Book Review Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

   This book should be at the top of any horror lovers list for "Spooky Season"  It is one book that actually managed to terrify me. 

A lot of the horror I read is sort of creeping, unsettling,  or slasher style horror with lots of gore and body parts.  Generally speaking, most of it seems so unrealistic that it isn't exactly "scary". HEX, on the other hand... very realistic with supernatural mixed in, sheer horror. 

    Our story is one of a HEX officer - Robert Grim who works in a small bucolic town - Black Spring NY  which is oddly haunted by a centuries old witch. There's a lot of lore about the witch- and she shows up all around town all the time. HEX is a project to monitor and control this phenomena- without alarming the general population outside of Black Spring. At some point, some teens start to do things that teens typically do- and the carefully constructed peace between the witch, and the town comes tumbling down. 

  If you are looking for something that is nauseatingly frightening on many different levels, this is going to be the book for you.  If not, I strongly advise avoiding it. 

For me, I loved it.  It was so original, and so well paced, and put together, that I could not put it down.. sort of. I also could not read it anywhere but the gym - surrounded by other people.  Interestingly, HEX is translated from Dutch, and the author heavily changed the story line for  a North American audience- moving the location from the Netherlands to the Hudson Valley and more.  I'm not sure how I feel about a book being essentially re-written for a new audience, but that was a choice that was made. 

This is definitely one with lots of extremely spooky vibes, and one from "the Backlist"  I'm glad I read it and I admit, I have been peeking around corners making sure that I don't bump into Katherine all week!!!! 

First Published : 2013  in Dutch  2016 in English

Pages: 384

Available as an Audio Book :YES

Trigger Warnings: violent events, Child death, Suicide, body horror, illness, murder, animal death. 

Not a full TW list, please read responsibly.