Hexes

Rating:
Summary: Awesome novel of occult horror
Review: A couple of friends of mine recommended this book to me and I'm so glad they did. This is a top-notch horror novel. It's the first one I'd read by Piccirilli, but not the last! There are some serious chills in here, but there's a playful air about a lot of the story as well. Weird, funny characters stuck in strange situations. An odd mixture of thrills, chills, and tongue in cheek satire. Also recommended: A Lower Deep, The Night Class, and The Deceased

Rating:
Summary: Refreshingly different but not completely satisfying
Review: This isn't your run-of-the mill horror novel; it doesn't employ a simple plot or try merely to unnerve you with atrocious acts and agents. There is gore to be found in Hexes, to be sure, but it almost came as a surprise to me each time. As I read the tale, I found myself enveloped in a murky, fog-enshrouded atmosphere, moving back and forth across time viewing events and people I struggled to understand and come to terms with. If you do not commit yourself to reading the entire book, you may bow out early because it does not really reach out and grab you. Matthew Galen comes back home when he learns his old friend A.G. is suspected of murder and is being detained at the mental institution that Galen's own father once oversaw. As Galen and A.G. converse (telepathically), we begin to get bits and pieces of the history of the town. Increasing references to the seemingly living scars on Galen's chest and to "the Goat" offer murky clues as to the diabolical forces at work here. As Galen seeks out the evil in his home town, the author serves up a series of flashbacks to Galen's strange history--what happened to his friends, how he learned the arcane arts (hexes, sigils, etc.) he uses to protect himself, and just what the Goat really represents. It is not until the conclusion that we find out the biggest pieces of the puzzle, and even then I never felt comfortably sure of my knowledge of the whole business. While the ending does offer up one important surprise, I found it somewhat disappointing and, in one particular detail, a little too convenient.

I think the complexity of the novel, in addition to the author's decision to withhold the most crucial bits of information until the very end, is a weakness of sorts. It is hard to immerse yourself in, and it becomes rather confusing at points. For those with little knowledge of this type of horror, hinging on arcane magic, ancient grimoires, and demonic manifestations, the book may prove daunting. For those with a passion for horror, you will find that the story is not at all Lovecraftian, despite the similarities in theme, so you can be assured that the plot and finale will not reveal themselves to you through the seemingly familiar signs you will meet upon different occasions. Piccirilli definitely has his own style, and different readers will react to it differently. I enjoyed his writing, but I never found myself swept away by it. This is the kind of horror fiction that tries to lull you to sleep and then suddenly lurch upon you when you least expect it--the atrocities witnessed by the reader are described deftly, even poetically, but every last detail is included for the reader's repulsion and/or glee. I just can't help but feel that the author held back a little at the end, that he decided not to tell me something important that would help me truly understand the book. By and large, though, Piccirilli is a talented, refreshingly unique type of horror writer, and that makes him a rare commodity in the horror field.

Rating:
Summary: Fine fantastic fun
Review: I finished this novel in two sittings. It's a fast, bizarre, phantasmagorical read that has some truly creepy situations. A man with supernatural powers returns to his hometown that's being overrun with insanity, ghosts, and demons released years earlier. But there's plenty of emotional content here, with past hatreds and loves all turning the characters inside-out as they face up to their worst fears. A+

Rating:
Summary: Incredible occult novel
Review: This one is poetry in motion. HEXES is literate, stylish, powerful, and rises above most ordinary horror to claim its own niche as a dark fantasy masterpiece. Strong themes, terrifying implications, and emotionally affecting, HEXES deserves to be known as a classic of the genre. Highly recommended, definitely pick it up when and where you can.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent dark fantasy
Review: Leave it to somebody named "Butts" to get it all backwards. Hexes is a solid read full of intricate storytelling prowess and a wonderful use of language. This isn't just another horror novel filled with gratuitous gore and simplistic writing, this is a tale that tries to cross genres and bring something new to readers. I appreciated Mr. Piccirilli's efforts and loved his use of symbolism and bittersweet back story that adds a whole new poignancy to the novel. Flashbacks to a bitter and haunting childhood--hence the repeated "Debbi is dead" references--show how an emotionally distraught protagonist fearing for his life and soul can still rise to be a hero. A real winner. A+

Rating:
Summary: HO HUM HEXES
Review: It's rare when I don't finish a book, but this particular novel is such a waste of time and paper. Piccirilli tries to write like William Faulkner or Ernest Hemingway, with all this florid language and imagery, but fails to deliver any type of cohesiveness and unity in the plot. I don't know how it ends up, but after reading almost half of it, I couldn't take anymore. Meandering and uninvolving; I thought if he wrote "Debbi's Dead" one more time, I would croak.
Thumbs down.

Rating:
Summary: Offbeat stylish occult terror
Review: This novel does more than simply give plenty of chilling scenes. It does so with a narrative style that works to draw you in on a number of levels. The author puzzle pieces this offbeat story together giving only hints at first to the horrors of the past. He slowly fashions his plot of a man forced to return to his hometown five years after a series of lethal supernatural events have killed his family and ruined his friends and splices it together with something of a noir mystery quality. Bleak, dark, driven, mysterious, and vivid, HEXES is one of my favorite horror novels of the past several years.

Rating:
Summary: Dinner, but no dessert
Review: So, the tale is a good one, if done before. The writing is passable with periodic bursts of true creepiness. I was actually interested in what was going to happen to the unfortunate characters in the story. Instead, I got an infuriating ani-climax which was stolen right out of Exorcist, but not executed as well. Based on this novel alone, I would say Piccirilli has potential but he hasn't quite realized it yet.

Rating:
Summary: A creepy winner
Review: I've just finished both of Piccirilli's most recent horror efforts, The Deceased and Hexes. Piccirilli's brand of horror is a heady brew of style, the occult, and the surreal. He offers up levels of hell for the reader to traverse: the hell of the mind, of the soul, and the fiery place itself. He writes with a real passion, the heartache coming through as his characters battle their own weaknesses as well as the evil that's been loosed. This again shows why Tom Piccirilli is one of the best in the business: he doesn't simply tell a story of murder and mayhem and monsters chewing on livers. He writes of people forced to face the demons in themselves first before battling anything else. A creepy winner here, folks, full of some of the best atmospheric horror you've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Better the Devil...............
Review: Firstly, I like many other reviewers of this book, picked it up as I was convinced by the glowing reviews by critics and the public alike. Also, as understood from readers comments, many like myself are fans of the horror genre and thought it sounded like a fresh angle on an old familiar formula. Secondly let me explain why the King's and Rice's of this world are familiar house hold names and Piccirilli is not. Hexes for the most part has enough narrative power to guide you to the anticlimatic finale. However once at the end, a time when you recap over the book, you realise that not a great deal happened in terms of plot and the character development was non existent. His writing is not bad but can leave you confused at times as he has a habit of adding random sentences or comments (Debbie is dead) leaving you going, 'eh?'...'errrm what'....'rrrrrrigght???' etc throughout the tale. There are a couple scenes of gibbering horror that will knock the breath out of some readers but I refuse in my experience of this kind of writing to let this be an accalaid; I think any body with half an imagination can do that or if not just watch the news every day!! I am glad I read it in a way as I will now stick to what I know is good horror writing and leave this kind of 'try hard horror' to the small time critics/2nd rate horror writers who have peppered it with overblown praise in an attempt to get this failed colleage of thiers off the ground.

.....You Know!