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trin's review against another edition
1.0
Thomas Olde Heuvelt is obsessed with nipples. There are so many damn nipples in this book. Gross rotting witch's nipples, creepy sexual assault nipples, giant metaphorical nipples. The nipples of a teenage boy are also described in detail at one point. This dude LOVES (or possibly is deeply terrified of?) nipples.
What does he not care for? Characters.
Also, I feel like -- ladies.
There are four (third person) POV characters in this book.
1. Concerned father
2. Rebellious but kind-hearted teenage son
3. Sympathetic town official named Robert Grim (lol?)
4. Grotesquely fat and just generally grotesque crazy lady who's also sexually assaulted at one point for no reason, and hey have we mentioned she's disgusting and she makes everyone eat pâté that's super gross
Hmm. One of these things is not like the others!
But the dude characters are just as boring and one-dimensional as the nasty fat pâté lady. I did not care about anyone in this book. For a novel that's supposedly about a town, I had virtually no sense of anyone in the community. They were all cardboard cutouts with vaguely silly names. Like a silly haunted tram ride at Universal Studios.
The atmosphere was equally thin. This is the Hudson Valley -- Headless Horseman territory! -- but Heuvelt couldn't manage to make his woods sound threatening. Suspense didn't build so much as drag -- events occurred, but there was no ramping up of tension. There was no tension.
On the most basic level, this book simply wasn't as advertised. The plot is thus: back in ye olden days, this town called Black Spring killed a woman and her children because they thought she was a witch. She put a curse on the town and haunts it to this day. The book's blurb then states: "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."
That last part sounds cool, right? IT NEVER HAPPENS. Rebellious But Kind-Hearted Teenage Son makes videos and has a locked website, but nothing ever gets released to the world. Here's an anti-spoiler right here: no footage nor information nor any curses relating to the witch ever "go viral." This does not figure into the plot at all. I was looking forward to reading something about the interaction of technology and old-world magic, but aside from security footage mistakenly giving Heuvelt the impression that he could or should switch from past to present tense sporadically, none of this ends up having any effect on the story. There is a town. There is a ghost. Both kind of suck. The end.
Meanwhile, I cursed myself with finishing this book so you wouldn't have to. You're welcome.
What does he not care for? Characters.
Also, I feel like -- ladies.
There are four (third person) POV characters in this book.
1. Concerned father
2. Rebellious but kind-hearted teenage son
3. Sympathetic town official named Robert Grim (lol?)
4. Grotesquely fat and just generally grotesque crazy lady who's also sexually assaulted at one point for no reason, and hey have we mentioned she's disgusting and she makes everyone eat pâté that's super gross
Hmm. One of these things is not like the others!
But the dude characters are just as boring and one-dimensional as the nasty fat pâté lady. I did not care about anyone in this book. For a novel that's supposedly about a town, I had virtually no sense of anyone in the community. They were all cardboard cutouts with vaguely silly names. Like a silly haunted tram ride at Universal Studios.
The atmosphere was equally thin. This is the Hudson Valley -- Headless Horseman territory! -- but Heuvelt couldn't manage to make his woods sound threatening. Suspense didn't build so much as drag -- events occurred, but there was no ramping up of tension. There was no tension.
On the most basic level, this book simply wasn't as advertised. The plot is thus: back in ye olden days, this town called Black Spring killed a woman and her children because they thought she was a witch. She put a curse on the town and haunts it to this day. The book's blurb then states: "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."
That last part sounds cool, right? IT NEVER HAPPENS. Rebellious But Kind-Hearted Teenage Son makes videos and has a locked website, but nothing ever gets released to the world. Here's an anti-spoiler right here: no footage nor information nor any curses relating to the witch ever "go viral." This does not figure into the plot at all. I was looking forward to reading something about the interaction of technology and old-world magic, but aside from security footage mistakenly giving Heuvelt the impression that he could or should switch from past to present tense sporadically, none of this ends up having any effect on the story. There is a town. There is a ghost. Both kind of suck. The end.
Meanwhile, I cursed myself with finishing this book so you wouldn't have to. You're welcome.
mstotter's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
burntout_bookworm's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
There were elements that I really enjoyed but I think that the pace was very stop starty and I kept skim reading every so often.
tregina's review against another edition
3.0
Make no mistake: this is a deeply disturbing, deeply scary and deeply claustrophobic book. On that front, it definitely does what it sets out to do. Be warned, there are some very graphic moments. The idea of the novel sounded super cool, but I have to admit the execution is not what I was hoping for and the description is somewhat misleading once you get into the meat of the novel. That, and it treats its female characters fairly appallingly. I think there are a lot of social and ethical questions that it would have been interesting to explore in this scenario (such as the choice to have children in a town they can never leave), but a lot of that is sidelined.
It is definitely creepy as hell, though. It is that.
It is definitely creepy as hell, though. It is that.
jfournier's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
deliberatehalf56's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
njdarkish's review against another edition
4.0
A fantastic horror novel, one of the best I've read in recent times. Probably the best witch story I've read.
noratfi's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
kaleereads's review against another edition
4.0
wow! i’ll admit, i was bored by this book for a good bit. it takes a bit to get there. and then everything hits the fan and i was absolutely gripped through the final third. this is VERY stephen king: the almost gothic/romantic era prose, the mysterious and cursed small town, the large cast of characters with their own unique perspectives and motivations, and of course the juxtaposition of paranormal phenomena we decide is “evil” and the very real evil of man. huge “the mist” vibes. this story also really reminded me of midnight mass, the miniseries by mike flanagan. i found HEX to be disturbing, unsettling, absolutely bleak. i really enjoyed it. A unique complaint I have though is that you can definitely tell that this was not only translated from Dutch but also transported to an American setting. I can’t quite describe it, but our characters are just so uniquely European and they feel so out of place when I’m trying to fit them into the region they are apparently living in America. these ain’t new yorkers! but i respect the author’s decision to do so. overall, a great unsettling and unhappy read. wow.