A review by kaleereads
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

4.0

wow! i’ll admit, i was bored by this book for a good bit. it takes a bit to get there. and then everything hits the fan and i was absolutely gripped through the final third. this is VERY stephen king: the almost gothic/romantic era prose, the mysterious and cursed small town, the large cast of characters with their own unique perspectives and motivations, and of course the juxtaposition of paranormal phenomena we decide is “evil” and the very real evil of man. huge “the mist” vibes. this story also really reminded me of midnight mass, the miniseries by mike flanagan. i found HEX to be disturbing, unsettling, absolutely bleak. i really enjoyed it. A unique complaint I have though is that you can definitely tell that this was not only translated from Dutch but also transported to an American setting. I can’t quite describe it, but our characters are just so uniquely European and they feel so out of place when I’m trying to fit them into the region they are apparently living in America. these ain’t new yorkers! but i respect the author’s decision to do so. overall, a great unsettling and unhappy read. wow.