Staff Pick
Imagine you're living under the curse of a 17th-century witch with a grudge. Now imagine someone has just made her very, very unhappy... Yep, it's that scary. I was checking dark corners for Katherine for weeks. Recommended By Emily F., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
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 novel heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in mainstream horror and dark fantasy.
Review
"[O]ne of the most original, clever, and terrifying books to be published in the 21st century." New York Journal of Books
Review
"HEX is reminiscent of vintage Stephen King, and I can think of no higher praise. Chilling, moving and...profound." John Connolly
Review
"Olde Heuvelt offers up a truly terrifying parable about mankind’s depravity and the depths of evil of which we are capable. The story is not merely unsettling, it is horrifying." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"HEX takes the horror/thriller genre to a whole new level. It’s deeply unsettling, wholly original, brilliantly written and contains scenes that will haunt you for a long time to come. I dare you to read it." Sarah Lotz
Review
"This is totally, brilliantly original." Stephen King
Review
"[A] touch of strangeness, of alienness, avoiding sub-Stephen King clichés. [Olde Heuvelt] has written five novels already, and publishers should be lining up to translate them." The Wall Street Journal
About the Author
Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a Dutch author of several novels, including HEX, and many stories of the fantastic. He has been called "One of Europe's foremost talents in fantastic literature" by BBC Radio. Olde Heuvelt has been nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy awards for his short fiction and is a multiple winner of the Paul Harland Prijs for best Dutch work of the fantastic.