Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
"Dr. Phillip McDevitt, director of Terrace View Asylum, is intrigued by his newest patient, a troubled young man recently transferred from the state hospital for the criminally insane. Jamie Sommers suffers from depression, partial amnesia, and an unaccountable fear of the dark. Dr. McDevitt is determined to help Jamie conquer his demons, but the more he probes the young man's fractured memories, the stranger his case becomes." An orphan and a bastard, Jamie grew up tough enough to handle almost anything. Taking to the sea, he found danger and adventure in exotic ports all over the world. He's survived foreign prisons, smugglers, pirates, gunrunners, and even a shark attack. But what he discovered in the quiet seaside town of Hawkes Harbor, Delaware, was enough to drive him almost insane - and change his life forever.Synopsis
An orphan and a bastard, Jamie Sommers grew up knowing he had no hope of heaven. Conceived in adultery and born in sin, Jamie was destined to repeat the sins of his parents -or so the nuns told him. And he proved them right. Taking to sea, Jamie sought out danger and adventure in exotic ports all over the world as a smuggler, gunrunner-and murderer. Tough enough to handle anything, he's survived foreign prisons, pirates, and a shark attack. But in a quiet seaside town in Delaware, Jamie discovered something that was enough to drive him insane-and change his life forever. For it was in Hawkes Harbor that Jamie came face to face with the ultimate evil....
Publishers Weekly
Erasing age and genre barriers, prize-winning, bestselling YA author Hinton turns out a dark, funny, scary, suspenseful tale that will entertain mainstream and adventure/horror readers alike. Jamie Sommers is orphaned at the age of eight in 1950 and sent to live with some nasty nuns until graduating as a troubled young man to a life at sea. After surviving a number of life-threatening adventures in exotic ports, he ends up in the small town of Hawkes Harbor on the Delaware coast, where he stumbles into a situation so dire his entire life is changed in a manner of minutes. His new employer, the mysterious Grenville Hawke, lord of Hawkes Hall, known to Jamie as It, the Thing and the Vampire, almost kills Jamie, then goes on to enslave him for years to come. Moving back and forth through time, Hinton twists and shapes her bleak material until the story and the reader's expectations have been turned upside down. This is an adult novel, meaning that Hinton gets to write sex scenes and use the word fuck when she wants to, but the basic elements that made her 30-year-old book The Outsiders a long-time bestseller are present in this rousing read. This is a contemporary Treasure Island with a genre-bending twist. Agent, Elizabeth Harding at Curtis Brown. (Sept.) Forecast: Booksellers should have success hand-selling to grown-up Hinton fans; older YA readers will enjoy the novel, too. With sufficient promo and word of mouth, this could hit national lists. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewAfter an almost 20-year publishing hiatus, award-winning young-adult author S. E. Hinton (The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, Tex, et al.) has penned her first novel for an adult audience. Hawkes Harbor is a genre-transcending story -- equal parts horror, adventure, and mystery -- about an orphaned boy whose nightmarish experiences lead him to find happiness in the unlikeliest of places.
Jamie Sommers, an orphan at the age of 8, has had an eventful life. Barely in his 20s, Jamie has already sailed around the world several times with his partner in crime, Kellen Quinn -- living the life of a modern-day pirate, smuggling everything from jewels to guns to drugs. After years of living hard and fast, Jamie decides to find a quiet coastal town where he can settle down. Fate lands him in the quiet community of Hawkes Harbor on the Delaware coast, an "uncanny" town brimming with legends of hidden pirate treasure, haunted houses, and undead spirits. While searching for treasure in one of the many caves on Hawkes Island, Jamie stumbles across an old coffin secured shut with heavy chains. Thinking the casket contains gold trinkets, Jamie removes the chains -- and comes face to face with a creature that will drive him to the brink of insanity.
Grown-up fans of Hinton's previous works should enjoy this dark and strangely moving story, especially the incredibly complex protagonist, Jamie Sommers -- who is comparable in many ways to Ponyboy Curtis from The Outsiders. Like Hinton's other novels, Hawkes Harbor is fast paced, intensely emotional, and thought provoking. Paul Goat Allen
Publishers Weekly
Erasing age and genre barriers, prize-winning, bestselling YA author Hinton turns out a dark, funny, scary, suspenseful tale that will entertain mainstream and adventure/horror readers alike. Jamie Sommers is orphaned at the age of eight in 1950 and sent to live with some nasty nuns until graduating as a troubled young man to a life at sea. After surviving a number of life-threatening adventures in exotic ports, he ends up in the small town of Hawkes Harbor on the Delaware coast, where he stumbles into a situation so dire his entire life is changed in a manner of minutes. His new employer, the mysterious Grenville Hawke, lord of Hawkes Hall, known to Jamie as It, the Thing and the Vampire, almost kills Jamie, then goes on to enslave him for years to come. Moving back and forth through time, Hinton twists and shapes her bleak material until the story and the reader's expectations have been turned upside down. This is an adult novel, meaning that Hinton gets to write sex scenes and use the word fuck when she wants to, but the basic elements that made her 30-year-old book The Outsiders a long-time bestseller are present in this rousing read. This is a contemporary Treasure Island with a genre-bending twist. Agent, Elizabeth Harding at Curtis Brown. (Sept.) Forecast: Booksellers should have success hand-selling to grown-up Hinton fans; older YA readers will enjoy the novel, too. With sufficient promo and word of mouth, this could hit national lists. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.From The Critics
While S.E. Hinton's first new novel in more than 15 years is marketed as an adult novel, her name recognition will no doubt cause young people to seek out Hawkes Harbor. (Sections of the book, in fact, read very much like a young adult novel. Readers will notice an echo of Ponyboy in the protagonist.) On the surface, the book is a mere re-working of a stock horror story. And even if, as some have suggested, the plot of the book is drawn directly from the televised series Dark Shadows, the book is much more than a simple horror story. The characters are well developed and believably unbelievable. We get to know the young protagonist, and we watch the roles of hero and villain shift as the plot develops. Ultimately, the book is a dark allegorical exploration of the descent into madness and the journey toward atonement. The elements of horror are best read as metaphor for the inner workings of the mind. Hinton graphically portrays the depths to which the human mind can sink, yet she also demonstrates our capacity to heal. Mature, sophisticated older adolescents will find the novel worthwhile. The book should not, however, be recommended to young people simply because they enjoyed The Outsiders. Hinton's first novel was a gritty young adult novel. Her most recent is a gritty adult novel. 2004, TOR, 251 pp., Ages young adult.—Todd Goodson
Kirkus Reviews
Bestselling YA author Hinton's first adult foray, a lurid tale of a boy who goes wrong but is rescued by a man with an even more wicked past. In a plot with more bells and whistles than a new PC, Hinton mixes crime, horror, and redemption with a heavy hand in the story of young Jamie Summers. Reared by uncaring nuns in an orphanage after his single mother died, Jamie hasn't had an easy life: the nuns were tough, the Navy taught him useful skills but wasn't a picnic either, and, after that, sailing the Seven Seas with Kell, a charismatic criminal, was often perilous. Hospitalized now for depression, Jamie recalls in therapy how he fought with pirates, was attacked by sharks, ran guns for the IRA, got jailed for alleged rape, and killed a man. His hospitalization is being paid for by the wealthy Grenville Hawkes, who lives in the old Hawkes family mansion in Delaware. Jamie is grateful for all Grenville has done-helping him reform, giving him a job and a home. But Grenville wasn't always the benign entrepreneur who restored the family fortunes, and he has his own reasons for helping Jamie, who is haunted by memories of their meeting and its consequences. (In the therapy sessions, Jamie becomes agitated if it gets dark or there's thunder.) Before he met Grenville, Jamie learned of pirate treasure rumored to be buried in a cave near the abandoned Hawkes mansion. One night, Jamie paid a visit but found more than pirate treasure: a man suddenly arose from a coffin, asked what year it was, then fell upon Jamie's neck and began sucking his blood. Jamie is released to Grenville before his therapy ends and endures further challenges. Despite the sex and violence, more YA than adult. $200,000ad/promoFrom the Publisher
“A dark, funny, scary, suspenseful tale that will entertain mainstream and adventure/horror readers alike…. The basic elements that made her book The Outsiders a long-time bestseller are present in this rousing read. This is a contemporary Treasure Island with a genre-bending twist.”—Publishers Weekly on Hawkes Harbor“I gave myself to Hawkes Harbor from the very first page. I loved the mystery of it. Unfolding so deliberately. And then such horror, I wanted to echo Jaime’s fevered plea: ‘Don’t let it be dark…Don’t let it be dark!’ ” —Bestselling author R.L. Stine “Set in Delaware and spanning the decades from the 1950s to the ’70s, Hawkes Harbor is an adventure tale with plenty of twists, turns and action.”—San Antonio Express-News
“Hinton offers a suspenseful, thought-provoking book, and the cross-genre plot makes for an entertaining read.”—The Oklahoman on Hawkes Harbor
Pages Magazine
"Hawkes Harbor is a ride so wild it all but lifts off the pages.Pages Magazine
"Hawkes Harbor is a ride so wild it all but lifts off the pages."— Ellen Kanner