Elly runs away the night of her wedding after a violent encounter with her new husband. Pregnant, she runs through the woods to find Hex House, a place she isn’t quite sure exists but she desperately needs. Hex House promises a safe place to recover and become someone stronger. A magical house in the woods, Elly is embraced quickly by those who live inside, but no more than by the leader of the house, Haina.
A few years in the future, a woman named Siobhan is slowly self-destructing as she remembers her time making a documentary at Hex House and the horrors she witnessed. Her memories of Haina are rivaled only by the horrors of her own ambitions. As the reader comes to know Elly’s story, we see the further unraveling of Siobhan and the realization that she must return to the place that almost destroyed her or risk the life of many more.
I really wanted to love Amy Jane Stewart’s Hex House, but in the end I felt like it was just another reminder of the suffering of vulnerable women in an age of apathy and religious mania.
From the very first pages, it is impossible not to get a deep feeling of unease, much like watching a horror movie and screaming each time someone does something stupid. As a reader I could instantly feel that not all is well on either end of the story, even as there are flashes of hope and a promise of a “good for her” style ending. Hex House is an abusive relationship in novel form. It promises hope, while at every turn attacking the reader with moments that force you to reflect on what it really means to be evil or abusive in someone else’s eyes and whether you would be found wanting as you suffer regardless.
The challenge is that I wanted hope. I wanted as a reader to feel like maybe there was one damned place in this world where women could be cared for and protected and guided. Perhaps this is a foolish hope in an age of cruelty and weakening legal protections. We have always had the stories of a capricious Baba Yaga figure that would help or hurt. We have stories of grandmothers and mothers who love and protect but seem to be fascinated more by stories of Munschausen by Proxy. Many of the Grimm brother fairy tales and ancient Greek myths were ways to tell women that the world isn’t fair. Maybe that’s the true power of Hex House; a reminder that life is not fair and you will suffer for your vulnerability regardless of how good you think you are.
Hex House is now available from Titan Books.
