On the recommendation of a friend, I recently finished Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. My friend and I like supernatural movies and tv shows and some horror. I prefer Asian horror films vs. American due to less gore and more suspense. Hex is remarkable because it is written by a Dutch writer and typically you don’t see the horror genre in the Netherlands. The story is a mix of the supernatural and very reminiscent of a Stephen King novel. In fact, it’s hard not to think of King as you read it. It was actually written in Dutch in 2013 and translated into English in 2016. So, yes, I am reviewing a book that’s a little dated as opposed to one recently released, but I wanted to talk about it in case there are those who enjoy these themes.
“Totally, brilliantly original.”
Stephen King
“Creepy and gripping and original, sure to be one of the top horror novels of 2016. “
George R.R. Martin
In the Dutch version, the setting is a small rural town in the Netherlands, and in the American one it is a town set in the Hudson Valley known as Black Spring. A town haunted and cursed by Katherine Van Wyler.
(Back cover)
Welcome to Black Spring, a 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 beds for nights on end. Her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear.
In Black Spring there’s a team of residents who operate as HEX and they are responsible for preventing outsiders or non-residents from moving to the town, hiding the witch from the public, and stopping anyone at just about any cost from interfering with her. Most everyone in town has an iphone with the HEX app and they are to report in any time the witch appears so they can track her movements. There are 400 video cameras installed in town for this purpose. Katherine was persecuted in October of 1664 for allegedly raising her son from the dead. She lived in the woods just outside what would become known as Black Spring (centuries later) with her son and daughter. No husband to speak of and so that was a stigma in itself. Little is known about her other then her son is supposed to have died of smallpox. After his death, residents are aghast to see her walking the streets hand in hand with both her son and daughter. Katherine is tried as a witch after being tortured and confessing to the crime and she is forced to kill her son. As an act of mercy for disposing of her son, her daughter is allowed to live and she is offered the chance to leap off scaffolding to hang herself. Four months later in 1665, all of the residents in the colony- as it was then – disappear and are never found nor heard from again. Katherine's story doesn't end there. Her curse has only begun.
Fast forward to the present and you’ll find that Black Spring residents exist under her curse. They can leave the town to work outside its boundaries and visit friends and family, however they cannot stay. Ever. Anyone who does is driven to suicide in horrific ways. A group of teens in town have decided they’ve had enough. Born and bred in Black Spring and never allowed to leave they want freedom and the world to know what is happening. To know about Katherine Van Wyler. They begin a campaign to alter Katherine’s patterns, harass her, and most importantly and forbidden to record her existence. They set in motion catastrophic events that endanger the entire town.
My friend found the creepiness and eeriness of the story’s build up to be better than the ending. I slightly disagree. I felt there was payoff albeit a confusing one. I did a little research and a lot of people found the ending confusing with the overall message. It’s a bit convoluted and you’ll need to process it. The foreboding for most of the story is enjoyable. The dread. One of the most interesting things about Heuvelt’s book is that his original version has a different ending then his American one. I have been trying to track down the Dutch ending but cannot find a definitive answer. I did find articles like this one where they make an effort to explain it. Heuvelt finds it amusing in his acknowledgements to tell you that he is purposely not going to tell you the difference. Pretty maddening, at least for me.
I think if you like the themes discussed throughout my review you’ll enjoy it. If you read it, please visit my post and leave a comment on what you think of it. I like to hear from readers!
