crafted novel set in another country. You should try that next time.