Book Review: Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

From the beginning of the book I was confused who Katherine van Wyler was, or how she could get run over by a Dutch barrel organ and continue to show up at people's houses to haunt them. The teenager drama and rebellion sucks you in from the first few pages though. Their humor and rebellious attitudes to do something that their entire town is forbidden from doing is intriguing to say the least.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, my friends: I'm living in a dictatorship. Freedom of speech is seriously jeopardized in the hands of the older generation."

It is almost hilarious, but also just as eerie that individuals in a town are offering you money not to purchase a house in their town. These folk moving from California to their small little town of Black Spring brush off the concerns as someone who just does not want outsiders in their town, because it is a little odd that strangers working for the town would offer to pay you $5,000 just to not make an offer on any house in that town.

"Be happy she's not in their living room. She's standing on a lawn; we'll put the old umbrella clothesline on her, with sheets."

The town attempts to cloak a very dark secret right in front of people's faces, and at first it is not clear why they would ask people to drape a blanket over her to hide her from sight. As it becomes clearer that the town is under a very dark curse, and it is impossible for anyone in the town to escape once they have claimed the town for themselves.

"Jocelyn had also had a vision. Not of killing herself. She had mated with a donkey, then stuck a carving knife into her belly to cut out the baby."

The desire for Tyler's freedom of speech to spill all of the secrets on the town is tantalizing. You want him to spill the secrets, because you kind of want to see what the witch would do. What is she capable of? Is the town being paranoid for no reason? That is until the newbies in town get a surprising visit from her. Something that the husband does not want to admit to his wife, is the feeling he got as he heard her whisper to him from the end of their bed.

Stories such as these date all the way back to that of 1693, all the way to a gruesome ending governmental research study in the 1960's. All of the events stemming from a trauma that occurs in October of 1664. With such a loss, it is a wonder that more people do not lose their minds.

"A howling can be heard that chills you to the bone. The camera is knocked over, forcing the tripod against the wall, so we suddenly see the room from a nauseating perspective. The witch is no longer in her chair but is now standing in a corner of the office and we only see her lower body; the rest is cut off by the camera angle."

As Tyler finds himself in love with a girl outside of town, he has a grappling feeling that he cannot do this to her. But does love win in the end? Is love enough to break through this curse? As Tyler's teenage angst bangs against his chest, he is ready to explode with rage and town secrets. His blogs, and video diaries are ready to submit at a moments notice.

Some townsfolk resort to bribing the witch to ensure their families safety, some refuse to make eye contact, and then you have those that provoke her evil ways upon themselves in ways that they could never fathom. Haunted churches, ghostly dogs, hangings, lashings, and least of all...

The witches shock of it all.

"The infant's only answer to the cruel hallucination of birth was to scream... so that's what Grim did."

Through the horrors of the book, the most important lesson we can take away from this book is that of compassion. You never know the pain that someone is feeling, or what they are facing in their lives. You also never know exactly the extent of your actions on someone else. Your actions, for better or for worse, can have a lasting impact on a person. One that you may never be able to make up for.

4/5 stars.