{"id":8056,"date":"2020-12-09T13:33:40","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T17:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=8056"},"modified":"2020-12-09T13:33:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T17:33:40","slug":"book-review-hexis-by-charlene-elsby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-hexis-by-charlene-elsby\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Hexis by Charlene Elsby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Straight up, Monster Librarian needs $45 to cover hosting fees. I mean that is the absolute base. To revamp our static site would be a much larger cost but this is what we need to keep moving forward. We are one of the oldest horror fiction review sites online. If you find any benefit at all to what we do, I really need the financial support. I can’t do it all alone. Please use the link to Bookshop.org to purchase the books we review through our affiliate storefront or contribute through PayPal\u00a0 using the red “contribute” button in the menu on the right to support our work. And now our review of Hexis\u00a0<\/em>by Charlene Elsby.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Hexis by<\/em> Charlene Elsby\u00a0 (Bookshop.org)<\/a><\/p>\n

CLASHbooks, February 2020<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9781944866525<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle<\/p>\n

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Hexis, <\/em>the slickly crafted debut novella from Charlene Elsby, is entertaining, while using almost none of the conventions of typical horror writing.\u00a0 Linear stories, easy to follow happenings\u2026they don’t exist here.\u00a0 Instead, you get a down-the-rabbit-hole journey into the inner mind and musings of a seriously disturbed lady.\u00a0 This is what might have happened if Aristotle and Timothy Leary had decided to pool their intellectual resources to create their own version of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.\u00a0 Sound insane?\u00a0 So is the book.<\/p>\n

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Hexis <\/em>is written in an extremely vague, open-ended fashion, so much so that even describing the book is difficult, a lot of it will depend on how the reader interprets it.\u00a0 It seems to be about a lady who is never even named, so for this review, she’ll be called ‘X.’\u00a0 X had a crummy relationship with a man at some point in her younger years, so she killed him.\u00a0 From time to time as her life progresses, the man shows back up in her life, so she kills him, again\u2026and again\u2026and again.\u00a0 The End.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If only it were that simple.\u00a0 Due to the vague way this is written, even determining what actually happens will depend on personal perception.\u00a0 Is he somehow brought back to life each time, forcing her to kill him again?\u00a0 Is she simply killing people who look like him, and her deranged mind fills in the blanks to make it seem<\/em> like the same person?\u00a0 Does the whole thing take place completely in her mind, and none of it really happened?\u00a0 No explanation is ever given, and that’s the enjoyable part about the book; the story allows the reader to decide what actually happened.\u00a0 The whole book is an introspective study of X: what she feels, her anti-social tendencies, how she perceives her reality, or lack of it.\u00a0 The story does not move in a linear fashion; it’s more akin to jumping in and out of the river of time at different points, for a brief moment.\u00a0 Some of those moments are loaded with graphic sex and violent, gory killings, and that’s about the only nod to conventional horror writing.\u00a0 This is written to appeal to a certain type of horror fan: the ones who like a lot of psychology and musings, and aren’t as interested in fast-paced plots that zip from Point A to Point B.\u00a0 It’s a very well written piece of work, it just works best for a certain type of reader.\u00a0 The book works best if you read a chapter or two at a time.\u00a0 Take a break, think about what you just read, what it means to you, and what you think happened.\u00a0 Then, read another chapter or two, and prepare to have your cerebrum twisted yet again.\u00a0 Trying to burn through this book cover to cover in a sitting or two won’t work, you really need to take the time to think about it and enjoy it.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’re missing the point.\u00a0 This is meant for you to ponder over, not have everything explained and handed to you.\u00a0 That’s why it’s so much fun, you can almost mold the story to your own liking.\u00a0 It’s an unusual way to write, and makes for an “out there” reading experience.<\/p>\n

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Also worth noting is the author’s ability to write long passages that at times, don’t really mean anything at all\u2026 but they sound<\/em> really good.\u00a0 It’s not just rambling for the sake of wasting pages, it’s done to sound incredible, without really saying much at all.\u00a0 It’s as if the words are no longer words, they are musical notes that form a melody, and it’s a quite a melody.\u00a0 You may find some meaning, or it may mean nothing at all, but the melody sounds beautiful.\u00a0 It’s not something you find often in horror writing; I really can’t think of any other examples to compare it to.\u00a0 Well done, and truly original.<\/p>\n

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Bottom line: if you are looking for something that is truly unique and different from a standard horror novel, and you want a mind-breaker of titanic proportions, this is the way to go.\u00a0 If you prefer straight-ahead stories where all is explained, look elsewhere.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see where author Elsby goes next; she’s got an original and enjoyable style.\u00a0 Highly recommended, for the reader type mentioned.<\/p>\n

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Contains:\u00a0 graphic violence, profanity, graphic sex<\/p>\n

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Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Straight up, Monster Librarian needs $45 to cover hosting fees. I mean that is the absolute base. To revamp our static site would be a much larger cost but this is what we need to keep moving forward. We are one of the oldest horror fiction review sites online. If you find any<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2474,4652,4651,83,3222,2313,2737],"class_list":["post-8056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-review","tag-charlene-elsby","tag-hexis","tag-horror-fiction","tag-literary-horror","tag-novellas","tag-psychological-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8056"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8105,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8056\/revisions\/8105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}