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Hex: A Novel

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Description

One of Vanity Fair's 21 Best Books of 2020 (So Far) A Vulture, LitHub, and PureWow Most Anticipated Book of 2020 "As precise as any scientific observation and far more tantalizing." --Vogue "A sophisticated, surprising take on the campus novel (with a welcome dose of witchery). Knight's writing feels a little wild and charged, as if you're constantly on the edge of discovering something new with her." --Goop "Hex is some dark and joyous witchery." --Lauren Groff, author of Florida "A beautiful, spooky spell." --Jenny Slate, actress and author of Little Weirds A breathtaking and hypnotic novel about poison, antidotes, and obsessive love Nell Barber, an expelled PhD candidate in biological science, is exploring the fine line between poison and antidote, working alone to set a speed record for the detoxification of poisonous plants. Her mentor, Dr. Joan Kallas, is the hero of Nell's heart. Nell frequently finds herself standing in the doorway to Joan's office despite herself, mesmerized by Joan's elegance, success, and spiritual force. Surrounded by Nell's ex, her best friend, her best friend's boyfriend, and Joan's buffoonish husband, the two scientists are tangled together at the center of a web of illicit relationships, grudges, and obsessions. All six are burdened by desire and ambition, and as they collide on the university campus, their attractions set in motion a domino effect of affairs and heartbreak. Meanwhile, Nell slowly fills her empty apartment with poisonous plants to study, and she begins to keep a series of notebooks, all dedicated to Joan. She logs her research and how she spends her days, but the notebooks ultimately become a painstaking map of love. In a dazzling and unforgettable voice, Rebecca Dinerstein Knight has written a spellbinding novel of emotional and intellectual intensity. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books


Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 30, 2021


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 224 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1984877399


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 90


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.07 x 0.62 x 7.73 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #3,694,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #5,946 in Dark Humor #11,211 in Women's Friendship Fiction #41,004 in Literary Fiction (Books)


#5,946 in Dark Humor:


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Clever and Beautifully Written
Format: Kindle
I'm baffled by some of the reviews this novel is getting, and I feel the need to defend it somewhat. It's a short, character-driven piece that doesn't have too much of a plot; it mostly follows the day-to-day of the main character after she's expelled from her PhD program, but that's all it really needs--the author writes with such visceral emotion and clever wordplay that it's weighty enough on its own, despite the skeletal plot. The protagonist, Nell, is absorbed by her love for her mentor, but she recognizes it as unrequited and distances herself when it becomes necessary. The writing is heavily descriptive, and the author loves her some metaphors, but I think this is what makes the novel shine. Nell is a character who feels both passionately and sardonically. Some lines I particularly liked to show Nell's pining for someone so out of reach: "I missed you and saw you changing into someone I would lose." "It's always been such a lukewarm encouragement between us--you are essential to me, and I am okay to you." I would give this novel a chance. The critical reviews of it floating around paint a much better picture of why Hex is worth a try. It's a quick read while still having a lot to offer. Five stars! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2020 by Elizabeth SV
    • Weirdly fascinating
Format: Kindle
Not a very strong plot, often irritating. However, Knight,s descriptions are quite beautiful. Didn't hate it, didn't enjoy it and wouldn't recommend it.
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2020 by Kindle Customer
    • Not for me.
Format: Hardcover
Couldn’t even get past the first couple of pages. The author has a different style of writing that isn’t cohesive. It’s all over the place and not very capturing.
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2021 by lesley santos
    • great vibes
Format: Kindle
A book that pulled me in from the first page. Every word felt intentional, and the language was deeply unsettling and mesmerizing. The voice was strong and confident in a way I've rarely read before. I wanted more from the climax and really plot overall, but this book definitely had the vibes I was looking for. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2023 by Carrie Wallace
    • Complex. Edgy. Brilliant.
Format: Hardcover
This is a delicious read when taken slowly to appreciate Knight’s word choices and fluid artistry. A close up of passion, desire and obsession and what happens when they collide. Told from an ex-Columbia graduate student’s perspective through her journals, I was entranced by Nell’s thoughts and ruminations as she gets buffeted about by the domino effects of the relationships in her world. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2020 by J. Streit
    • WTF ?
Format: Hardcover
I read the first few pages of this book and honestly the style of writing makes absolutely no sense. It's poorly constructed and comes across as sloppy and lazy by the author. There are. How shall I put this? A lot. A LOT. Of very, short sentences. That make no sense. Really. I mean this. Sincerely. Like, flowers! And her red hair. I think it's kind of funny. A little bit. Ha. But it's always like that, right? Can you imagine reading an entire book like this? Yeah, me neither. I'm not sure what the author was trying to go for here, but this book clearly was not going to work for me. I flipped to the middle of the book. Only. To find. Everywhere. More. Bad, just really, really bad writing. Consider yourself warned. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2020 by Rachel W.
    • The dangers of botany
"The stove gas hissed from the kitchen. Anjali hummed a distressed, exultant tune. Between notes she slapped the spatula against her palm. The house smelled like oil." (Hex, p.216) So, OK, this is another of those modern fictions that reads just like a long submission to a creative writing course. The professor has asked for a mood piece set in New York City, and added "Now, class, remember to keep. Those sentences. Short. And don't. Waste time. With adverbs." I made essentially the same comment last year, reviewing Marcy Dermansky's "Very Nice," but in that work the whole writing style was an in-joke, since several of the characters were actually involved in the teaching of creative writing. Knight has no such get-out. Her protagonaist is Nell, a PhD botanist at Columbia University who's been de-funded after her collection of the most poisonous plants known to man caused the death of a colleague. Nell says of this former colleague "I liked her adamance, her clarity, her wristwatch and her gusto." (NOTE: Creative writers eschew the Oxford comma.) Nell doesn't think much of herself—she appears to be no beauty, unlike her biologist friend Mishti. Quite early in the book Nell loses her alienated and long-haired boyfriend to Mishti. She takes up bartending and finds she has quite a talent for the game. As other reviewers have noted, not too much happens after that, and in many places Knight's prose drifts into surrealism—surrealism in the sense that what she describes as happening cannot literally be happening. It has to be happening in somebody's imagination. In other places, Nell's thoughts are just musings on the absurdity of life. Despite my light mockery, however, I liked it. It was often witty, about the right length (222 pp,) and the characters were totally believable. I'd give it the same four stars I gave "Very Nice," but I'm knocking one off for the New York City setting. The charm of Greenwich village, the pretension of TriBeca and the wretchedness of the average NYC apartment are all clichés now. Dinerstein Knight graduated from NYU, but that's no excuse. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2020 by S. Harris
    • try this one!
Format: Kindle
This is a tale of obsession and academia. Nell's lab at Columbia University has been shut down and she's been expelled from her Phd program because one of her colleagues was poisoned and died. Now, she's focused on her mentor and in a series of entries in her notebook, she writes about their entwined lives, loves, and colleagues. This is, admittedly, light on plot but there are some really amusing spots (especially if you've spent any time in graduate level academia). The relationships are tangled, the women more interesting than the men, and Knight has the ability to draw an image in words. I was a fan of her first novel, which also had mixed reviews because, it's face it, both are a tad quirky (but never twee). Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Give this one a chance. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2020 by kathleen g

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