Hawkes

Harbor

S.E. Hinton

Those who have read and loved such S.E. Hinton classics as The Outsiders and Tex may have wondered if she has written anything new recently. The answer to that question is yes! After a 15-year hiatus, Hinton has come out with a new novel, but if readers are looking for another teen novel like The Outsiders, Hawkes Harbor will come as something of a shock. This dark, adult novel of Jamie Sommers, an orphan abused as a child, and terrified as an adult by an awakened vampire to the point of madness, moves too slowly to really capture, and for me, at least, was too crude and violent to engage. I wanted to stop reading every page. The plot seems inconsistent. Near the end of the book, the cruel vampire, Grenville Hawkes, is cured of his vampirism, and suddenly gains concern for the man he violently controlled for years. While I like happy endings as much as anyone, this resolution just didn't seem to fit the tension-filled beginning of this novel. S.E. Hinton's new book will not be available in the high school library, and I would be hard-pressed to recommend it to our students. There are plenty of better vampire books out there. Leave this one on the shelf. ~review by Dail Sams