A campus novel with witchery thrown in for good measure: it makes for a unique and sometimes bizarre read!

Nell is a PhD candidate studying oak trees and poison. It's told in a stream of consciousness style, which many will love but it may irk some if it's not your thing.

I really liked Nell as a character - she's ballsy, snarky and observant, and he obsession with Joan is enjoyable to read about. There's a strange cast of characters here - some are really strong while others will pull into the background. I found while this book started out as intriguing and gripping, the second half didn't stand up as much and, by the end, I found it a little too strange!

I am itching to describe this book as a mix of The Ex Hex and The Love Hypothesis, but I think you should decide for yourself. If you're looking for something different, give this one a try.

HEX was a difficult read for me. For some reason, I just couldn't get into the flow of the writing. Though I liked the overall premise of the book, this one didn't sarcastic humor I was hoping for.

This was a delightfully strange story. Nell would like to figure out a way to make poisons not poisonous. To pair them with their antidote in a way that will save lives.

She also is maybe in love or just obsessed with her professor.

There is so much to say about everything, but it's better to just start reading.

The writing style was interesting in this book, but unfortunately I just couldn't get through it. The story didn't hook me and I think the style of prose distracted me a bit from the story itself.

Just like the cover, Hex promises a fun, prose style writing, and I was hooked from the beginning.

Most of all I really enjoyed the narrator, but this was one crazy little read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free book. All opinions are my own

This book was not for me. I ended up DNFing it after about 50 pages. The writing style was very odd and it was hard to follow. Very science based and was over my head. It was very dense and the plot was hard to find. Could be for someone else, but wasn't for me.

When I saw the title I was so in love with it and its cover I said to myself - I have to read this book!
Well, was I ever wrong. I could not connect the title to the plot at all.
It felt like cover was one thing - the story another.
I finished it, but I asked myself this : What just happened here??? Why did I pick that book? Where this all went wrong? I am sorry because of that and how the story developed it is only 2 stars for me at this point.

This one wasn't for me. I think the book's description is quite misleading- aside from the fact that the main characters are students, I'm not seeing where the comparisons to The Secret History are coming from. I expected a fast paced thriller when I read about grad students growing poison in their apartments but that was barely even apart of the story. The plot was slow and to be frank pointless. I can appreciate a plotless book if the characters and writing is strong enough to carry the story but Hex just wasn't.

When this book first popped up on my radar I was screaming inside YES! I was drawn in by the cover and description and when I started reading it, I felt like it was going to be a solid and different writing style.

I love science and botany and this book promised that as well as some dark academia which I thought sounded like a unique mix so obviously I went into this book with some pretty high expectations.

While I don’t know that I loved this one, I did enjoy some aspects and would gladly read something else by the author in the future and let me tell you why.

Summary
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. (summary from Goodreads)

Review
This book is narrated in the stream of consciousness style which can sometimes be difficult to pull off, but the author manages to do an ok job. A stream of consciousness style can be hard for some readers to follow and difficult to find your bearing and like many readers I did struggle to get anchored in this style at first but once I found my way and ended up enjoying the humor and whit from our narrator Nell. Though she isn’t really all that likable, I did enjoy her humor.

The second person perspective is what put me off to this one. I know it’s meant to be used as the narrator talking directly to the audience but it’s a very uncommon style of narration. Stream of consciousness works better when told in the first person perspective in my opinion. It just made the entire novel feel weird and uncomfortable.

I know that a lot of people have felt confused and disappointed in this one. I will say that I thought the first part of the book started off strong. Strong enough to get my invested in the story and wanting to know what happened next and then suddenly it just stopped being as great as it had promised in the beginning. There were lots of other reviewers who loved this book and while I felt invested enough to read this book through until the end, I wasn’t in love with it.

But as I said, I would gladly read something else by this author because I felt like she made bold choices in her writing. While they might not all have turned out excellent, I admire her boldness and would like to see how that translates into future books. The characters and tone of this book held a lot of promise as well and while I wasn’t in love with the final product, I think her style speaks for itself and I am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next!

Book Info and Rating
Kindle Edition, 224 pages
Published March 31st 2020 by Viking
ASIN B07SWXSSHF
Free review copy provided by publisher, Viking, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 2 stars
Genre: contempo lit

The cover art let me down on this book. I had expected more. I need a story with more complex sentences. I am old enough to know that when I’ve read 100 pages of a book and don’t like it I need to go find a different book. I usually don’t review books which I don’t like because I know there are so many other readers than me, but I’ve yet to run across someone without a personal relationship to the author who liked it.

This broke me out a reading slump, which is one of the best things you can say about a book, in my opinion. What grabbed and held my attention the most was the writing style - it was funny in such a surprising way, words mashed together to create sentences you would never expect, but that beneath the layer of absurdity, describe life and emotions in the most accurate, recognizable, and relatable way. The ending fell a bit flat for me, as it was pretty abrupt (I kept trying to swipe to the next page, but apparently there were no more pages to be read), but the ride there was so much fun that it didn't detract too much from my overall reading experience. Definitely looking forward to reading more from this author!

First, let me say that I really wanted to like this book way more than I did. I know you aren't supposed to, but I totally judge books by their covers. I do. Ask anyone.

As I was reading I was wondering how many readers had started and given up on this book because of the stunted sentence structure and stream of consciousness style. It took some getting used to, but I grew to see it as a part of the characters personality. It seemed to scream how shattered and disjointed her life is. So, I forgave the structure and gave it credit as a writer's device.

I liked the darkness of character and depravity of spirit of our main character, who is kicked out of her program after a colleague is poisoned. I even enjoyed the complex web of physical and emotional entanglement she has with everyone she's involved with on her campus. Where I struggled was the lack of developing plot. I am happy to get drawn into a plot-less character driven story for quite awhile, but I like sidebar of action here and there. In the end, I enjoyed how different and inspired the style of this book was, but I didn't end up moved.

Thank you to Net Galley, the author and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book in exchange for a review.

This book is a bit insane but I loved the narrator and her way of seeing the world. The writing is surprising and funny. In the same year of reading Real Life, it was strange to read another novel featuring a science grad student fumbling through the world in the small circle surrounding their existence, only here the narrator is speaking most of the time to her dissertation advisor, and all of this takes place after a labmate has died of a plant poison absorbed in the lab. The circle is a group of six that are all connected in various ways, but it is subtle (but hexagon may have informed the title.) The author has mentioned in interviews that she wanted to explore the idea of devotion, and she definitely does. This might be a campus novel but it feels singular in its approach.

I didn't realize until near the end that I have this author's previous novel sitting unread on my shelf. Well that just got bumped up the list.

Like many other reviewers I've seen mention this, the writing style of this book simply did not work for me. I couldn't enjoy the narrative voice at all and found myself immediately frustrated, to the point where I ended up unable to even finish the story.

3.5 Stars
Nell Barber is a scientist studying the relationship between poison levels and oak trees (totally separate projects). The reader comes in fast and furious knowing the lab blew up and Nell is suffering from the backlash. The writing is a stream of consciousness style that goes on and on and on.

It started off extremely strong- was thinking a 5 star read, Nell is snarky, observant and downright bold in her analogies. I loved reading about how broken she became and how obsessed with her professor, Joan Kallas she becomes. Joan is 10 years older and married to a campus counselor, Barry - a dull man who starts asking for attention from anyone that walks by. We meet a strange cast of characters and they kept me interested. My favorite being that the dog was named Amanda. I blew through this novel, but the back half was dull and was missing the boldness and witty snark that the first half had. I lost interest in the characters and in the end it felt like the author did too.

Really interesting book and if you're looking for something different, give this one a try.

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.

With apologies to the author, this is one of the few books that I absolutely could not finish. I was drawn to the gorgeous cover and the synopsis, but I couldn't get into the story. I'm not fond of this writing style, and by Chapter Three, the protagonist was making my head ache.

That being said, it does appear to be very well written. I think that readers will be drawn in by the beautiful cover, and the thought of poidonous plants.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free digital copy of this title to review from Net Galley.

#Hex#NetGalley

Nell Barber wants two things and she can’t have either of them. The first thing she wants—to create antitoxins that start working immediately—is taken away when a fellow graduate student dies in the lab. The second thing is even more elusive. Nell wants Joan, her post-graduate advisor. From early on, Hex, by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight, is a study of people who can’t have what they want. I defy anyone to read it without having the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” on a loop in their head.

Nell is an odd duck. She says weird things. She only eats tortellini and Greek yoghurt and frozen veg. She doesn’t have a bed and she doesn’t talk to her family back in Kansas. And, of course, she is obsessed with Joan and botanical poisons. Even being expelled when one of her lab partners accidentally poisons herself with thallium doesn’t put Nell off of her desire to create antitoxins. She is so not put off that she steals castor beans and monkshood seeds to try and propagate them in her bare-bones apartment. She also can’t stop hanging around Joan, even though she’s not supposed to be on campus.

Hex follows Nell around Columbia University and its environs as she narrates her misadventures and thoughts to “you” (Joan). Everything that crosses Nell’s cortex ends up on the page. After dozens of small chapters in Nell’s head, I’m not sure what I think of her. On the one hand, I can at least understand her interest in toxins and antitoxins. So many of the plants that Nell wants to study can, in small doses, serve as medicines. It’s all a matter of dosage. But I have less sympathy for Nell’s obsession with Joan. Joan never indicates that she will ever be anything more than Nell’s advisor. And yet, Nell thinks that if Joan ever turns to Nell, Nell will suddenly become a complete, functional adult. The older I get, the more I realize that you can’t rely on others to make you happy and fulfilled; no one is that perfect. Hex reinforced this idea for me because all of the characters in this book are seriously lacking in self-awareness of their flaws and strengths. Consequently, almost everyone in this book is miserable.

I am so puzzled about how I feel about Hex that I’m not sure who might like this book. It’s excellently written. My problem is that the characters are such hot messes and I think the ending is too ambiguous for most readers. That said, there are readers who like to thorny psychological stories of quirky characters. If you are in that group, grab Hex. If you prefer your characters to make more good choices than bad, Hex might not be for you.

Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight is very different from what I expected. I will be honest and admit that I struggled a bit through this one. While I really enjoyed the writing style - I have always liked reading journaling-type books - I did have some trouble keeping up with what was going on. I realize that this was on purpose so we would understand the mental health struggle and the slow decline of the narrator, but the extremeness of that plus the total unlikability of all the characters just really turned me off of the book. For the most part, I did not really care what happened to the characters until the one actual consequence of her poison growing. I fully recognize that this is a very well written book and I applaud the author for being able to write in a way that really makes us feel the confusion of her thoughts and the obsessive love of the narrator, but I would've liked it more if more things actually happened and there was more of a plot focus rather than just a language and writing focus.

I tried with this one, but the writing style was just too excessive. I couldn't follow what was happening between the characters in a tale about love, obsession, and poison. It seems important to note that though this was a DNF of 2019, i really want to try again someday.