Hex

By: Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

“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.

©2013, 2016 Thomas Olde Heulvelt, Nancy Forest-Flier (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Excellent impulse purchase!

Bought this on a whim and loved it. Only thing stopping it from getting 5 stars was that the narration wasn't excellent. Not bad, but not excellent. Very absorbing listen...i listened in 2 sittings while clearing out my closet!

Overall I really liked it!

I was hooked on this book! The narrator was great in my opinion! The only thing I didn’t love was it got a little weird at the end (as scary books/movies tend to do) I loved the book for about 95% of the time! Definitely worth the credit!

Left me wondering about the original novel

My impression is somewhat colored by the narration. I felt slightly irritated by the narrator's voice, especially his impression of female voices which were often whiny. I couldn't tell if I thought the dialog was sometimes bad or if it was his delivery of it.

As for the story itself, there is a lot I did enjoy. The ghost of the witch is sufficiently creepy, both in description and action. There are fun details, like the app that the townspeople use to track her appearances. I think the most disturbing idea is that the townsfolk are cursed never to leave this tiny town - as someone who feels she escaped a small town, I can easily imagine how stifling and frustrating that would be.

The plot itself is fine for the most part. I suspected where the story might go though this by itself didn't bother me. But I felt the writing was lacking. There is a long exposition, disguised as a story told by a character, that felt particularly clunky. The dialog of the teenagers in the book felt really off - I kept thinking "no teenager talks like that" - although the actions and characterizations of the kids felt right. Some of the descriptions sounded strange too. Maybe some of the wording was lost in translation.

Speaking of translation, I am very curious about the original story. The author is Dutch and rather than just translate his original work into English, he rewrote the story to take place in the U.S. I think even the story itself changed. I think it's a shame he did this and I hope the original story is translated at some point.

Supernatural evil & human evil

I liked the way the author sets the trap and then lets us squirm in it with the residents of his town. I enjoyed the intellectual dissection of the limits of their omnipresent curse. Like in a King story, the author is just giving you time to love the people he will throw into the maelstrom. You know what's coming, and it softens the blow not a whit. I wish the author wrote women better. I wish the narrator voiced women better. But this isn't a fatal flaw. This author understands the human evil at the heart of the mob.

The story was great, the narrations was not

I love this story and I feel as though if I had read the book, it would be a 4.5/5 star book. However, the narrator was god awful. The voices he puts on for the teens and women in the story were so cartoony that it completely took me out of the story. If you're debating on whether to listen to this, don't. Read the book instead.

amazing

This book still makes me think well after reading it. It is so much more then just a scary story. There is an unexpected depth that hits you in the gut at the perfect moment. I thought I knew what the story was about but then it flipped on me. One of the BEST books I have read/listened to ever.

Modern world haunted by a 17th century witch

A unique premise that I thoroughly enjoyed. A 20th-century town haunted by a 17th-century ghost - the Black Rock witch whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. The town elders use high-tech surveillance to keep their secret, but the teenagers are tired of being kept quiet. Tyler decides to create a website and video the ghost, which results in a series of events that spiral out of control.

Jeff Harding did a fantastic job with the narration. I couldn't put this book down. Some of the things I saw coming, but that didn't make them any less terrifying. The evil that regular people are capable of can be the scariest of all. Not for the squeamish.

Great story, horrible narrator

Great story. Didn't see it ending the way it did. Dark, scary, uncomfortable. The narrator was really bad. I thought it was a light hearted book based what sounded like "impressions" or "caricatures" of teenagers and women. His nasally impersonation made the book seem comical and when things took a turn in the end, I almost couldn't take it seriously. The writing was great so I could hold on to that, but man, it was distracting.

wow!

incredibly gripping and horrifying from start to finish. this one will linger with me for a while. the darkness of human cruelty and presumption has never been so visceral.

Great story, terrible directing of the audiobook

This is the first audiobook I have ever wanted to delete and go by the print book of. The narrator is competent but the director and his choices shock me. This book is horrifying and well written with interesting characters yet the director chose to have them read in cartoonish nasal mocking voices (especially the women). This Intensely detracts from the humanity of the characters and situations they are in enduring. If I had been reading this in my own voice, I think I would've appreciated the book much mor because I would have respected the characters. The way they are presented here is deeply disrespectful. That said, the book is great and if you can get past The voice used on the characters, the narrator does a perfectly competent job. I'm disappointed that such an interesting and unique horror novel would come close to being ruined because of the director's seemingly adolescent choices.