HEX
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4.2 • 52 Ratings
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
“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.
Customer Reviews
Definitely original, not best executed
The story definitely has its positives, with some very original plot points and interesting characters. The horror is very real and present and builds to a devastating crescendo. I enjoyed the setting and the history very much, and the pacing and exposition are expertly and artistically done.
That said, the description and characterization of the female characters is nothing short of insulting. Every woman in the story is literally described as evil, annoying, and/or stupid. Like, actually described as such. The author has a fascination with female anatomy and sexuality that is violent, horrific, and unnecessary. The story would have been absolutely complete without most of the female anatomical imagery, all of which only served as motivation for the make characters’ decisions and actions.
The reader also doesn’t add anything positive, with every single female character voiced at varying levels nasal and pathetic. I don’t know if the reader made these choices himself or if there were notes from the author, but in an already male-driven plot with the female characters shown only as either predator or prey without a single action-oriented individual among them, the vocal decisions only add to the intensely negative depiction or every woman in the story.