Hex

By: Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

“This is totally, brilliantly original.”—Stephen King

“HEX is creepy and gripping and original, sure to be one of the top horror novels of 2016.”—George R.R. Martin

The English language debut of the bestselling Dutch novel, Hex, from Thomas Olde Heuvelt—a Hugo and World Fantasy award nominated talent to watch

Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay 'til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear.

The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past.

This chilling audiobook heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in mainstream horror and dark fantasy.

(P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Good premise, frustrating morals

Overall a good premise, but it starts to fall apart with a quarter of the book left. The witch did nothing wrong. I spent the last bit frustrated with the characters for not seeing this. at least the ending was a little satisfying.

Ultimately, the real villain of this story is patriarchy, and the disease of puritanism'/conservartistm.

The author keeps bringing up America as if that means anything. In his mind, it might, since he also seems to have sympathy for the sociopath who harbors violence against women. He seems to think that holding such a monster accountable is uncivil, and even when he murders later, nobody blames him. The author also has a strange obsession with nipples, especially torturing then. And women's foreheads? It's pretty gross.

The narrator can't seem to do women's voices without making them sound whiny and petulant.

Pretty good

I loved the premise. Started off really strong. Last few sentences were haunting as well (which is what we want with a book like this). I feel like there could have been just a little more done with certain aspects of this book that would have elevated it to a 4. solid book. narration was good, some mouth noises which was annoying but good overall

Trying too hard overall

The story is so obviously male driven as every other mention of a female character involves looking at or touching her breasts.

Tries too hard to be “shocking” and the narrator sounds shrill and unpleasant when voicing many characters.

A great listen for Halloween

This was a compelling ghost story. Gets a bit slow toward the end of part 1, but picks up with a flourish in part 2. Only negatives are the way characters are built up only to be summarily discarded in part 2.

Ending was disappointing

Ending could have been better. Disappointing, and left too many unanswered questions. The story telling was great,