Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

9 reviews

aleen_elizabeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

tavvyj's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I read this in a book club and can tell I liked it quite a bit more than most of them did. This novel is emotional, and so much of it is tense. Heuvelt uses very specific language to stand out specific passages, and because of that it can warrant disgust at times.

I'm going to talk about the nipples here, which are a large part of the shock value. My friends said things like "don't make a drinking game out of it" and the like, so while I was reading I kept count of the mentions. While it's a higher number than one would expect in a non-smut or romance book, it mentions them 10 total times, 9 of which are for shock value and disgust. Talking about Tyler's nips was weird though. 

In any case, the use seems pretty clear to make the imagery stand out and not just mentioning nipples just to mention nipples as my friends emphasized.

The book is dark and emotional, it's horrific. And it's a reminder that the true evil in the world is, and has always been, humans being afraid of something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

lozziejhall's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

mysimas's review against another edition

Made it half way through… The idea of the witch all chained up, with her eyes and mouth sewn shut just randomly haunting the town was interesting and unsettling, and the way the townies tried to live normal lives around her and camouflaged her from visitors made for my favourite take-away from the whole story.

But the writing style, the characters, the misogyny all put me off. This is one of those books that’s written a little like watching a movie: the action is described but there’s no additional value to the text. The character work didn’t go deep either, and especially the ‘police’ guy came off annoying and incompetent. I skimmed ahead to see how it ends and feel no need to stick around for the rest of the journey.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Torture

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Death of parent

ggcd1981's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Medical content, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Drug use

Male Gaze

alexandraloveee's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

jilly_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I DEVOURED this book. I rarely get this enthusiastic about new horror and this was just *chef’s kiss* perfection. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Abortion, and Death of parent

marleens's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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

5.0

On reread in 2025: this was my first Olde Heuvelt, but having read several more of his books, this one still remains the favorite. Great atmosphere, and so creepy from the get-go. And the second half just gets more and more horrible. Walking around my own house at night was suddenly very scary, I hardly dared enter my bedroom.
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I read this book mostly in broad daylight and I’m glad I did. So creepy! I loved the growing sense of dread throughout the book, the feeling that inevitable horrible things were coming. I also loved the writing. I read it in its original Dutch, and while I rarely read in Dutch, this book is making me want to pick up more Dutch authors as well as more horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Death of parent

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

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