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For three hundred years, the town of Black Spring has lived under the dark cloud of a curse. And that curse is named Katherine van Wyler, or The Black Rock Witch. Katherine, a Dutch colonist who lived in the village when it was called New Beeck, was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death after villagers claimed she raised her son from the dead. Since then, she’s wandered the town leaving fear and death in her wake.

Today, the townspeople of Black Spring have adapted, they even have a special office tasked with managing the witch and use an app to track her movements. Their goal is to keep Katherine contained and never to allow outsiders to discover her existence. In fact, Black Spring residents have to follow a strict set of rules meant to keep their secret from ever making its way across the town line. This is in part protection and preservation: no one knows what Katherine will do if her precarious peace is disturbed.

But Black Spring has grown lax. When a group of teens tired of the restrictions and rules begins to test Katherine, it sets off a chain reaction that could unleash an evil that will devastate Black Spring.

From the start, Thomas Olde Heuvelt carefully and quietly builds an atmosphere of utter and complete dread. When we meet Black Spring, they’ve grown a bit ambivalent and have started to take Katherine for granted. Some folks fear her, sure, but others mock the witch and flaunt the town’s centuries-old laws concerning her. This is due in part to the fact that no one has really witnessed Katherine’s powers for quite some time: the last real incident was back in the 60s, after all, and though everyone knows of the deaths that occurred then many of them have brushed it off.

It’s clear from the start of Hex that something bad is coming and that tension and suspense escalates fabulously throughout the book, bringing it to an eventual frenzied climax of some of the most awesome horrific imagery ever.

Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s US debut is exactly the kind of book any horror fan will delight in reading and I absolutely can’t wait to see more from this Dutch author.

6/16 Becky LeJeune

HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Tor Books (April 26, 2016).  ISBN: 978-0765378804. 384p.

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Aaron Holbrook was just a baby when his mother committed suicide. Her own sister happily took him in and raised him as her own, never revealing the truth about his mother’s fate. But then his aunt died, leaving a teen Aaron orphaned and alone.

Years later, Aaron’s life is rocked once again by tragedy and death. The loss of his son has dragged him deep into the depths of despair and drink, breaking up his marriage and causing Aaron to question everything. Determined to prove he can come back, though, he returns to Holbrook House intent on fixing it up. It’s to be his chance to win his wife back and show that he can beat the depression and alcohol that’s been eating away at him. But Aaron is haunted by more than his own tragedy. A boy appears at Holbrook House. A boy Aaron believes is harassing him. A boy no one but Aaron seems to be able to see.

Ania Ahlborn must take great pleasure in freaking out her readers. As the new reigning queen of horror, though, it’s quite appropriate.

The Bird Eater is definitely freaky. As the reader, we’re privy to at least one detail that Aaron himself is not and that’s exactly what happened to his mother. Her own sister has kept it from him, determined that Aaron will live a normal and happy life. And her secret is twofold considering the dead teen (Aaron’s mom) was said to have been pretty unstable. But of course Aaron’s adoptive mother soon learns there was much more to her sister’s ramblings than she ever gave her credit for.

And that’s just what’s revealed in the opening chapter.

Ahlborn keeps a lot hidden even by the time the story has ended. There’s a bit of reading between the lines that’s required, a history behind Holbrook House that’s never delved very deeply into (but would make a fabulous book on its own.). I personally would have loved more of that history and more about Birdie himself. Some might argue that the lack of detail and explanation makes the story more focused and creepy, though. The Bird Eater is Aaron’s story, after all, not Birdie’s or even Aaron’s mother’s. In that sense I actually agree. As stated above, Aaron never learns the truth about his mother. In fact, the little bit the reader learns about her and Holbrook house and Birdie is saved just for us and never revealed to Aaron at all.

Even without a deeper backstory, The Bird Eater is still a quick and satisfyingly creepy haunted house story. It has a killer ending, too.

4/16 Becky LeJeune

THE BIRD EATER by Ania Ahlborn. 47North (April 1, 2014).  ISBN 978-1477817605. 267p.

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Annie Kramer’s post graduation trip to Slaughterhouse Island was supposed to be a fun start to her final months before college. She and a group of friends rented a houseboat, spent their first night camping on the beach with booze, and planned to hike one of the nearby abandoned mines the following day. Everything went basically according to that plan with just two hiccups: the arrival of a couple of cops intent on making sure the group was aware of just how off limits the mines are and a passerby who attacked Annie before running off into the woods.

The mine itself was something of a nightmare for the group. With passages shooting off from the entrance, they split into four pairs to explore. Each pair ended up separated in the maze of tunnels, eventually finding their way back to home base only to discover their radio had been demolished while they were inside. What’s worse, they arrived home in time to hear that a body was discovered just outside the mine that very day. And that was when the horror really began.

Gretchen McNeil’s latest is a fantastic return to horror for the author. Readers may wonder, though, why it’s an ebook release only. Sadly, the book was orphaned with the shuttering of Egmont last year. But fortunately for us all it was rescued by Epic Reads, hence the ebook release.

I would have loved for the book to have been longer (much longer, maybe). More detail of Slaughterhouse Island (where did THAT name come from?.) and time focused on building the setting and ominous tone would have made this book so much more of an intense read, in my opinion.

That said, it’s still fantastic fun. There’s a bit of history around the mine, some creative area folklore, and plenty of murders to make this a worthy successor to McNeil’s previous horror releases, Possess and Ten. There’s even a sample of McNeil’s upcoming I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl to tempt your reading palate as well.

Fans of Gretchen McNeil are sure to be satisfied by this latest and it’ll make a perfect diving in point for new readers too.

3/16 Becky LeJeune

RELIC by Gretchen McNeil. Epic Reads Impulse (March 8, 2016).  ASIN: B00ZP5WPBC 352p.

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