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Review: Orakel by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Kim
Kim

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Orakel by Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a supernatural thriller that will show you every corner of the room, the meadow and the North Sea.

Note: this is a book review of the Dutch version of Orakel. The English translation of this book will probably follow in 2022 or later. If you are interested in other books from this author, take a look at his English language debut HEX and keep an eye on the forthcoming (end of 2021 or early 2022) translation of Echo.

Location: Netherlands (Noordwijk/Katwijk and Volkel) and an oil rig in the North Sea

Orakel synopsis

On a foggy winter morning, Luca Wolf and Emma Reich spot an eighteenth-century sailing ship in a bulb field near the dunes. Orakel (meaning ‘Oracle’), it says on the stern. It lies there, wrong in every way. Emma can’t contain her curiosity and enters the hatch on the tilted deck. No one sees her again. Luca is left bewildered: he wanted to chase her, but something stopped him. The expression on her face as she went through the hatch scared him…
 
Not much later, eleven people have disappeared, Luca and his mother are shielded from the world and the secret services are puzzled. They are giving it their everything to prevent a media storm. But when they dig into a distant past to unravel the mystery of the Orakel, the ship is revealed to be a harbinger of something ominous.

Book review

4/5

Imagine something like this happening to you… a ship appears in front of you in the meadow and the ship’s bell starts to ring. If you read this book in the dark, you can’t help but watch the shadows in the corner of your eye. A raging sea or an approaching storm no longer makes you feel safe and snug in your own home. From the very beginning, Thomas Olde Heuvelt manages to create an eerie what-is-happening atmosphere.

Supernatural thriller

The first fifty pages read like a horror story, but after that Orakel is more of a supernatural thriller. Whereas the atmosphere at the beginning of the book managed to immerse me completely in the story, towards the end of the book I distanced myself from the story because it became so “over the top” that the subtlety was gone. The creepy atmosphere gives way to more visible gore; mutilated faces make their return in this book.
 
As a reader, you know a little bit more than the characters because you follow several narrators. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long for the characters to meet. There are too many characters to really feel a connection with any of them or to feel their pain and fear. The bad guys are bad, but so stereotypically bad that I couldn’t dislike them. They don’t make me feel bad for them or enrage me when they screw with the other characters (as long as it stays within the book).

The mammoth stirs

The plot is logical (in a supernatural way) and you know where the next scenes will take place and where the endgame will be, no surprises there. Nevertheless, it is a well-crafted story that uses historical events and makes them a little less mundane. There is an obvious integration of climate issues and diseases (‘invaders’) that can affect one’s health. Truly a contemporary book.

Conclusion

Orakel is a story I enjoyed reading. It’s a little crazy, but not too much. The integration of current events is well balanced with history and the impossible. The characters act consistently yet predictably. I would have liked the plot to be less ‘grandiose’, but that’s a matter of taste, as I prefer a more ‘subdued’ story and a somewhat less tangible evil, like the looming threat that emanated from the beginning of the book.

Interested?

Check out Orakel (Dutch version) via Amazon.

Book details

Title: Orakel
Author: Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Language: Dutch
Publisher: Boekerij
Pages: 456
ISBN (13): 9789022591109
Publication date: 23 March 2021

About the author

Thomas Olde Heuvelt (b. 1983) was the first Dutch author to win a Hugo Award in 2015. In 2016 he broke through internationally with HEX, the translation rights of which have been sold to more than 25 countries. Following this, he wrote the widely acclaimed Echo.

Review: Orakel by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

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Orakel by Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a supernatural thriller that will show you every corner of the room, the meadow and the North Sea. Note: this is a book review of the Dutch version of Orakel. The English translation of this book will probably follow...Review: Orakel by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
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