Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

 

Reviewed by Andrew

 

Hex by Dutch author Thomas Olde Heuvelt is the story of a small modern-day New England town called Black Spring, which has been terrorized by the ghost of a witch for centuries. The witch has placed a curse on Black Spring, so that whoever lives there but tries to leave is overcome with suicidal urges. Because of this curse, the town goes to extraordinary measures to ensure that no one new moves there. In addition, over the years, the townsfolk have formed a special committee that attempts to hide the witch from visitors to Black Spring, and keeps track of the witch through security cameras that have been placed across town. It is strictly forbidden to interact with the witch in any way, with the committee doling out punishment to anyone who breaks the rules revolving around the witch. When several teenagers who live in Black Spring decide to film pranks performed on the witch for a social media site, it starts a series of horrific events that places the lives of everyone in Black Spring in mortal danger.

Personally, most “horror” books don’t really scare me that much (probably from being de-sensitized from watching too many horror movies), so I have been looking around for a while to find the scariest books ever. This book came up on several people’s top-ten horror lists, so I thought I would give it a try. The book does have a certain amount of suspense and dread, and as I read it, I was constantly reminding of Stephen King’s earlier, darker material. This book definitely has a very dark, grim tone, but its interspersed nicely with occasional humor and interesting fictional history about the town of Black Spring, and how the people who live there have dealt with the witch’s curse for close to 400 years. I also really enjoy when a story has multiple plots that all end up converging together towards the end, similar to Needful Things by Stephen King or Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and Hex definitely had several interesting overarching plots. The story was also told in such a way that I had absolutely no idea how it would end.   I enjoyed reading as much of it as I could at a time, just to find out what happened in Black Spring next.

Something I wished the author had explored more is how the town of Black Spring deals with the outside world because of their curse. It was definitely touched on but I thought it would have been interesting to see more of the outside world’s view on the town. Maybe a scientific research team attempting to come to the town to try to discover how and why the curse works.  Still, I understood that the author wanted to keep the sense of extreme isolation that the people of Black Spring feel due to the curse.

The book also tends to be very bleak at times (I know, I know, I asked for a VERY scary horror book!)  It made me want to go read something much more light-hearted afterwards.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. The plot was fast-paced, and always kept me engaged and wondering what was going to happen next in the small town of Black Spring. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Stephen King or Dean Koontz, or someone who is looking for a good extra-scary book to read right before Halloween.

Bait and Witch by Angela Sanders

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Librarian Josie Way is living the dream working in the Library of Congress until she overhears a conversation implicating a Congressman in graft.  Whistleblowing being a dangerous business, she decides to flee D.C. and accepts a job in a rather remote town in Oregon, hoping to lie low for a while.  Unfortunately, it seems that her new library haven is about to be torn down to make way for a resort. Part of the argument is that the library attracts undesirables. . . like the dead woman found nearby.

I had to suspend a lot of disbelief in this first in the Josie Way series, but that turned out to be okay, especially after Josie begins to manifest some supernatural powers when it comes to Readers Advisory.  (Library lingo for recommending a book.) From then on, I bought into the premise with ease, mainly because I found the whole thing to be a lot of fun.   I adored the idea of the books sending messages to her, grumbling or laughing amongst themselves, and the library as a whole welcoming her.  So what if I had trouble with someone who was supposedly in hiding taking a job under her own name and social security number?  I got talking books and a cat named Rodney.  I was happy.

This book was a delight, and the ending had me looking forward to the next title.  It wasn’t a cliff-hanger (for which I am grateful!) but it definitely teased interesting things to come.   I am certainly going to read the next in the series (out now) and will look forward to the third title.

The books are:

Bait and Witch

Seven Year Witch

Witch and Famous  (2022; now listed as Witch Way Librarian Mystery)

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas

Reviewed by Abby

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez follows titular character Nestor as he tries to adjust to a new school and new surroundings. He and his mother have just moved to the home of his abuela (grandmother) in Texas while his father is on military deployment.  Nestor is upset about the move in part because he believes he won’t be in Texas long before his family is uprooted and forced to move again. If this wasn’t enough of a problem, Nestor has a secret: he can talk to animals.

Nestor still tries to enjoy himself at his new school and makes friends with classmates Talib and Maria Carmen. They tell him how there have been several cases of missing animals throughout town. With his ability to talk to animals, Nestor hears rumors from the woodland creatures about a witch who can shapeshift. Nestor feels obligated to take action and find the witch before more animals are taken or harmed. Even worse, Nestor’s abuela has been accused of stealing the animals by witnesses who claim to have seen her running around the forest at night. 

The witch, known as the tule vieja to Nestor and his abuela, is a mighty, mystical force to be reckoned with. Nestor is unsure if he can stop her on his own. With his friends as backup, Nestor attempts to learn as much as he can about the tule vieja before pursuing her. He learns that she can obtain the power of an animal by biting it during a solar eclipse. Unfortunately for him, the date of the next eclipse is quickly approaching. Nestor has to muster up as much courage as he can to battle the tule vieja to clear his abuela and to save the animals. But will it be enough?

 (Fun fact: the tule vieja, also spelled as tulivieja, in this novel is loosely based on a Central American folktale about a woman who was punished and transformed into a monster after she killed her baby.)

I typically do not read children’s or middle grade books as pleasure reads. I was introduced to this novel as a reading assignment for one of my college classes, so I decided to check it out from the library. I am grateful for the introduction. This book was quite entertaining! I had no clue what to expect at first. All I knew was that The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez was about a boy who could talk to animals. I assumed the story was aimed more towards juvenile audiences, so I did not have high expectations of relating to the plot, but I ended up really enjoying it!

I am a big fan of multicultural literature and will always advocate for others to read it when the opportunity arises. This novel is a prime example of how diverse authors are able to effortlessly include their culture into their writing. Cuevas does this in several ways: when Nestor and his abuela occasionally speak in Spanish, when his abuela makes Cuban inspired recipes for her family, and the inclusion of the Panamanian folklore of the tule vieja. This book appears lighthearted from the cover alone, but does touch on more mature topics that can easily attract the attention of older audiences. It is certainly a unique story with its combination of realistic and magical elements. I would highly recommend it!  

 

Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Reviewed by Jeanne

Nine year old Tiffany is the granddaughter of a shepherd who may or may not have been a witch.  She sees the world in unusual ways, and when a creature tries to trespass, she takes it out quickly. Okay, she may have used her baby brother as bait, but needs must, right?

The creature in the river isn’t the only oddity around; Tiffany has caught glimpses of some six inch high blue men who have flaming red hair and seem to be wearing kilts—well, the ones who are wearing anything at all. These are the Nac Mac Feegle, the Wee Free Men, also known as pictsies (definitely not pixies).  They are immensely strong, and born for drinking, fighting, stealing, and fleeing in terror at lawyers.  They’re also leery of Tiffany who they call a“wee bigjob hag” and (horrors!) she can write things down.  While not her first choice of allies, they become indispensable when she has to find her missing brother.

Soon Tiffany will find herself facing a fearsome Queen, a horde of nightmares, and the prospect of matrimony. How will she ever prevail?

I have enjoyed several of Pratchett’s Discworld novels, but I have to say I find the Tiffany Aching tales to be particularly enchanting.  They have Pratchett’s trademark humor—lines that beg to be read aloud to someone, even if you have to chase them down to do it.  One of my favorite exchanges is when Tiffany approaches a traveling teacher and says she has a question about zoology:

 “Zoology, eh?  That’s a big word, isn’t it.”

“No, actually, it isn’t,” said Tiffany. “Patronizing is a big word.  Zoology is really quite short.”

In another passage, he comments that people were glad to see the teachers because they would tell a child enough to stop him asking questions, but they wanted the teachers gone by sundown for fear they’d steal chickens. I will spare you other favorite sections—oh, how I want to tell you about the teachers under the stars! —but this will give you a bit of the flavor.

However, the books aren’t just fluff and fun.  There’s a thread about figuring out who people really are.  Tiffany’s beloved grandmother was a rough, taciturn old woman who took care of sheep.  She was respected in the community for her abilities, with folks leaving her favorite Jolly Sailor tobacco as payment, but Tiffany begins to wonder if there was more to Granny than she thought.  More to the point, is there more to Tiffany than she knows?

There are also some shrewd and pointed observations about society and human behavior along the way, and the books have uncommon heart. Tiffany finds there were consequences for her previous actions, but she is brave, resourceful, and takes responsibility.  She will set things right because she caused the problem, even if she didn’t mean to.

I think if I could live up to Pratchett’s ideals I would be a better person and the world would a better place.