HEX

On the whole, I did enjoy this story...until the ending. I expected so much more since I thought the story was pretty spooky and was building to an ending that would make me want to have a night light on for awhile. I really was disappointed that more wasn't done with the older son - and having the witch end up as maybe a decent sort? Yeah, humanity made their own horror, but come on, that was soooo predictable!
But I have added the author's name to watch for more of his writings, so liked this more than not.

HEX is the international best-selling Literary Horror novel by author, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, who found overnight success with this debut tale that has no business being as fantastic as it is – yet here I am, singing its praises. So let me give you a quick (SPOILER-FREE) run down about what makes this a 5 star novel, and why the hype surrounding HEX isn’t just appropriate but also necessary, (if you haven’t read it as of 2018, the year I’m writing my review, then there is most definitely an absurd amount of hype over this release – and it’s been touted by critics & customers alike long before it was ever printed in English, so let that thought settle for a minute...).

— I’m writing this review almost a year after I finished reading this book myself, and in case this isn’t dated/time-stamped, it’s currently March 2018 for what it’s worth. The world has changed more in the few years since HEX was first printed in its native language than any few years before, (*starting at the beginning of the 21st century obviously*). Why is this relevant? Because this novel IS about a cursed town that is, (liberal use of the term ‘haunted’), haunted...or more like, (well, no-spoilers, you’ll see in chapter 1!), yes that is a massive plot point of course.

But imagine today’s society, your hometown, right now. The one you grew up in, and imagine it has to use every technological advantage, (security cameras, motion sensors, smart phones, the works), because technology has become powerful enough to be the best way to keep the town from being decimated by...YOU GUESSED IT...the HEX that was put on the land thanks to your dear old ancestors a couple hundred years ago. Basically, as the book’s online synopsis says, you cannot move out or leave this town if you are born into it. Imagine the logistics of keeping the government out of your entire neighborhood, as in, you are just a dot on a map that for some reason is never, ever, ever, really included or visited or known about by the outside world. Because what are you going to tell someone? “Yeah, I’d love to leave for college, but if I do, then the curse a 17th century witch put on my forefathers’ village and my hometown will allow her to use some dark magic spell that kills thousands of citizens of our community, so anyway, at least we have Netflix though.” See my point?

— Now that was just one example of, “Well why can’t residents do this?” Let me tell you, there are DOZENS and dozens of far more interesting questions about how this society has been able to survive for hundreds of years, and how they cope with something so absurd that lurks RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM, something that might just appear one night in your bedroom and watch you sleep and then leave while you’re at school later that day. That’s the normal these people live with. There’s an app on all their phones programmed by their own resident IT gurus, and it actually PINGS updates of wherever the witch is at any time – that is, if she’s not doing something weird in the woods and out of sight.

— Sounds REALLY ridiculous, doesn’t it? I mean, let’s pretend for a second that something like this could be real and could have happened etc., just for a minute. It would still be far to crazy to believe no matter how much proof you were given, right? Your mind would just be unable to fathom the reality in front of it, and your subconscious would go into protection mode, and convince you it’s a farce, a hoax, a bad dream, anything to keep your wits about you. Well...ahem...to my fellow USA citizens who spent November 8th, 2016 making sure the country would be in a state of dysfunction and turmoil for four years, does ANY of what I just said about denying reality sound familiar? Because it should. If it doesn’t, then I see your head must still be in the sand.

— Though it wasn’t intentional, and this author isn’t American/interested in American politics, (as far as I know), the success of this novel couldn’t have been more appropriately timed. As it was translated into English and listed under best-seller rankings a few months before and after the 2016 US Presidential Election. The social commentary in HEX is NOT what you would call, “preachy,” and there is no agenda or whatever. It’s a commentary that everyone, regardless of political or socioeconomic standing, would see wisdom in. Heuvelt never, ever uses the narrative for a chance to push personal opinions onto the reader – not about our political and societal issues, not about ones in Europe (as far as I know). THE BAD THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THE STORY ARE ALWAYS UNIVERSAL AND EXTREMELY HUMAN. The conflicts do not depend on different cultures in different parts of the world; instead, the issues that arise when the town begins to wonder if the HEX is even real and they’ve just been living like cowards all along, (for example), are not ones that could only happen in some parts of the world. If you have a village, a town, a large city, or the most powerful country on Earth, there will always be the unpredicatable actions, the human errors you cannot factor into a synthetic society, (See: WESTWORLD SEASON 1 if you don’t get my point).

CONCLUSION: HEX tells the tale about a town that struggles with maintaining its superstitious routines in the post-modern age where technology has become a luxury and a curse in its own right. The author has written an ensemble collection of characters and townsfolk, from all ages and styles of life etc., who feel like actual people you could talk to. They are extremely well written, believable, and most importantly – each of them are flawed somehow, just like in real life.

The novel is not actually scary, (I’m not saying oh it didn’t scare me I’m a tough guy!), no, I’m saying the premise by definition is about a Witch that is executed in the 1600’s and curses the villagers before dying, and since it’s FICTION, the story picks up in modern day, in the same town, only to discover that the Witch wasn’t bluffing on her HEX before she died. She has spent generations making the citizens fear her wrath, (without ever seeing any of it, let alone without seeing her face/eyes, as they are sewn shut, oh and she doesn’t touch you or anything – she’s kind of polite that way...). HEX unfurls brilliantly and is a book you will burn midnight oil to finish, so be warned it’s imposssible to put down. Also, without spoiling anything, just keep in mind that I said over and over again about how THESE CHARACTERS ARE VERY REAL, and they make mistakes like we do. As November 8th, 2016 reminds us Americans, mistakes haunt you and often they cannot ever be forgiven or fixed.

Happy reading!

I have never read anything like this. I don't write reviews as others do, I will say this. So many feelings I felt, I thought I was living the story. It's one of the best novels I've ever read and I can say without a doubt that it needs to be read by all. There are many lessons to be learned herein. Mr. Heuvelt is truly a wordsmith with an imagination and talent to be followed closely. Read this now. It will change the way you think.

You'll start this book and be hooked by the original take on classic witch tale. By introducing the witch Katherine from the openning sentance as a physical, varifiable entity, we're thrust into a town with deep supernatural issues that has to deal with it in a practical way. And it's enthralling...for a while.

Then it all goes absolutely nowhere.

We're left with a book of rather thin, uninteresting characters and craftmanship that simply isn't good enough to carry the poorly paced story structure.

In the end, nothing pays off. The premise goes nowhere particularly interesting. Nowhere creative. The ending feels like the author himself didn't know what to do with his own curse. Like he was as clueless about the witch's backstory as the reader is.

In the end, I can't recommend this book.

***Spoilers***This book is one that actually gave me a scare which I haven't been creeped out by a book in a while. While character descriptions were absent, the author was able to tell the story very well with vivid, colorful, and eerie details. The curse on the town by the witch was told with original development which I also thought would be great if the author wrote a prequel to explain more about the HEX security and how it was developed and maybe more on the story of Katherine's life and what she was like. Overall I enjoyed the book.

I enjoyed reading HEX. I was surprised by a few characters that ended up at deaths door. I read aloud to my daughter as she goes to sleep (yes even scary books) and some books are hard to read. The words don't always flow smoothly. Hex was written well and a great book to read aloud with nice formed sentences. The characters were developed and I felt like I could live next door to them. Definitely recommend.

It's been awhile since I read fiction. I grew up with Dean Koontz and John Saul and F. Paul Wilson as my go-to authors before I discovered Lovecraft. I would say HEX is more like Koontz than Lovecraft but with a harder edge. It's a creepy premise and I think the author paints great, eerie pictures. My complaints are minor and mainly have to do with some of the dialogue, especially the teen dialogue. It was a little... goofy. Still, I think the premise is awesome and the story goes directions I wouldn't have expected. As my first horror novel in many years, this was an awesome return to fiction and I would happily read anything else by the author.

Really enjoyed it. Well done english language debut of a Dutch author. I found this to be a clever, clever, story well thought out and with good characters. I found some humorous elements with the witch who kept showing up though I am not sure anyone else will as there is actually nothing funny about her. I don't like giving the story away too much so I will just say this is a good book for people who like some quirkiness in there reading.

Couldn't put it down, stop talking about it, or begging my friends to read it. The mix of a 21st century setting and 16th(?) Century witch was so different it gave the book so much immediate appeal. That clash actually had me laughing out loud in some of the early chapters. But when it goes down hill, it really goes down hill. This was the best book I read in 2016.

For any potential English speaking reader, don't waste time on my review. I can't tell you anything about how very wonderful and terrifying this book is. I'd just be ruining part of it for you. Just go read it! You won't regret it. Seriously.

Pros:
- Creepy. Creepy. Creepy. The witch is wonderfully chilling throughout this book. There are times when she would show up, and I would feel dread.
- I quite liked the allegory in this novel and how the author used it show the dark side of the human condition
- For the most part, I just wanted to keep reading. There were chapters that I would finish and immediately start the next wanting to know what happens.
- Towards the end the book felt like a freight train, which is a good thing. Uncontrollable, taking no prisoners, get out of the way of you'll be destroyed kind of feel.

Cons:
- Narrative sometimes felt disjointed. Maybe it was just me, but there were times that I would be ready and have to stop and think... wait, who are we talking about now?
- Ending, again it was OK, but I wanted more.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. As I progressed through the last 3rd of the book my rating was a solid 4 stars. However once I landed on the ending, I decided that 4 stars might be a little more than it deserves. If there was a 3.5 that would be perfect.

I ordered the hardback to keep but I read it on my Kindle at night. There were a few times when I had to use my Kindle as a light and shine it around the room just to calm my nerves and make sure the witch wasn't in my room. I highly recommend it

I really enjoyed this book. The premise was unusual, and it took me a while to figure out what was going on, and enter the world of Black Spring. But once I did, I LOVED it. And I knew it wasn't going to end well for its inhabitants. Very cool book, different from other horror stories I've read. Definitely recommend!

Wow! This was an amazing read! If you are looking for something that will keep your attention and keep you reading well into the night, look no further! You will love every second of this book! I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

I received this book Saturday and already finished it in 2 days. The story was so original and compelling and i had such a fascination with the town that you could feel was somehow ultimately doomed yet you were rooting for, just hoping they would find a way out. The truly chilling aspect of the book isn't at all what you think it will be... I'll just leave it at that.

A truly original horror story, contemporary and at times a scratching social commentary. The ending left me a little flat, apparently it was rewritten for the English language version, but a great read

The premise is super unique and intriguing, so I thought this was going to be a great read. I liked the first half of the book, but unfortunately the second half went way downhill to the point where it was almost illegible. The ending was horrible, underwhelming, and bizarre. There's also some weird sexist language & imagery.

If only he had apologized in the preface, I would have saved myself some time.

I truly wish there were "half star" options, because this is a two-and-a-half star book if ever there was one. It has moments of suspense, moments of terror, but these are scattered pearls on a long rope of "who cares" writing and storytelling. The book is not just too long for the story, it feels positively bloated. An editor could have cut 100 pages and the reader wouldn't have missed a thing.

The author draws heavily on two famous works of fiction to move the action in this book: The Monkey's Paw and Pet Semetary. At times, the book seems not so much a homage to these two stellar bits of storytelling as a blatant rip-off. Characterization is also inorganic. Characters in Hex's final chapters behave so differently than they had throughout the book that the reader is left scratching his or her head saying, "He did what?" The first scenes try ... but fail...to presage the end. It's as if early in the book a character cuts a watermelon in two, and from that you're supposed to say, "Oh, of course he bisected his sister. You knew that was going to happen because of the watermelon scene."

For me though, the worst was this....

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

The author could not decide whether the Katherine was...not to sound too much like the Wizard of Oz...a good witch or a bad witch. The end of the book implies that the evil in the town was not a matter of witchery, but of the latent evil in the hearts of the residents. But that negates the 300 pages preceding, which describe the witch hexing people, keeping them captive in town, killing a bunch of scientists, causing one of the protagonist's sons to hang himself, and causing another to go blind. This is not artful ambiguity. This is a matter of the author being unable to make a decision.

Save your money. Re-read Pet Sematary.

I had read some hype about this story, so eventually purchased it. The concept was intriguing for a while, but after I got used to the scary image of the witch, the rest of the plot was ultimately a let-down. Kind of predictable, especially the ending. Most of the "scary" scenes are really just vulgar and/or disgusting, not actually scary. And the women are depicted as either vapid or physically disturbing. Kind of misoginist. Not a great book, but not a complete stinker, either.

For those of you that like a well written horror story. Do not spend the money on this book. It is a very well written story. It is very scary. The problem is, the ending is very bad. I couldn't believe how bad it was.

I don’t like witch stories, but I loved HEX. I almost passed it up, thinking it would be a one-trick pony, but decided at the last minute to give it a shot. Then I wondered if I had made a mistake. The opening of the book seemed to be horror light, more focused on the whimsy than otherwise, though it was extremely well-written.

It was, as it turns out, author Thomas Olde Heuvelt getting his ducks in a row, giving answers to questions that any reasonable reader would ask, before turning out the lights in the room and letting the rats loose, or worse. I was wrong about the pony thing, too. HEX is a thoroughbred that races, dances and sings well and frighteningly. Think of it this way: Reading this book is like going into an amusement park and entering what appears to be an entertaining but fairly pedestrian fun house, only to discover that you’re on the fastest, steepest roller coaster you’ve ever ridden...and as you look ahead, you see that the tracks end in mid-air.

Yes, HEX really is that good. It’s a terrifying read that gave me nightmares and probably will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Heuvelt’s work is new to the United States, other than for a shorter e-work. (Let me gush again for a minute here, and then I promise to get back on track.) HEX was originally published in his native Holland in 2013. What we’re getting is what Heuvelt describes in his Acknowledgements as “Hex 2.0.” He went through the book and gave it an American setting, and added a whole new ending for American audiences. I admire work ethic, maybe more than anything else, and for that reason alone I would recommend this novel. He also gives strong credit, as he should, to translator Nancy Forest-Flier, by whose effort and good grace it is available to American audiences. There is more, though, so much more.

So what is HEX about? I’m so glad you asked. It’s about a small Hudson Valley village with the foreboding name of Black Spring. The town is haunted by the spirit of Katherine van Wyler, who was executed as a witch in the 17th century. When I say “haunted,” I mean HAUNTED. She wanders through the streets following a somewhat regular pattern, but also shows up in the homes --- closets, kitchens and bedrooms --- of the town’s residents on a regular basis. This has been going on for hundreds of years, and the knowledge that one must never disturb her has been paid deeply and with bitter coin. There is also a bit of a “Hotel California” thing going on, in the sense that if you establish residency in Black Spring, you can never leave, at least for more than a day.

What occurs in HEX, which is set in 2008, is that a few of the town’s teenagers are chafing at the isolation and, to varying degrees, decide to do something about it, using social media and, in some cases, direct action against Katherine. That is not a good idea, even as one of the looser cannons of the group seeks to up the ante. All he does, however, is bring a knife to a fight where his supernatural adversary has the benefits of otherworldliness and a couple of hundred years of experience in her rotting, animated corpse. One thing leads to another, with results that are immediately bad and become worse than disastrous.

Does all of this sound preposterous? Sure. While reading, I thought Hey, they couldn’t stay isolated because of this, or that, or the other. However, Heuvelt thinks of everything, and he has an answer for you, no matter what your question is, weaving it flawlessly into the narrative even as he gives a nod and a wink in tribute to a contemporary horror classic or two. You won’t want the book to end, but not because it’s too short. Once he starts unleashing the consequences, you just know this bad boy is going to end badly. But what a marvel Heuvelt is. He already has a couple of short fiction pieces that are available in English. Can his four other novels be far behind? I hope not. For now, though, I have HEX to read over and over again.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

The author takes a classic horror tripe and puts a fresh spin on it in a modern context. What would the Salem witch trials be like if everyone had smartphones and the internet? The book is rather bleak but has excellent pacing and well developed characters

Overall I thought the story was good and unique. I was highly disappointed in the ending, it was half-baked and rushed. I guess the dysfunctional nature of this family can purely be placed at the head.

This book has a great premise.I bet it was really terrific in it's original form.Too bad I don't read Dutch so I would know for sure.I fault the translator.She tried to use every colloquial Americanism she could think of if it was appropriate or not.Some language used was positively quaint ie:referring to a teen girl as "a pert little cutie".I do not understand why the story had to be reset in America.Even the ending was changed.If this book was translated better and the original ending restored ,I think it would be at least a 4 star rated book.

Great concept, but underdeveloped and strangely misogynist. Why were there not more details about the witch around whom the story was based? Where are the developed female characters in this story? Why are most the descriptions of women focused on their physical attributes or shortcomings? (And why is this author so obsessed with women's foreheads??) The crude violence against the witch, as well of the vulgar speech of those who committed it, was unappealing and disturbing. Were there no female editors on this project to point this out?

It started strong. I was haunted as I dropped off to sleep the first night . By the time I finished I was bitterly regretting my purchase. I need to start buying hard cover books again so I can sell the stink bombs immediately.

This was recommended as best recent horror by several book blogs. I wish I could get the time back I spent reading this cliche.
As others have noted, many elements of the plot are wholesale taken from other works. It feels more like a trolling fanfic than a true novel. The character development is shallow and weak. It reminded me of a bad movie with terrible acting built around special effects. The author superficially described the setting but it's generic and does not convey any of the actual characteristics of the Hudson Valley. It feels like a quick drive by of the area.
I couldn't get much emotion invested in the characters due to the weak development. It's one of those stories when you begin to dislike everyone and then, you just don't care.
The homophobic language and awful misogyny are grating and do not help with character development.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

There are tired, despair exploitation plot devices that had me rolling eyes and heavy sighing. The plot twist happens towards the middle of the book. It details completely after that. There's seemingly endless drawn out anguish that feels as though it were created purely by turning on a word counter to fill pages. The apocalyptic devolving story line is painfully predictable. It became so ridiculous, it was a chore to read. Yet, I plowed through wasting sleep for a hope it would redeem itself. It doesn't. It flubs to a predictable ending that you'll see coming because the author agonizingly spells out everything with no subtlety . The most infuriating thing is the author's arrogance to compare the storyline to Dante. Dante was the master of subtlety. The indirect meaning and representation has kept scholars busy for centuries. This book is the antithesis of that. Anything that could have been done with nuance is plastered in front of you with giant, billboard idiot simplicity that takes the little interest of the storyline and smoothers it. This book will be vividly memorable because how exceptionally awful it is.

It starts off fairly innocently, funny even. The town seems to treat their very own personal witch a bit like the oddball auntie you want to hide when the new in-laws in spe come to visit.
Then Heuvelt slowly takes the atmosphere from funny to peculiar and then it starts to get creepy. From that point onwards everything is just downhill from a ‘I was expecting a more pleasant experience’ perspective.
The horror aspect takes over in such an insidious way that it seems to slither from the pages into your fingers. I felt like having a shower afterwards to wash off the scent and the touch of the witch.
For me it was the whispering, I swear it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Then on top of that the imagery of the sewn up eyes and mouth. Yeh, that’s one way to keep people awake at night.
I liked the parallels between the hysteria of the witch trials and the reactions of the modern day townspeople. All in the name of the Good Lord and everything goes to hell in handbasket in a matter of days. Educated, sensible and lenient people turn into scavengers braying for blood.
They want their fair share of the supposed justice. Forget about the fact none of them are living in medieval times, and they seem to have become a small country unto themselves. Governed by myths, hearsay, fear and a council full of backwards thinking individuals.
At the very beginning the Delarosa’s make a valid point. The cursed town could try a little harder to keep new people out. Nobody wants to be stuck in the same place forever, subject to the whims of an ancient witch and always on the cusp of death.
Hex seems like your standard horror/supernatural, but Heuvelt doesn’t believe in standard or in happy endings for that matter.
*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley.*

The book started out innocently enough, but quickly built to a scary, sleep with the lights on, page turning ghost book. I devoured the pages as one twist after another propelled the book. Then near the end, the story line took a nose dive, and it was the worst ending I've read. I wondered if the end was a tacked on affair, and after reading the authors comments, realize it was. Originally published in Europe, the author had a chance to Americanize the book, setting it near West Point, NY. But he also wrote a completely new ending different from the original publication. It ruins the book. I'd give it 1 or 2 stars except it was an amazing read until the last few chapters.

I received a free copy of Hex from the publisher in return for an honest review.

The concept of Hex really appealed to me but I found the book to be rather disappointing. I was expecting it to be a lot scarier and creepier than it was. Don't get me wrong, it had it's creepy moments but over all there was something lacking.

The main characters were well written and the pacing was consistent and held my attention. The writing style created a nice dark atmosphere, especially the forest scenes which were extremely visual and atmospheric. For a huge chunk of the book I was thoroughly enjoying it but as it got closer to the conclusion I found myself drawn out of the story and questioning the characters actions.

I'm still not exactly clear on the circumstances surrounding the witch herself. I feel like there wasn't enough background given, no in depth scene for me to look back on that would explain why she kept retracing the steps that she was taking. I know what happened to her but I couldn't visualise it or relate to her experience in any way and link it to her current actions. There was no narrative or inner thoughts or experiences from her perspective and this created a feeling of disconnect.

For the most part I did enjoy the book but in my opinion it went a bit off the rails at the end. There was the potential there for it to be brilliant, and at times it was, but the conclusion was disappointing after such a suspenseful read.

There’s a real joy in reading a horror novel that feels unlike much else out there. This is a genre that depends on familiarity and tropes, on finding ways to breathe fresh life into variations on monsters that we’ve seen countless times – the creation of Frankenstein, the vampire, the ghost, and in the case of HEX, the witch. And while there’s much to be said for executing a classic trope in a classic way, there’s even more to be said for finding a fresh approach to it, and doing something unique. And man, does HEX ever come through on that front, giving us a nightmarish modern take on a witch that incorporates technology, social media, paranoia, and the darkness of human nature into a complex, disturbing tale that never backs down.

HEX takes place in Black Spring, New York, a small town that’s wired to the gills with cameras and citizen-run surveillance programs (there’s even a new app that’s much loved by the more tech-savvy town members). The reason for all of this isn’t paranoia, or some sort of government tracking program watching the town; indeed, it’s all about watching a single figure: Katherine van Wyler, the town’s witch…who has lived in this town since her death in 1664. Katherine’s eyes and mouth are sewn up, mind you; nonetheless, she appears all over the town, a strange and unsettling figure who’s lost almost all of her ominous nature simply by virtue of her familiarity. (She’s so common by now that one family simply drapes a cloth over her while she stands in their living room, simply so they don’t have to see her.) And yet, there’s little denying the unease that Katherine can generate – the danger in listening to her whispers, the deaths that can happen when she’s threatened. Even so, she’s part of living in Black Spring – a responsibility that prevents its town members from ever leaving, and find them discouraging newcomers.

But by the time we enter Black Spring, there’s a lot brewing under the surface. There’s a growing discontent among the younger citizens, who know that they’ll never be allowed to leave this town, and want so much more. There are damaged citizens who are starting to hope that Katherine might be able to help them in their lot in life. There’s a town councilman whose control over the town is only tightening. And there’s at least one citizen whose fear of the witch is abating to dangerous levels, to the point where he sees her as a toy, not a horrifying force of nature.

I don’t want to say much about the plot of HEX beyond that; watching as author Thomas Olde Heuvelt dives in and out of lives, keeps Katherine a constant figure of unease, and slowly tightens his plot threads is a joy, and that goes double once you realize just how far he can take this story. Because, rest assured, HEX is a horror novel that gets nightmarish in its payoffs; while Olde Heuvelt never takes the story anywhere that you’re expecting, his willingness to bring out not only supernatural darkness but human cruelty makes this one pack a vicious punch on all sorts of levels. It’s truly scary at times, heartbreaking at others, and brutally disturbing at others. And at all times, it’s riveting, giving us interesting characters and a story that draws us in with them.

It would be easy for HEX to feel overstuffed; this is, after all, the story of a whole town, with a cast of characters that fits that ambition. From a plot perspective, though, Olde Heuvelt nicely juggles everything, keeping all of the action clear, the motivations understandable, and all of the connections and interpersonal dynamics always in focus and used to build the tone and anticipation/dread. From a thematic point of view, he’s sometimes a little less successful; it’s not clear, by book’s end, if this is a book about a supernatural force of evil or about the evil within humanity – or maybe both.

(Sidebar on this: HEX was originally published in Dutch, and set in the Netherlands. When Tor Books decided to translate and publish the book in English, Olde Heuvelt decided to rewrite the book and set it in New York to make it easier for American audiences to lose themselves in its world. He also decided to rewrite the book’s ending greatly, and while he doesn’t explain the original ending in HEX’s afterword, I’ve been able to find out enough to say that the English ending does feel more focused thematically, and gives a sense of what message Olde Heuvelt was attempting to convey. I would be curious to read the original ending, though, which sounds far more unhinged and nightmarish than what we got – and honestly, that’s saying something.)

But honestly, little of that matters while you’re reading HEX, because all you’ll be thinking is that this book moves with all the force and unease of a strange nightmare, mixing in its details in a way that maximizes unease while delaying its payoffs until they’ll hit their hardest. It does what the best horror should do: sets the scene and invests you in its world and characters, so that when things go bad, we’re not only scared, but all the more uneasy for the fate of this community. And trust me, when things go bad here? They go very, very bad.

All in all, HEX is one of my favorite horror novels in a long time – it’s utterly original, fascinatingly told, genuinely scary and disturbing, and just moves like a rocket. It’s got me hoping that there’s a lot more of Olde Heuvelt’s work to come on this side of the pond, because I definitely want to read a lot more of it.

I’ve had HEX on my ARC shelf for over a year, waiting patiently and I will admit that I was being a little bit of a wuss, slightly afraid of what I was going to find in those pages! But I finally put on my big girl pants, I manned up and started reading and well, what a bloody brilliant book.

Black Spring, to look at, is a normal town in the Hudson Valley, except they are cursed, there is a 300-year-old witch named Katherine, who appears in their homes, walks their streets. Her eyes and mouth are stitched to prevent her from causing chaos. But once someone moves to Black Spring they can never move away.

Now, regular readers of this blog will know I tend to flip things on their side, and while I found Katherine immensely creepy (and as someone who suffers with psychosis and sees people who aren’t there, is slightly freaked out that a Katherine is going to appear by the bed now) I felt intensely protective of Katherine as the book progressed. I felt like this was a woman who had been cursed herself and the town wasn’t cursed by her but as a result of what had happened to her.

Although Katherine is the focus of the story I felt like the people of the town were where the main story sat. This story was about what happens when there is a kind of marshal law, or even a mob rules. What happens when the laws of the land don’t apply and people go against what is morally right and get carried away with being cruel instead jumping into the idea of an eye for an eye. It’s as though our author has looked at where evil really comes from in these stories.

This book gets uncomfortable and hard to read in parts, it doesn’t hold any punches and things happen that made me feel ill but they aren’t going too far, they fit with the story and the situation perfectly. Not once did I feel that things had gone outside the realms of reality.

There were subtle references to original Grimm’s Fairy Tales, which obviously didn’t end well, in some ways this was like a modern adult version one. It did remind me of them in the way it read.

The writing was engaging and between the author being a fluent English speaker and Nancy Forest-Flier who acted as translator for the novel you would never know this had been written in Dutch originally.

I can’t recommend this highly enough, a gripping, psychological journey.

A huge thanks to Thomas Olde Heuvelt and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC so that I could read and honestly review this novel.

HEX...I was expecting horror, I was expecting atmosphere, I was not expecting the comedy, the nod to some of my favorite stories, and the fact that this book completely blew my mind. I had to wrap my head around how much this spoke to my humanity, to the universe and to my soul. This is not just a book about a town that has a curse, or about a witch who is out for vengeance, or what a community will do to protect its dirty secret. Its about toxic energies and what we accept from our past, its about exposing "evil" and the bravery behind that, its about the mob mentality and how we create our own misery, we can also create our own joy.
Yes it has a witch vs modern technology, it has idiot teenagers who risk everyone's lives to see the 'what if's and it has serious scary moments where I was glad I was not alone in the dark. I am going to re-read this again, and again and I know I will gather more input about myself through that, and I want to thank the Author for such a allegorical tale that I freaking cannot stop talking about!

I’m certain that HEX will one day be made into a great movie. There is something wonderful about its concept: a town labouring under a witch’s curse and the presence of the witch herself. I loved the idea that even the most horrible and fantastical of things can become mundane. In one of the opening scenes the family has dinner while the living corpse of the witch stands in a corner with a dish rag over her head so they don’t have to look at her face. This image wonderfully encapsulated the possibility of this story. But I simply couldn’t get passed the poor writing that has been used to tell it. I know that this is a translation and a reworking of the original Dutch version so I’d be willing to cut it a little slack, but the author breaks every writing rule in the book and not in the way a master might but in the way a novice who has never heard of any of the rules does. There is plenty of telling and very little showing, and I don’t think a single character talks the way a real human being does. This, along with the author’s creepy obsession with violence to breasts (I think five separate incidents with multiple characters counts as a creepy obsession) and an ending that completely disassociated itself with any sense of the humanity it was trying to capture, made this book deeply unsatisfying for me and caused me to wonder why on Earth it was getting all the hype it is.

This is the worst “scary” novel I’ve ever read. Everything about it was ill-constructed, poor translation from Dutch to English. Many times I had to re-read a sentence just to get a sense of what the author was trying to convey. The ending was ridiculous and not well-thought out. There was no consistency and the plot lines were jarring and random. I felt no sympathy for these characters whatsoever. Save your money and buy a better horror novel. Hex is not worth it.

[NOTE: I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I do love stories set in little towns with secrets, and especially when said secrets are quite “normal” there, and only outsiders would get really shocked about them because the locals have gone… numb and used to them? It’s definitely creepy, and keeps making me wonder when the crap’s going to hit the fan, when the normalcy of horror will become actual horror, when the mask will be thrown away and it’s showtime. Something like that.

Well, at some point it’s showtime in “HEX”, clearly. The only question is “when”.

It starts with a very normal day in the lives of the Normal McNormal family, in Normal Town, USA. Except for the woman who gets crushed by an organ right at the beginning (and that’s when you do a double-take and think “wait, what? I’d better pay more attention to what I’m reading.”). That’s what got me from the start: the feeling that something troubling was was presented as normal, and everybody but me just went about their day without blinking an eye. Soon enough more information surfaces, through other everyday scenes: the Grant family having dinner while a mysterious “Gramma” sits in the next room with a napkin on her head… The council/local organisation policing the town keeping an eye on a couple of newcomers, desperately trying to dissuade them from buying a house in Black Spring. These first chapters were really intriguing and I couldn’t wait to read more.

I didn’t like this novel more, though, because I think at some point, the horror became a little too… close? As in, when you KNOW what’s going to happen, when you KNOW things are going to get very wrong and you suspect how they’re going to unfold, when you start foreseeing such events, there’s always a risk, at least in my case, of distanciating myself from the story in advance. I guess that’s what happened here, and when all the bad things befell various characters, it didn’t creep me out so much anymore. Perhaps that’s just my personal problem with horror stories, and I unconsciously distance myself from their events. Perhaps I don’t do that all the time. It takes a very, very fine and fragile balance to take me where I’d like to be (caring about the characters, feeling invested to the point that every setback for them will be a blow for me).

The normalcy factor and many characters being a bit cliché may also have “helped” in not making me care too much : trying too much killed the effort, so to speak. The Grants look like a too perfect family (the mother doesn’t do much except being the Good Wife, to be honest), the teenagers’ exactions on the witch ended up being more of the sensational-seeking kind than really creepy, the HEX people were forgettable, the new couple settling in town were, in the end, just an excuse to hand out a block of information (they never did anything noteworthy after that)…

Finally, I also felt Katherine’s involvement wasn’t too clear : she’s dangerous but she also was a victim ; there’s a curse but you never know how exactly it started and/or manifests through the witch (“touching her” and “living in Black Spring” are a bit vague); so developments towards the end didn’t make as much sense as would’ve been needed to drive the horror through. As if the plot here kept sitting on the fence, not knowing whether to go the way of humans or monsters. Which is too bad, because there’s that whole theme of “the curse we inflict upon ourselves by forgetting we’re humans and by turning against each other as if we had never learnt anything”.

There were “good” horror moments (the search for the dog at night…) but in the end it was an “OK” book for me, nothing more. 2 to 2.5 stars.

HEX, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, is one of the most intriguing, thought-provoking novels I've read lately. The central idea concerns the modern-day town of Black Spring, NY, and a 17th century witch that appears to all the residents--even inside their homes--at all hours of the day. Anyone that moves into the town is likewise "trapped" there for the rest of their lives. They are able to leave the town for short periods of time, but after a prolonged absence, they are bombarded by suicidal feelings so potent that they end up taking their own lives, unless they quickly return to the town. Due to the "curse" the HEX council has cameras, sensors, and other modern technology in place to record the witch's physical sightings in order to "hide" her from outsiders--not wanting others to become entangled in their misfortune.

". . . For many newcomers in Black Spring, the irreversibility of their fate, its finality, was their first uncanny confrontation with their own mortality . . . "

It's precisely this infusion of a 17th century curse, merged with today's technology and state of the art surveillance that makes HEX truly stand out among other books of its kind.

One of the main things I usually take into account when reviewing is characterization. I have to say that this was most definitely NOT a strong point in this novel. While I got a feeling mainly for some of the town's kids--and a bit from Katherine, the witch--there really wasn't enough here to feel that I "knew" any of the main characters.

Why the five star review, then?

I get the distinct impression that Thomas Olde Heuvelt meant for it to be like this. The story isn't so much about the individuals in Black Spring, as it is about the town as a community--the "whole".

". . . Imprisioned in a fate they all shared, not one of them raised their voice higher than that of their neighbor or suffered any less. These were the rules of chaos, and from that chaos a sort of deranged solidarity emerged . . ."

I won't go into further details about the story itself, for this is one that I feel you truly need to read for yourselves in order to draw your own conclusions. I will say that some scenes were nearly unbelievable to me when I first read them, but when taken in context with the entire novel, they were the only "plausible" outcomes. This was a book that kept me entranced each and every page--and yes, the horror element was strong here, especially in a cerebral sense.

". . . inexplicable things happened, bewildering things, even in a world that regarded itself as fully unenlightened . . ."

In an afterward, Heuvelt explains that he translated his original Dutch version of this novel into English, and completely rewrote the ending. What the original ending was, he won't say, but personally, I believe this version of HEX ended on the most perfect note it could.

"One evil spawned another, greater evil, and ultimately everything could be traced back to Black Spring."

HEX was an incredible novel that brought together elements of the 17th century civilization and fused them together with our modern day devices and practices, so seamlessly that I couldn't believe this was the first book I had read by this author. As a social commentary, this gave me an incredible insight into our human mentality and the evil that we, as a species, can bring about on our own. It is a book that I can not stop thinking about, and mentally following the "subtle" scenes that began immediately and continued throughout the entirety of the book--almost a "trail of breadcrumbs" that leads us to the end.

"Sometimes you did it because of Black Spring."

A powerful, original book that I give my highest recommendation to!

This unique horror story tells of a town, Black Spring, which has a history of bad luck or being cursed. Not only does the symbol of the curse, a manifestation of allegedly an old witch, Katherine, appear like clockwork throughout the town but the town have implemented an emergency decree, which tells every resident how to live with the strange phenomenon and to keep town matters confidential. Any breech of the decree leads to punishment.

When a group of teenagers from Black Spring rebel against the town's tradition and rules a chain of events lead to a crisis. The townspeople react to maintain the status quo but can the curse be contained any longer?

I love horror books and the best ones in my opinion are the ones that convince you it could happen. He's has an intriguing premise but admittedly I found the idea of keeping the haunting described within Black Spring secret, far fetched. However, I continued reading the book as the characters were interesting and I wanted to know more about the haunting entity Katherine.

I became more intrigued about what would happen to the town as I got to know all the different characters and as such I found the book adequately gripping. What I hoped to understand better was the character Katherine and her story, which was elaborated upon but still felt a bit vague.

Overall the chill factor and the horror aspect of this story was very readable and I would definitely urge horror fans to give this one a try.

OK, I’ll admit it, I was starting to feel in need of a bookish change. As regular visitors to the blog will know, I am an avid crime fiction reader with quite a few psychological thrillers thrown in there for good measure. The books I have read recently have all been brilliant, but I needed something …different. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, I tend turn my attention to horror novels. I had completely forgotten I had this on the TBR! When it was first published in April 2016 I was so excited about it but wasn’t lucky enough to get a copy then. Thankfully the lovely Hodderscape people didn’t leave me waiting too long but by that point, I was deeply immersed in my Summer blog tour reading. Only now am I starting to choose what to read again and this one lept out at my from my Kindle screen.

Just to prove how excited I was about this book when it first came out, I downloaded the first 10 chapters from NetGalley and reviewed them on the blog back in February. If you click here you can read that review. See? I was really keen! (In my defence, it was only my second month as a book blogger, I was still refining my art!). As so much time had passed between those first 10 chapters and now I decided to start reading at the very beginning. I was amazed at how easily I remembered the characters and what was going to happen next, testament to a good book.

I flew through those first chapters and eagerly anticipated the arrival of chapter 11. So I guess the question is, was it worth the wait? It was. This book somehow managed to garner a strange hold over me. I wasn’t as blown away by the witches antics as I expected to be but that didn’t stop this book being in my thoughts constantly, from the moment I woke up to the moment I fell asleep (thankfully it didn’t make it into my dreams!). It has a certain pull. There are some very shocking moments but they are well paced making the build of tension and the imminent sense of foreboding quite exquisite.

I read this one slowly, savouring the pictures being painted by the author and enjoying every moment. It’s so very emotional, something I didn’t expect at all. Now that I’ve finished the book and taken a few moments to compose myself, it’s become blatantly clear this is book isn’t really about a witch. It’s about a small community that has to stare death in the face every moment of every day. How they struggle to keep the madness of their predicament at bay and how when the times comes, they turn their backs on everyone else, even their loved ones.

I heartily recommend this book. I think it will stay with me for some time and may even be one of the few that I revisit again in the future.

Five out of five stars

I chose to read and review an ARC of HEX.

Just finished reading ‘HEX; by Hugo Award winning Dutch author Thomas Olde Heuvelt. This is the English language debut of this bestselling Dutch novel. I will say from the get go that this one caught me completely by surprise. I didn’t have this book or this author in my ‘to read list’ or know anything about it until my partner (Dale Hauck) surprised me with a hardback copy one afternoon. Thomas is being compared to Stephen King and I can see why, however; this guy is on a different level of crazy and madness all of his own making. Imagine if you will the evil offspring of Stephen King and Dean Koontz and I think you might come close to the creation of this amazingly creative and thought provoking author. We go from a 17th century witch living (or making an appearance from time to time) in the 21st century, to some crazy psychological mind boggling craziness. And if you don’t make the right decisions or choices in life, well, there will be consequences. For me, this book was utterly and completely brilliant and quite possibly the best book I’ve read in 2016. I will have my eyes open for more from this amazing author in the future and look forward to finding other works by him...oh, and it’s a wonderfully scary Christmas read.

Synopsis: From the book: “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.”

There's a curse on Black Spring. Anyone who settles in this town can never leave for long because they've become wrapped up in the curse. Black Spring is haunted by a 17th century witch named Katherine. With her eyes and mouth sewn shut, she appears wherever she wants. She's a forced to be reckoned with because messing with her means you're subject to her wrath, so people throw dish washing cloths and sheets to hide her when she appears in their home or workplace. A small group of teens decide they want to break the town's strict rules regarding her and go viral with her presence and what goes on in their town. Instead, their plan backfires and everyone begins to deteriorate under the power that Katherine holds over them.

There isn't a dull moment throughout this book. We've got a group of teenagers going to their secret blog and planning how to go public with Katherine and the town's curse, and we have various characters that we follow dealing with the curse. At first, Katherine is presented as a dark entity that is seemingly cursed to walk the living world for the sins she committed during her life. People are forbidden to talk or touch her because it could be a death sentence. However, as the story goes on, Katherine is at the bottom of the list of evil entities. She just does her thing and people fear her for it. They fear the day that she brings forth the end of times, so anyone unlucky enough to live in town is stuck planning their lives around the curse and hope they don't live to see her evil eye turn on them.

Katherine's a sad spirit lurking around town. We start to see how people blame her for their actions and the consequences they face. A few of the teens who want to go viral with their town's story become out of control. They begin to become violent, which results in the death of an animal and some people. Some view her as a goddess of sorts and leave her offerings, much to HEX's surprise. As the town starts to deteriorate and turn into an angry mob, we see history begin to repeat itself. The people of Black Spring believe she has turned her evil eye onto them when they begin to turn into the worst version of themselves. It's interesting to watch how Katherine is a solemn entity who doesn't want to cause harm. She is merely stuck in this world with the descendants of those who harmed her during her life.

It's an action packed story that doesn't have a dull moment. I know it kept me turning the pages to see what happened next. I am disappointed with the way it ended. It has an open ending, which left me with many questions about Katherine and the surviving people of the town. I think I really just want Katherine to be able to rest in peace rather than being forced to walk this world.

Black Spring is a small town in upstate New York that is suffering from a 300 year old curse. Its 3,000 residents cannot move away from Black Spring because Katherine, a witch from the 1600s, is preventing them from leaving. She has cursed the town and all those in it.

The Grant family are a normal, modern day family. Steve and Jocelyn, the parents, older son Tyler is a youtuber and younger brother Matt. The story quickly pulls you in with this ghost/witch that everyone in town just accepts. She gets run over and then appears in Steve's home. Jocelyn puts a dish towel on her head because she can’t stand looking Katherine. It's funny how it's just a causal thing, almost like a supernatural satire.

Katherine’s eyes and mouth sown shut and there are chains wrapping her arms to her body. She doesn't seem react to people and she follows a pattern. She’ll occasionally appear in different places but that is what Hex is for.

Hex is a group of people whose job it is to monitor Katherine and the townsfolk. The town is severely monitored with security cameras everywhere. Hex also watches their online interactions; social media, emails, etc. There's an app that towns people can report sightings of Katherine so everyone will know where she is. They also have to be ready if the town has tourist. The hide Katherine in plain sight. Black Spring is famous for their 17th century witch. They creatively blend her into the surroundings or sometimes will just cover her with a blanket.

Hex takes “town” matters into their own hands. They can't get outside police involved because they can't tell outsiders about the ghost. They have an emergency decree that was written up a hundred years ago that all citizens are meant to follow: No contact with the ghost. No telling others. All of the people’s lives who live in Black Spring are at stake. Any wrong interaction with Katherine or if an outside government gets involved or if her mouth and eyes are unstitched, they could all die.

It’s also Hex’s responsibility to try and prevent people from moving into Black Spring. Once you move there you cannot leave. The town owns you. Katherine owns you. People who leave Black Spring become severely depressed and commit suicide.

I kept forgetting this is suppose to be a creepy, supernatural, dark novel. It definitely doesn’t come off that way in the beginning. It was funny with the people covering her with dishcloths and blankets or blending her into the surroundings. They were so use to her that it wasn’t scary. However, in the second half of the book, the tone completely changes. The buildup is instantaneous and it gets ominous.

***I received a free copy (Excerpt) of this book in exchange for my unbiased review of it. The opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s.***
Hex is a horror story written by Thomas Olde Heuvelt and it is centered in a town called Black Springs. In this town are people who live with their families and seemingly live normal lives but there is a certain resident who wanders the town and has…for years. Her eyes and mouth are sewn shut and she wears iron shackles. The people live in fear of her…and they know that they once they settle down in this town that there is no leaving it…not once they see her.
This story starts off quite innocently enough and lures you in sweetly with the descriptions of the town, giving you glimpses into some of the lives of some of the residents who live there and giving you a taste of this strange character…this woman…who is one place one minute and then next thing you know is standing in your living room for hours…just standing there…whispering.
She is a secret in full view but very heavily protected by the townspeople. Black Springs has been cursed and all who come to live there are cursed to stay…if they try to leave…if they try to stay away…well, if they want to live…they wont. When a couple decides to move there several of the people who work in HEX try to keep them from doing so…attempting to spare them the fate of becoming cursed and condemned to stay in that town for the rest of their lives…to have to live a certain way…only allowed to leave for so long before they MUST return.
I only received an excerpt of this book but what I was able to read kept me engaged the whole way through up until I reached the last page. This story is really and truly gripping. I could just imagine the way that life must have been for these people. The adults who move there and then discover the secret of the town only to learn they can never leave again…then to have children and bring them into that world and know that their dreams will never be fulfilled because keeping the secret of the Black Spring Witch is what is most important for the survival of the town. One of the characters asks questions early on in the story that when I think about it now after finishing what I’ve read seem to set the stage for something more sinister to come.
I really loved how the author takes the time to give us some background on the town, the witch and how things are believed to have come about. It draws you in even more and makes you want to know more about the whole story of things. This is definitely a book that I would want to read more of in the future for sure. It even had me imagining what someone could if they decide to turn this into a movie or a movie for t.v. if done right it could be something truly engaging and terrifying.
Even though I only read a portion of the book and not the whole of it I give this story 5 out of 5 stars. It had most of the elements that I look for in a good book: gives me background, tells a thrilling tale that draws you and leaves you wanting more when you get to the last page.

Black Spring has been haunted for generations by the Black Rock Witch. When she appears, she has a physical presence, and everyone can see her. The town created an organization long ago to deal with hiding her and keeping the town curse quarantined. Now, with technology being so advanced, they have a lot of new ways to track her presence--but just as many ways their secret could be exposed. The last time a government agency tried to experiment on the apparition, townspeople died. They have to keep her secret at all costs.

HEX begins in a quirky tone--the town treats her like a simple, if annoying, fact of life. When the Witch appears, they do some absurd things to run interference with outsiders; they cover her on the street with utility construction tents, parade floats, tool sheds. Then, a group of the town's teenagers begin to get sick of the secrecy. They conduct their own experiments to prove her existence, filming results to later post on the internet once they have concrete proof. Once of the teens is a psychopath who takes things too far, turning the experiments into an outlet for his frustration, harassing the Witch until things begin to nightmarishly spin out of control.

HEX is a creepy book that slowly ratchets up the horror until the reader is well and truly spooked. It takes one or two absurdities and keeps meandering until everything goes far off the rails, spiraling out of control.

Do you ever read one of those books that you feel like you should love because it has all the ingredients of something you usually enjoy, but for some reason something just isn’t clicking? That was HEX for me.

A rural New York town haunted by the physical presence of a creepy witch from the 1600s whose eyes and mouth have been sewn shut. A town whose inhabitants can never leave because they are part of this centuries old curse. The fear that grips the townspeople in knowing that if her eyes are ever opened, they’ll be doomed to unfathomable terror. And at the heart of the story, a 17-year-old boy who dreams of releasing the town from this curse, but is too naive to understand that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

I love sinister occult horror, so I was really excited about this one, but it just didn’t work for me. There are too many characters who are hastily introduced and given too little background and development. Parts of the story are written in such a convoluted and confusing way that it’s hard to keep up — and not in a fun way. And there just isn’t really a whole lot of genuine tension, mystery or suspense.

Thematically, Heuvelt is onto something good: in a town governed by fear, human nature may prove to be worse than anything supernatural. In the book’s denouement, this and other themes finally coalesce in a way that’s more or less satisfying, but for me it wasn’t enough to make up for everything that it took to get there.

From what I’ve read of other reviews, I may very well be alone in my feelings about HEX, so don’t necessarily take my word for it. Like I said, there are some book that for whatever reason just work for me. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad. I’m curious to hear how other readers felt about this one.

the novel, as form and function, is all too often a stark failure in that the ideas, characters, and narrative would all too often be better suited to a shorter form, and this failure is even more common in horror literature, so it was quite a pleasant surprise that thomas olde heuvelt’s ‘HEX’ is that rare beast that absolutely needs the form of the novel to convey everything that lurks within. olde heuvelt has created a monumentally personal exploration of grief and guilt and personal and social injuries which (as happens all too often in our own world of perpetual modernity) become septic, deforming not just the social fabric of the 'small town,’ but the lives and expectations touched by then.

with clear echoes of king’s 'pet sematary’ and the book of revelations, 'HEX’ is a startling work of folk horror where psychogeograpy meets the drawn out hereditary disease of an unconscionable act of historic cruelty to create something feverish and all too human, made even more tragic by the revelation of the intentions of behind what’s presented to us, at first, as a figure that can only be described as 'monstrous’ and the all too human crises that result from an almost universal inability to simply attempt an understanding of the tragedy of history and the history of tragedy (and olde heuvelt skillfully brings it all to the present by offhandedly showing how religious minorities are often scapegoated in an almost mindless manner with a soft touch that allows the reader to infer without being preached to.)

the use of technology sharply echoes bentham’s panopticon while engaging a panoptitronic situation where the observers and, by proxy, jailers, are just as much observed and held prisoner as everyone else in the town and olde heuvelt manages to deal well with the conundrum of our constantly connected world and the inherent difficulty in combining the supernatural with it in a way that feels unforced and natural.

make no mistake, this isn’t a work of casual entertainment- it’s a novel that forces the reader to confront some very real and horrifying aspects of the world we constantly create and recreate and the cruelty with which we do so and deftly exposes the idea that it’s not simply a matter of 'those who don’t remember history are doomed to relive it’ but, more, 'those who do remember history long to recreate it.’

(final note- my dutch isn’t good enough, by far, to read the original so i cannot speak to either the entirety translation or the original ending [which, i’m told, is far more strange] but olde heuevelt’s rewriting of the ending in english reads seamlessy with the the translated prose of the bulk of the novel and that, i would say, speaks to the acuity of the translation.)

Don't buy into the hype, or the inevitable touting of the "next Stephen King". Hex is just OK. The story revolves around a family and their seemingly idyllic small town being haunted by a ghostly witch. Or a witchy ghost. I don't know why the author/publishers decided to "Americanize" it by changing the setting to NY state, instead of just translating it into English, while keeping the action in the Netherlands. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series certainly lost none of its chilling brilliance by staying put in Sweden. Heuvelt even brags in his acknowledgements about how he changed the original ending when he translated Hex to English. Having just finished the book today, I can only say the Dutch version HAS GOT to be better.

One of the difficulties in writing familiar stories - witches, etc. is finding a new way to tell the tale. Thomas Olde Heuvelt accomplishes that in multitudes with his novel Hex. The citizens of Black Spring, New York, have a well-known neighbor.... A witch with her eyes and mouth sewn shut.

While the townsfolk are content co-existing with the witch while keeping her existence a secret from "outsiders", the children and teens in town are itching to break the mold and expose her existence to the world. When they attempt to do just that, a tragic form of events unfolds that causes into question everything the members of Black Spring know.

Heuvelt captures old school horror with a modern twist, and as someone who lives only miles from Salem, Mass, I can say for certain he did the witch lore proud.

Damn, this was really good. Much better than I anticipated. The plot was intriguing and original and the characters were fleshed out well. The pacing was a little uneven here and there, but it didn't detract too much from my overall enjoyment of the story.

Welcome to Black Spring. There's a lot of history here. At least one of its residents has been roaming these quaint small-town streets for 350 years. Oh, and by the way, once you move to Black Spring, you can never leave. Just ignore the old lady in chains with the stitched-up eyes and mouth with her pet peacock in a bag. And if you do ever need want to track her down, don't worry, there's an app for that.

4.5 the store Stars and Highly Recommended.

Beware the Witch!

This one takes just a little while to settle in - don't know the page count, but I'll say 10% on your e-Reader. But once it does, it delivers an astoundingly original tale.

The premise - there is a witch named Katherine who has haunted a town for centuries. She isn't mythical, she doesn't hide - she's always around, so much so that the townsfolk have an app to keep track of her whereabouts.

I'm reminded of John Shirley's Demons, in which the antagonist, or antagonists in Shirley's Demons, do not hide, but are visible, and just can not be defeated.

Katherine is almost always around, and that's what makes this tale unique. She is pretty good about leaving you alone if you don't mess with her, with the occasional bouts of horror, but of course - some find it difficult to avoid messing with her.

Great tale - I highly recommend it!

An excellent book, a disappointing ending. I found the last pages of the book like they were written in a hurry to finish, in a very sloppy way. More questions than answers by the end of the book. Principal characters through the book, at the end they disappear, without even a good bye. The actions of the witch are completely disorganized, again like the author did not know what to do with her and why she does what she does, without any explanation. All in all, a confused ending to a very good book. Lost in translation? I don't think so, I believe the author got tired of his children.

It took a Dutch author to write a great American horror story! This book is such a change of pace from the typical horror story of a family moving into a small town only to find strange happenings... Blah, blah, blah. No. This book takes a new and refreshing approach to the old creaking stairs, visions of demons, ghosts, etc that most horror stories seem to dish up. A witch that suddenly appears in your house and sits in the corner for hours, while the family goes about their business? A town with a whole committee whose purpose is hiding the witch and putting on festivals to come up with a plausible explanation for any accidental sightings of HER? A woman so distraught and alone she makes friends with the monster and brings her offerings?

This story starts out strange, almost humorous, and ends with a bang, and a dark, disturbing finale.

The best part is - it's a message. A morality play of sorts about human nature. Who is really the monster?

Unlike others who felt this started out slowly, I was hooked by the narrative from the beginning and had a hard time putting it down. I have never read a story quite like this, which is both fascinating and disturbing. There are occasional hints of both Pet Sematary and Lord of the Flies (an adult version) in this tale of a town inhabited by a seventeenth-century witch. Also at play is the timeless theme of which is scarier, the supernatural or the human mind. By the last few chapters of the book, the pages are almost turning themselves, and it's almost impossible to stop reading. Following the epilogue, the author wraps things up by sharing his experiences writing the book. We learn that the ending of the original Dutch version is different, yet Mr. Heuvelt refuses to tell us in what way. Now that's exasperating!

DUDE! This was amazing! I haven't read a horror story this good in a LONG time! The author pulled no punches, he just went right in for the kill, so to speak. The characters were great, and the stlory is simply thrilling. I especially enjoyed the backstory, and how it all came full circle in the end. I mean, WOW! I will definitely be re-listening to this one on a nice stormy night.

The narrator was good, too, though occasionally the tension felt off. Not enough to pull me out of the story, though, just enough for me notice.

5 Platypires!

Well holy freaking crap. This blew my mind. What a delectable hair-raising, spine-chilling novel!

You know, I get why Stephen King praised HEX. This novel is a terrifying whirlwind. TOH has no fear of pushing limits and that made for a book that not only drives the reader forward page after page but leaves one wondering what could possibly happen next. And I can truly say I hardly ever knew what to expect and the ending?! Well. I'll let you find out for yourself.

Beyond the wonderful chill factor, TOH created fantastic, memorable characters and showed off his incredible gift of writing. I have never gotten goosebumps from reading the acknowledgements until his. (And for the record, I desperately want to learn to read/understand Dutch now so that I can read the original HEX) I absolutely loved this.

It felt like a waste of a great premise. The book started off so strongly, but dissolved in to an unsatisfying ending. Spoilers to follow:

I loved the premise of the witch and this cursed town that discouraged new residents. I was engaged in the plight of this family that was stuck here, with the son trying to explore his personality in this less ideal situation. Then it sort of fizzled out.

Slightly scary things happened and then something awful and then it ends in this inconclusive manner. I didn't like it overall, but the style was off putting to me in the end. That could just be me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. In Black Springs the townspeople go about their daily routine as a 300-year-old witch named Katherine Von Wyler wanders around the town popping up periodically in different places. Her eyes and mouth are stitched closed. Katherine's creepiness is described brilliantly in this book. The characters are solid and likable. The pace is wonderful and Thomas does an excellent job showing you chaos and madness.

If you're looking for a different perspective on a witch's tale set in a modern era that's told extremely well then this book is a must read!

I loved it!

This book was a thriller that had me wondering what would happen next and it was scary in some parts of the story. I thought it was a perfect read for this time of year. It was interesting getting to know these characters have the town where live and the choices they was forced to make along the way. I thougt it was crazy that the people weren't able to leave the town but were instead made to deal with the evil. There was a few parts in the story that I felt a little lost but I found it was an interesting book. This was the first time I had read anything by this author.

HEX
by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

In the tradition of The Blair With Project and The Grudge comes an innovative disturbing novel from the imaginary mind of Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Authored with a pen full of nostalgic unsettling images, HEX sends the reader with a one way ticket to the little town of Black Spring, home of The Black Rock Witch. Surveillance Cameras, Council Meetings, and filtered Internet access are all part of Black Spring everyday life. This isolated community is hellbent on protecting its own, and the age long secrets it dwells from all outsiders, no matter how sinister it might be. With its found footage style writing, HEX is guaranteed a string of sleepless nights.

The premise is interesting, but overall the story fails to live up to its potential. There are some creepy moments, some of which are, I assume, unintentional (what is up with this author and nipples?!). Also a witch you can toss a dish towel over and carry on with your day is a witch that doesn't scare the bejeezus out of me. Not great.

I really enjoyed the premise of Hex. It held such promise. Similar thematically to Stephen King's Under The Dome. A small town is isolated from the rest of the world, madness ensues.

However, the writing is just not that good. I found it very stilted, especially the dialog.

The other annoyance for me is that Hex is decidedly anti-religion, and in a very heavy handed way.

A morality lesson taught by a 17th century witch with her eyes and mouth sewn shut. Oh, and her whisper equals death.
Seriously though, I loved the book, though I had my worries early on. At first I thought it was going to be a story full of teen angst with a witch tacked on, but it really isn't, I promise. It takes a dark turn that leads to another, more dark turn, etc., etc..
The ending is spot on, but Mr Heuvelt, I still want to know how the Dutch version ended. Death by peacock???
4 1/2 stars.

I just finished reading Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, and I rather enjoyed the story Heuvelt told. Im not someone who leans towards this genre, so I didnt know what to expect when I started reading it. I didnt find this book to be particularly scary or horrifying. Some parts were disturbing but it wasnt the Black Rock Witch that was disturbing as much as the crazy residents of the town. I wouldnt say I found the events in the book predictable, but I wasnt shocked by anything that happened. Overall, I enjoyed the book and I liked th author's writing style. This was originally published in the Netherlands with a completed different ending. I'd love to know what the original ending was.

There's a lot of hype around this book. I can kind of understand why, but at the same time I don't think it's completely warranted.

The book starts fairly strong. There's a lot of interesting and honest themes about people that are regularly visited throughout the story, but the story itself seems to fall apart near the end. Losing some of what made the book fun to read it completely shifts gears and changes tone.

I didn't find the book particularly horrifying. I don't really think horror is the appropriate genre for what this book is. When the book does try to lay some more serious horror roots, it just feels forced and confusing. It ends up feeling like two different authors wrote the same book in their own style and then started splicing them together near the end.

I had high hopes for this book from all of the people that were giving it rave reviews. Do not waste your time unless you enjoy sitcom like writing with very little character development. Perhaps it's because it was translated, but whatever it is, it was a huge waste of my time. Couldn't get past the first 100 pages. Tried, but the author just couldn't connect with me.

I picked this novel up out of the blue, not knowing anything about it and just reading the inside cover. I was totally into it and personally I like stories that take place in current day but with elements of history in it. It was scary, funny at times, a yeah there was a lot of dark and dread involved because you know that really there was no escape. My only beef, if it is a beef because I know it is a story, is that without talking about the plot...it would be almost impossible to keep this towns secret...a secret. Otherwise that is a minor beef and for anyone who is a horror fan, especially Stephen King fans..definitely check it out. Plus it isnt as long as a King novel lol

I LOVED this book!It is a good,old fashioned scarey story about a town held hostage by a witch from olden times.Jeff Harding was a good narator for this project.I may have been provided this book free for an honest review,but I am not sure at this point.reat read either way.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. It pulled me in cleverly, setting the scene with wry humor. As much as I loved the beginning of the book, I disliked the last ten percent of the book. It was chaotic, unrestrained and overwrought. I learned from the author's afterword that he had changed the ending for his "American audience." I wish he had not bothered. I would like to see the original ending; it had to be an improvement.

This was a 5 star book until the last 15%, which fell way way short of the rest.

The ending left me completely and totally dissatisfied and felt substantially rushed.

It was such a great premise and setup, but I just can't buy anything about the finale and what the characters did.

It really feels like the author could not settle on an ending that fit the rest of the book, so they just winged it, regardless of how out of character it meant people had to act to make it happen.

Most small-town horror novels take the "menace comes to town" route, but what Heuvelt does is build the upstate NY town of Black Spring around a 400-year-old witch who haunts the town and entraps its inhabitants. Want to settle down in Black Spring? Fine, but you're stuck there for life--and so are your kids. And if you dare to leave, your head will fill with overbearing thoughts of suicide until (if) you return. It's a brilliant concept and what makes it even more unsettling is the fact the witch doesn't hide in the woods but actually walks around town in the open every single day. You won't hear any "But I swear I saw the monster!" cliches in this book. Everything is right there in front of you, and it makes for some unconventional scares and character decisions.

The fun and unique concept gives rise to a compelling cast of characters struggling with their relation to Black Spring: Dr. Steve Grant has to deal with his wife's resentment of him for convincing her to move there. Their teenage son Tyler yearns to live outside of Black Spring and becomes determined to reveal the town's curse to the outside world. But there's a government-run group called HEX in place to prevent such a thing, and the members of HEX cast a veil of censorship over the town for fear of upsetting and causing a mass suicide.

What really impressed me about HEX was that although the premise seems like it should be impossible within the world of cell phones and Twitter, it holds up tightly throughout, and every time my mind started wandering toward a question like, "Well, wouldn't the outside world notice that?", Heuvelt plugged in a new and logical reason for how the town secret has been kept under wraps for so long. It makes for a part-intimate, part-claustrophobic sensation that is worth the time of any lover of horror.

This book was good enough for me to keep an eye out for more books by this author. That being said I wasnt blown away like so many other people seem to have been. Nor was I terrified, sleeping with the lights on, checking the corners and losing sleep. I mean it was about a witch and its 2016. Anyways it was slightly creepy at points and well written. I will purchase the next book out by Thomas Olde Heuvelt to see if the plots improve

This was simply an amazing horror story! Very well written . Characters you love and despise! This is a normal town which fell under the curse of a witch killed hundreds of years before by the town and now walks and appears all around the town even in people's homes which they hide from outsiders by usually draping something over her... Oh by the way her eyes and mouth are stitched closed... Very creepy read!!

The book has a good premise: a haunted town whose residents have learned to live with a witch. However, the ending is not just disappointing but a total mess. After doing incomprehensible things,the main character asks who is responsible. My answer: the writer for ruin a good idea. If the book had ended in Chapter 22 it would have been splendid.

Very original approach, and turns the traditional approach to small town horror tropes away for something new and interesting.

I read it quickly and and really liked it. I would love to see more from the writer!

The setting and premise of this novel are spot-on. The location is moody and atmospheric, and a town haunted by a 350 year old witch is awesome. The pacing is fast and, dare I say, fun. Dutch author Thomas Olde Heuvelt obviously enjoys his craft and this horror novel has a tongue in cheek feel. Ultimately, it's a bit more graphically violent, and a bit less sleep-with-the-lights-on scary than I had hoped.

I am tore on this review because the concept is so original and engaging. I was hooked on this booked and couldn't wait till the next time I could read. I liked the characters and the writing style. The ending however just felt like a mess. No clear direction and seemed to contradict the entire rest of the book.

I've never read a horror book before. I'm glad I chose HEX. I saw the author on a panel at Comic-Con so I thought I would give his book a try. I was hoping for a happy ending but I guess that is not how horror books work. It's creepy good. And humanity needs help. It's easy to see we could easily be the monsters in this story. So unfortunate.

If you enjoy horror books, I do recommend this one.

The book started alright, but just got weirder and weirder as it went on. Eventually I just skimmed the rest to see how it ended. I'm not sure if it was due to the fact that this is a translation of the original but it was just strange. And not in a good way.

I finished reading Hex, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, and I have to say that I am very impressed by his writing. The book was a fast read. As advertised, his writing of horror is very current, including things like cell phones, YouTube, iPods and more. The youths of his book act like the youths I have grown to know as a father.

As long as you can suspend your disbelief long enough to believe a town like this can exist, you will be devouring the book. It reminds me of reading NOS4A2, by Joe Hill, in that Heuvelt can bring the mystical and magical to life. Curses and witchcraft mix with technology without missing a note.

I really enjoyed myself while reading Hex. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect, given that witches have never scared me. Now, I am haunted by the vision of Katherine and her stitched face, grey skin and gaunt form.

Thomas did an amazing job of writing this piece of horror.

5/5

This was a fantastic, spooky story that kept me wanting more! I don't have time to read a lot because of work, but this book was one that I just couldn't put down. I absolutely love books about witches, and this book delivered. This story is not like your normal witch with a black pointy hat. Katherine, the Witch, is out for blood. It was so clever to and creative to read about how the town dealt with this burden of a witch curse in their town. LOVED the book and so will you!

I'm not sure I can say anything too specific about this book without giving it away, but it's great. It somehow manages to be creepy, atmospheric, timeless, and modern all at once, and the ending is perfect. Would highly, highly recommend.

Very vivid. It's very well paced and detailed in its description of the town and area. The witch was surprising creepy. Loved the twist to her in the end, yet she also didn't let you down in her abilities.

It started out as an interesting read, but the further along I read the more jumbled and silly it became. Maybe the Dutch version was better. I really wanted to like it because the community in the book is not too far from where I live. It seemed to be based on The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, but for me it didn't work nearly as well.

Incredibly original. It had me scared to get out of bed to run to the bathroom, and I consider my constitution for horror to be quite strong. If you're sick of the same old stories being told over and over in a slightly different way, read Hex. It has stuck with me for months after finishing.

The book sounded great: a cool premise, a creepy old witch. Then I started reading and got a feeling that I was reading not a book but a movie, and one that I've seen a few times. I thought I could see the plot coming from miles away but was willing to give it a go anyway - until the characters got on my nerves. The teenagers I just wanted to throttle. The adults all sounded the same, talked like cliches, thought nothing at all, and I couldn't tell anyone apart. Gave up three chapters in, after the couple thought their son was gay because he was friends with a bunch of girls and "shared their giggles and their PMS swings".

Every cliche imaginable pops up in this story. I won't list them all, because there would be spoilers, but really, this book is nothing special. Stupid adolescent boys pushing boundaries, repressive adults, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. There are no girls. It reads like the work of an adolescent male. Silly and pretentious.

I didn't like the book at all. There are so much better horror books out there, like Justin Cronin. Especially the ending was not what I wished it to be. The author got a lot of promising comments from well known authors. But I was really wondering if they read a different book than I did. Not a promising new author for me.