Hex was my first horror book, but it has been a genre I have wanted to get into for some time. I have a love / hate relationship with horror movies, love to watch them but hate the spooky feeling I get for days after, so I thought surely I would have the same relationship with horror books. And it seems I was not wrong.
Hex is a witchy, ghostly, horror themed book. It’s based in a town called Black Spring, and the town is haunted by a 300 year old witches spirit. The witch, Katherine, has immense supernatural powers which the townsfolk have managed to control over the centuries. However, 21st century teenagers think they know better and all hell breaks loose. The book follows the life of the teenagers and a few townsfolk whilst things slowly unravel into madness.
I bought Hex from Bert’s Books, which by the way is an amazing independent online bookshop everyone should check out, and I had to get stuck into it straight away. No better time to read a horror book than halloween season. I didn’t struggle to get into this book at all and was hooked within the first chapter. I was even reading it whilst I was meant to be working because I just couldn’t put the book down and needed to know what was happening next. Thomas has a magical way with how he describes things, from the town to peoples emotions, that make it feel so realistic. I could picture the town perfectly in my mind, and even felt the emotions each character was going through. There is death, which is expected in anything horror related, but the way Thomas describes the emotions surrounding the death is so raw and heartbreaking. It goes to show the talent Thomas has!
As I do with every book, and I’m sure most people do, I tried to predict how the story was going to go and I was so pleasantly wrong. The book as a whole never played out the way I expected and all the twists really came as a surprise. Of course I knew something bad was going to happen, this genre never have happy fairytale endings, but I was still surprised. Katherine, the witch, haunted my mind every day whilst I read the book; I almost expected her to just pop up in a corner of my flat. And again this goes to show Thomas’ talents.
The only downfall of this book, and I mean it is a tiny downfall, is I feel the ending was rushed. A lot happened in a very short amount of time and I just think Thomas could have dragged the ending out a bit and it wouldn’t have upset me. With that aside, the ending was great for a horror book. There was a lot of darkness, terrible outcomes and sadness which rounded this book of perfectly.
I will advise a trigger warning, although there is a lot of death in this book there is a time when a dog dies. The death is a murder, and it is explained and described to an extent. It’s nothing too gruesome but it does paint an unpleasant image in your brain. I just wanted to give a slight warning as I know a lot of people, myself including, can be trigged by animal deaths.
Hex was a wonderful introduction to horror books and has definitely made me want to pick up more. Thomas has a new novel coming out in 2022 called Echo and I mostly certainly will be picking it up straight away!
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