Book Review: Hex, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

The Blair Witch in the age of YouTube.

Tor, 2016 (originally published 2013 in Dutch), 384 pages

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 17th-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 beds 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.

( Small town mob rule meets the modern police state, thanks to a 350-year-old witch. )

Also by Thomas Olde Heuvelt: my review of The Ink Readers of Doi Saket.

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My complete list of book reviews.