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Beyond that there are just several missing squares on this quilt. Loose ends that get shown to the reader, but are never tied up or acknowledged again. West Point looms in the background without really adding to the story. HEX is revealed to be an acronym lost to time. There is an incredibly maddening plot point involving an important death, with hints of who the accomplice might be, but is never revealed. Why do her whispers make one kill themselves? Fuck you it doesn’t matter, because the deaths are horrifying in and of themselves.
At first it appeared that one specific character feels that way, and considering that Robert Grim equates himself with Auschwitz, that would at least make some sense. Assuming you ignore the three hundred year old witch who walks the town with her eyes and mouth are sewn shut, and the fact that anyone who leaves the town experiences an incredible desire to commit suicide.
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HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Welcome to the review of the first book for my 28th year! This one gave me a book hangover right away and while it is horror and I will be sharing about it in our horror wrap up at the end of the month, HEX deserves it’s own full-fledged post. It is the BEST horror I have ever read and in this post, I will reflect on the genre, the book, its messaging and all that I have experienced thanks to this amazing book. It is important to note that this is a translated book and for it to give me the kind of emotional reaction is unprecedented in my opinion. I had not expected it at all. Also note that this book portrays very dark themes so please be cautious if you decide to pick it up.
Original Cover – HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt and Nancy Forest-Flier (Translator) New Cover – HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt and Nancy Forest-Flier (Translator)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 17th century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters your homes at will. She stands next to your bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened.
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 send the town spiraling into the dark, medieval practices of the past.
Content Notes: Depiction of suicide, suicidal thoughts, sexual assault, domestic violence, animal cruelty, animal death, death, disappearance.
Thoughts on HEX
It was the brand new cover of this book that caught my eye. The story of a town that no one can leave and the actions that the teenagers will take to get out seemed like a promising read. What I did not realize was how guttural and vulnerable it would make its characters, and me. I cried so much through this book and so many times after reading it. The whole day after I finished, I was a little out. This has never happened before. There are parts of it that don’t make sense to me but my brain very much does not want to make sense of them. It is better this way.
Black Spring has a resident witch. Her eyes and mouth are sewn shut. She appears in town and around people at her own will. Previous attempts at getting rid of her have been devastating for the town people and that is why they have decided to keep her contained. Her curse is so powerful that anyone who stays away from town for very long feels this immense need to kill themselves. The adults who willingly moved to Black Spring carry a heavy load that they have doomed themselves and their children to this existence with hard rules and a life where they can’t live anywhere else. Some of the teenagers are starting to question the authorities and want to expose the town so that they can get their freedom back. But the chain of events leads them down a path that only ends in death.
On the writing
The writing in this book is brilliant. The witch is introduced and treated as an everyday part of life. She is ‘Grandma Katherine’ who visits people whenever she wants or walks down the street if she wishes. No one is supposed to talk to her. No one is supposed to touch her. A group of volunteers keep track of the witch’s activities with the help of technology and the town folks. With her mouth and eyes shut, the witch is a persona in the book. She doesn’t say anything though people know she is always muttering something. Through the different characters in the book, it is very interesting to see the emotions that she brings out in people – they all fear her but some also worship her.
I have never read this sort of collective fear before. When the town starts to descend into its 17th century ways of making an example of people, they feel the malicious intent of the witch. But when one is soaked in fear and there is no way out (remember they can’t leave town?), what are they going to do?
On Trauma
The witch may be the supernatural entity hanting the people and the town but people are often haunted by their past too. One of the characters was a victim of domestic violence and so was her now teenage son. How the wounds from her husband affect the child so many years after his death adds an element of depth to the story which I had not expected. When help is not provided at the right time, violence and vandalism can be outlets for the anger that resides inside. No one wants to be weak but when one thinks of themselves as weak, sometimes they can go to dangerous lengths to change that image. And sometimes the consequences of those actions can drive one to a level of hateful action like never before.
I wondered why I did not see that coming.
I just did not want to believe that someone could be so full of hatred.
The pandemonium that is let loose is not just in town but in my mind as well. I could not comprehend and come to terms with what happened and like the characters in the book, life kept going and I had to deal with it. HEX is a haunting story with complex characters. That is an understatement.
Notes on Horror, HEX and Pet Sematary
I have read a horror book every month this year and I am starting to love this genre. It is not something I will ever diligently read back to back, but it is one that has brilliant storytelling and captivating plots like no other. When I started reading HEX, I expected it to come close to Pet Sematary by Stephen King (my review). The last 20% of that book has been impossible to put down. I did not realize that HEX would get me so entangled in its narrative from the very start that it would surpass Pet Sematary for me.
It is not the gore or the blood that makes horror impactful. When I am reading about witches and supernatural creatures and haunted houses, I know I cannot experience them in real life. That sometimes causes a disconnect with horror because it makes it feel unbelievable but when characters are done well, when I read the anguish and despair that they experience, that I understand. That I can relate to. And that is what makes horror so brilliant.
It puts the characters through a ringer and they might have some agency but that does not mean they make the best decisions. Pet Sematary and HEX both made me feel helpless and so bad for the main characters. Their decisions were made out of love and they were devastated because they loved someone too much to live without them.
While Pet Sematary is centered around one man and a secret magical place in town, HEX is about a haunted town where the witch is part of everyday life. When people live with terror, day in and day out, a small change drives them to insanity. There is power in groups and when everyone has the same fear, when everyone thinks their survival depends on keeping an old witch appeased, going against that order is a plummeting descent into darkness.
Horror can also play mind games and I think it was this aspect of HEX that truly makes it unforgettable. There are characters who aren’t completely in their right minds anymore but sometimes they have a moment of clarity and they can disassociate and look at the big picture of what is in front of them. It almost slips into an unreliable narrator-style point of view because you’re no longer sure if their interpretation is even correct. And does it even make sense with what you have been reading. Sadly, impending doom cannot be avoided and the whys and the how-did-we-get-heres no longer matter when it comes knocking.
Horror has given me a glimpse into the human psyche which I just never realized until I started reading as much of it as I do. Maybe I just wasn’t ready then. Maybe I just wasn’t receptive. But after the effect that HEX had on me – the pain I felt for the characters and the horror that I experienced at the terrifying situation they were in – I respect horror even more. It gives us the opportunity to explore our deepest secrets and insecurities, the things we are ashamed of and would still do, the choices that make us not recognize the person in the mirror and the prejudices and perceptions that lead us to condemn people.
Reading Experience Summary
One of my aspirations this year is to make bookish art inspired by the books that find a special place in my heart. Even though HEX is a brutal book, it had an impact on me and I wanted to capture that in my reading journal. Taking the new cover of the book, I traced the outline of the witch, added in some of my thoughts and an impactful quote and viola, this is my first bookish art for the year! I have made another one since for a different book so stay tuned for that one tomorrow.
From my Reading JournalHEX is often described as a disturbing book by reviewers and I believe that is only the tip of the iceberg. The writing and translation are absorbing – the moments that will build the most tension and suspense are stretched to the limit, keeping the reader at the edge of their seat. It made me think about how low we can go as humans if the circumstances turn out that way. It also made me confront grief like no other book. I felt the character’s pains and I wanted so badly to console them but I also did not want to be in the world that the author had created. I would not set foot in Black Spring, let alone move there.
HEX reading experienceThis book is originally in Dutch and I enjoyed the Dutch influence on the town of Black Spring.
I loved this book in its twisted way. I will not recommend it to you but I will say if you want a hard read, a book you cannot put down, where terror is interwoven so well into the narrative that at one point, you will lose track of what is real… read this book. It will wreck you so you are warned and drink lots of water. It will help with the tears and keep you grounded in reality.
Now after all this, will you pick up this book?
HEX is available in stores. I got my copy from my local library so check out your too.
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
About the Author
Bio and author photo from Goodreads.
Thomas Olde Heuvelt (1983) is the international bestselling author of HEX. The much-praised novel was published in over twenty-five countries around the world and is currently in development for TV by Gary Dauberman. Olde Heuvelt, whose last name in Dutch dialect means “Old Hill,” was the first ever translated author to win a Hugo Award for his short story “The Day the World Turned Upside Down”.
His new novel ECHO will be out with Nightfire Books in the US and Hodder & Stoughton on February 8, 2022. International publication of his novel ORACLE, which topped all the bestseller charts in The Netherlands in March ’21, will follow soon thereafter.
Thomas lives in The Netherlands and the south of France and is an avid mountaineer.
Learn more about Thomas on his website and Twitter (@Olde_Heuvelt).
Thank you for reading this post about HEX! I will be back with a non-fiction read next!
Cover image: Photo by Ivan Vranić on Unsplash
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Black Spring has a resident witch. Her eyes and mouth are sewn shut. She appears in town and around people at her own will. Previous attempts at getting rid of her have been devastating for the town people and that is why they have decided to keep her contained. Her curse is so powerful that anyone who stays away from town for very long feels this immense need to kill themselves. The adults who willingly moved to Black Spring carry a heavy load that they have doomed themselves and their children to this existence with hard rules and a life where they can’t live anywhere else. Some of the teenagers are starting to question the authorities and want to expose the town so that they can get their freedom back. But the chain of events leads them down a path that only ends in death.
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