The premise of this book is so much fun. Black Spring is a nice quiet fictional town in the Hudson Valley of NY (it would actually be right around where I live). The town has its share of kids, teens, and lots of families. It also happens to have a 350 year old witch who's eyes and mouth are stitched shut. She randomly appears in various locations around the town, if she isn't walking her normal path. If you hear her whisper (one stitch is loose at the edge of her mouth), you get the sudden urge to kill yourself. If you live in the town you cannot leave, ever too. You are stuck with the witch and your neighbors.

There have been rumors about the witch about how she has leveled the town several times, but as long as you don't touch her, listen to her, or mess with her, she is mostly harmless. The book is about the moment that some of the local teens decide, enough is enough, and it is time to start experimenting with the witch. Their experiment begins with a poke with a stick.

I am going to leave it there because it is such a fun book. The opening pages are kind of playful as people try to figure out what to do with this witch who just appears. They put dish towels over her face, put a hallow bunny costume over her at Easter, and just try to deal with her. The more the teens mess with her, there is a feeling that something really, really bad is going to happen and things are going to go down. By Part II, the book is unrelenting and all forms of playfulness are just gone. The ending is also not one that a reader would expect.

As I was reading it, I kept saying to my wife- this needs to be a TV show or a movie. Apparently, it is going to become one, as this book is new in English, but has been a best seller in Europe for a while. This is a definite must read, especially for the summer. It is so well written and moves along at a great pace with a feeling of something ominous looming over the whole read. The characters are well developed, although I did mix a few up here and there. Katherine the witch though is the star of this book. This is her story and don't forget it.

I rated this one five stars!
( )

There's nothing like a good old fashioned witch story. Hex creeped me out in places and horrified me in others. I was to scared to read it at night. Who knows if Gramma will pay me a visit and whisper in my ear. The end? If messed me up. What a book!! ( )

DNF. The story started out delightfully weird but the first few chapters were 95% quoted dialog and I wasn't feeling it. ( )

IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF DOLLS LIKE ME, PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION WHEN READING THE BOOK.

The book is actually, I believe, a highly intricate retelling of incidences in the Salem Witch Trials. But I kept imagining the Witch as a Halloween decoration that looks like a cross between my late grandmother and a realistic doll, so the book was extra-scary. The author does a beautiful job of slow-dread terror. I couldn't sleep for two days. Contemporary issues are seamlessly woven in. The storytelling is smooth, the setting is marvelous, and I enjoyed learning more about small-town dynamics. -Highly- recommended for horror fans and Salem Witch Trial aficionados.
I give the book four and a half stars, but put five on the rating system. I knocked off half a star because:
The ending was hurried, cliche on the point of stupid, and it was clear the author didn't know what to do. Turns out, that's the English version. The original was in Dutch, and it's strongly hinted that the ending was shorter, chilling, more believable, and better. I want to read that ending and imagine it's in the American one! Sadly, as this book is so goddamn scary thanks to the stupid doll, I might not read it again EVER. UGH DOLLS. EW. I mean, you take the doll part out, and I would totally buy this book but no, fear of dolls gets in the way. I'm interested in reading what else the author has written, as well. ( )

Seems young Thomas Olde Heuvelt sees women as basically victims and objects for violence and humiliation by men. None of the women here are characters at all, just punching bags and clean up machines. Sad really. It could have been so much better if he understood the least thing about women as humans. Gasp. Humans! ( )