Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

31 reviews

marjolein3010's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Suicide attempt

connorjdaley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My fiancé suggesting I listen to this because we are both from The Hudson River Valley, which is this novel’s setting. I was a bit surprised by this choice, as this novel is the author’s English language debut, and the setting is pretty damn accurate. I wonder if he lives there now? 

I listened to this on my way home to see my parents. Highland Mills, Central Valley, and Harriman we’re mentioned by name more than once, and all three are directly connected to my home town of 22 years, Monroe. West Point Military Academy, as well as 9W through Cornwall, Bear Mountain, and the novel’s featured hospital, St. Luke’s in Newburgh, are all places I’ve frequented as well. It was super cool and kind of eerie to read a novel like this about where I’m from. 

The town of Black Spring has a problem, what kind of old town doesn’t? This town’s problem just happens to be a 17th century immortal witch named Katherine. Since they were able to sew her eyes and mouth shut she hasn’t been too much of a problem, just creepy. And luckily she never breaks from her current schedule… 

So because I always listen to an audio and read a physical book at the same time, I had this really unique experience of reading these two very similar scenes in two drastically different novels within like an hour of each other. Both this novel and C.V. Hunt’s ‘Halloween Fiend’ feature a fall festival that isn’t really dedicated to their town’s (I’ll say) affliction, but at the same time kind of is. It was cool to see how each framed how their town responded to what they had been forced to accept as normal over time. 

The climax of this novel does some really interesting things in its depiction of the degradation of humanity. Is it the witch causing it, or the town itself? Either way, they so easily are lead to depravity. Brothers, sisters, mothers, husbands…no one is safe and everyone is guilty. 

Personally a 4/5*. Spooky, atmospheric, dark. It looks like there’s a sequel to this but it’s only available in Dutch? I’m confused. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Violence

dragana1497's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Animal death, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

entityj's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Bullying, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Vomit, Islamophobia, and Alcohol

theremightbecupcakes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

misty_muskrat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Grief, Gore, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Islamophobia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

mikayyyla's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I really loved the set up of this book and I was so excited to read it. It had a strong start and I enjoyed learning about the mysterious town, but I feel like the plot never really took off and the ending was extremely lackluster. I felt like we kept building up to something and that something never came. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, and Forced institutionalization

cryptogay's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Really incredible, very creepy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Minor: Ableism, Colonisation, Homophobia, Islamophobia, and Medical content

ripxw's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

ok so that was a lot. the beginning gave me reverse The Village (the m. night movie) vibes. what I mean is that in the village, they didn't know why they weren't allowed out of their village VS in HEX they knew exactly why. however, everything fell apart in part 2, it was bonkers batshit crazy. i had my mouth open in horror the entire last 30 pages. Overall, I cannot tell if I liked this book. like i did like it but i need to digest it because, again, it was a lot, especially the last section. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Animal cruelty and Domestic abuse

aoakley's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence