You won’t leave this place – a review of the novel “Hex”

Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a Dutch writer whose career blossomed extremely quickly. One of his novels was recently reviewed , today we are discussing Hex – the writer’s debut. How successful!

 

A dark voice in the horror scene

A small town two hours from Manhattan is a place that is cursed and destined. If you were born here, you must stay here forever. If you’ve just arrived, you’ll never leave. For over three hundred years, the inhabitants of this city have been plagued by a witch with sewn mouth and eyes, a seventeenth-century corpse of a woman bound in chains. She wanders around huts, houses and households, stands by children’s beds, stays awake until the morning. It remains to pray that she never opens her eyes. The titular organization – Hex – makes sure that the world does not hear about the curse weighing on the city, while the local authorities consistently build an atmosphere of fear, while maintaining their authoritarian rule. However, the quarantine limiting the inhabitants of the city is perceived by young people as a delusion; they do not accept forced closure. Steve and his friends start to rebel. Their imprudent act, resulting from primal instincts, brings great danger to the city.

This year belongs to you!

Thomas Olde Heuvelt entered the literary salons with a confident step and quickly gained the recognition of Polish readers (including the recently reviewed novel Echo ). The interest in his work will grow… A fantastically dark atmosphere, vivid descriptions, but also surprising twists and turns are the hallmarks of Hex. Heuvelt makes his debut, and for us – readers – it’s hard to believe that he does it in such a (good!) style. The novel is just over 400 pages long and keeps you hooked throughout. The last few dozen pages are a culmination of ideas and surprises – you won’t believe how much the written word can affect you. When reading a book late in the evening or at night, we cannot avoid the feeling of fear – there is an atmosphere, so there are shivers. The fight against superstition brings to mind the Middle Ages, and the practices of the city’s inhabitants make you sick. The imagination runs wild, and this affects the intensity of the reading experience.

Still a horror novel

We read on the cover that the book is recommended (well, they were delighted …) by Stephen King and George RR Martin. Can we ignore it in such a situation? The answer is not surprising. The reviewed reading is a must have this year if you like thriller and horror novels. More meticulous readers will surely notice that some of the author’s ideas seem a bit imitative, moreover, he leaves no guesswork – everything is explained, sometimes maybe too early? The novel is part of the group of those that are created for the mass reader and sell easily – a small American town, unexplained nightmares from the past, a bit about interpersonal relationships, weaknesses and terror. Translated by Piotr Kuś ( Shadow People ,More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark , Unwanted Guest ), however, the book easily catches our attention, and not only because of the extremely dark cover or the familiar name. It becomes, in a way, a promise of the most terrible.