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Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Translated from the Dutch)
4.5★'s
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 your homes at will. She stands next to your bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened. 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 lock-down, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting, but in so doing send the town spiraling into the dark, medieval practices of the past.This is one of those books that you will either really, really like, or really, really dislike. To say it is strange would be the mother of all understatements. The witch is in your face from the start and honestly you have to feel some sympathy for her for all she's been through. She seems harmless enough on the surface....but no one wants to push that envelope. The Black Springs town people have come to accept her like the rest of us accept cable TV...it 's just there. I thought some the towns people were actually much scarier and dangerous. The plot and pacing is really effective once you get past the halfway mark but maybe I'm immune to it...but I didn't see the "horror" aspect. You have to keep turning pages to find out what happens next...yes...it's one of those kind of books. I understand the audio version leaves a lot to be desired.
