Nessa Luna
Written on May 31, 2017
'This is totally, brilliantly original' STEPHEN KING
WELCOME TO BLACK SPRING, A PICTURESQUE TOWN WITH AN HORRIFYING SECRET...
A 17th century woman with her eyes and mouth sewn-shut walks Blacks Springs streets... enters its homes... and watches its people while they sleep.
They call her the Black Rock Witch.
So accustomed to her presence, the townsfolk often forget what will happen if her eyes ever open.
To protect themselves the Black Spring elders use high-tech surveillance to quarantine the town. Frustrated with the lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break the rules and go viral with the haunting.
But no one foresees the dark nightmare that awaits them all.
PRAISE FOR THOMAS OLDE HEUVELT:
'Reminiscent of vintage Stephen King' John Connolly
'A powerfully spooky piece of writing' Financial Times
'Spielbergian... a fabulous, unforgettable conceit' Guardian
- ISBN10 1444793233
- ISBN13 9781444793239
- Publish Date 25 August 2016 (first published 26 April 2016)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
- Imprint Hodder Paperback
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 384
- Language English
Reviews
Rinn
Written on Mar 12, 2016
I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. I also took part in the official blog tour. Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.
Shortly after starting this book, I knew I’d made a huge mistake.
It was going to stop me from sleeping for a while.I’m not normally too creeped out by books. Unlike films, you can alter how something might look, make it seem a lot less threatening or scary than it actually is. However, when it came to HEX I had troubles ‘adapting’ the book in my head. My housemate was away for a day or two whilst I was reading it, and during that period I wouldn’t touch the book because I couldn’t possibly be alone in the flat at night after reading it.
HEX follows the inhabitants of a small town called Black Rock. It might be your usual image of small town America – if it were not for the 400-year old witch that lives there. Katherine, ‘the Black Rock Witch’, is a seventeenth century woman who is still hanging around the town of Black Rock, four centuries later. With her eyes and mouth sewn shut, she can just appear around the town at random – including in people’s houses. For the residents of Black Rock, this is normal and they’re used to it. But they can’t possibly let outsiders know, so great efforts are made to conceal the existence of Katherine from the rest of the world. Therefore this small American town is in fact under constant surveillance.
Not only is it super creepy that Katherine’s eyes and mouth are sewn shut and there’s obvious fear of what might happen were the stitches to be removed, but I found it absolutely TERRIFYING that she could just basically appear anywhere at any time. Just drifting off to sleep in your warm cosy bed? Oh look, there’s Katherine at the foot of it. HOW ARE THESE PEOPLE USED TO IT. IT WOULD NEVER NOT BE TERRIFYING. Needless to say, I may have slept with the light on that first night after reading HEX, ready to spot Katherine when (because in my mind it was when) she appeared.
What I really like was how modern technology was weaved into this tale of horror. Due to the efforts of the town to prevent knowledge of Katherine reaching elsewhere, it is forbidden to record or photograph Katherine. Despite this, one of the main characters is a rising YouTube star, and as the story progresses him and his friends start taking more risks when it comes to Katherine, which leads to some truly shocking scenes.
So in conclusion… if you’re looking for a creepy read that’ll keep you up late into the night – because it’s both scary and a great read – this is it.
pamela
Written on Nov 17, 2015
Hex is a fascinating social analysis, and Heuvelt shows his characters as products of not just their circumstances, but also as individuals. Each character has enough depth to show their motivation, but not too much that the novel is bogged down with excess description. Everything has a place and a purpose, and nothing in his writing is left to chance. Because of this, we are introduced to a timely tale, that even though it uses the premise of an ancient evil feels incredibly modern and relevant. He teaches us that social fear and personal terror create far more horror than any perception of evil ever does on its own. We are our own worst enemies.
This is not to say that Hex is without fault. The entire plot feels dark, similar to the way Scandinavian crime novels feel in their settings, and so the change of location to rural USA for the English version rather than a Dutch setting felt somehow false. There was no reason to change it, and the novel would have felt far more genuine had the author kept the original I think. It also suffers from obvious statements of importance which made the plot feel a little mechanical in places. The plot would otherwise have been smooth, but statements stating how much worse things were going to get broke the flow.
Overall though, I can’t recommend Hex highly enough. It is a tale for our times with moments of true terror, sadness and sympathy. It is emotive, horrifying and subtly beautiful. It is well worth a read.
You can also read and comment on this review at my blog: http://iblamewizards.com/book-review-hex-by-thomas-olde-heuvelt/