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Hawk Mountain

A highly suspenseful and unsettling literary thriller

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Hawk Mountain

By: Conner Habib
Narrated by: Conner Habib
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Thirty-three-year-old Todd is playing at the beach with his son, Anthony, when he catches sight of an approaching figure. Instantly, he recognizes Jack, his high school tormentor. Radiant, repentant, and overjoyed to have 'run into' Todd, Jack suggests a meal to catch up. And can he spend the night?

What follows is a fast-paced story of obsession and suspense, as Jack gaslights his way back into Todd's life, pushing his old "friend" to the brink.

Conner Habib's disturbing and emotionally riveting debut is a horror novel about partners and friends, fathers and sons, bullies and scapegoats.

'Dripping with menace...brilliantly written...compelling, shocking and beautiful' Liz Nugent

© Conner Habib 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Coming of Age Family Life Friendship Genre Fiction Gothic Horror LGBTQIA+ Creators Literary Fiction Scary Fiction Exciting
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Critic reviews

Standouts include ... Conner Habib's Hawk Mountain, a paranoid and unsettling tale of masculinity in crisis.
Conner Habib's Hawk Mountain was one of the most impressive debuts of the year. Set in New England, it explores the long-term consequences of bullying as Todd, now in his 30s, and the father of a young boy, encounters his high school nemesis, although the inevitable reckoning is as innovative as it is poignant.
Habib ramps the paranoia up to Highsmithian levels
Dripping with menace from the first page, this story of childhood enemies meeting up fifteen years later is utterly enthralling. Brilliantly written with homoerotic undertones, this savage tale is uncompromising in its reflection of teen friendships and isolation, and unflinching in its examination of the delicacy of the human body. There is gold among the gore. I found it compelling, shocking, and beautiful.
Conner Habib writes with an hallucinatory precision, and a kind of merciless humanity, about the poisonous work of repression. His forebears-Poe, Highsmith, even classical tragedy-are clear, but his originality is clearer still. Hawk Mountain is a work of strange, glittering darkness.
The opening lines of Hawk Mountain plumet you into an atmosphere of creeping dread and precarious restraint that won't let up until the final, shocking moments.
Hawk Mountain is a suspenseful, shocking and ultimately poignant study of anguished conflict, both domestic and internal. Incisively written and intensely imagined, it's the novelistic debut of a real original.
Conner Habib's debut novel is a bleak, dark adrenaline rush.
Brilliant...highly recommended
'Stakes a serious claim for best crime fiction debut of the year ... Quietly powerful, devoid of gimmickry and grandiose gestures, Hawk Mountain announces the arrival of an impressive new talent on the crime fiction scene'.
All stars
Most relevant
Like or loathe Todd, you are with him all the way in this sometimes gory tale. Highly recommended

Unnerving but superb take

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This book starts out like it’s heading in One Direction, but very quickly turns into a totally different story. Superbly told, shocking and touching.

Wow

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Couldn’t put down , devoured in a day, I’m soaked in this story , beautiful thick and red

I’m soaking wet

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What happens when the school bully turns up in your adult life..can people really change..can you? Just when you think you've spotted enough red flags to see where this story is going it takes a genuinely shocking twist and turn that leaves you reeling for the rest of the book. Chilling and addictive as you read and look on in horror.. fantastic writing.

Disturbing -ly good...

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harrowing story, the way it stains everyone in the book, feels like something is now stuck to me a bit. I was cheerful Friday evening now I'm somber and pensive as if I were there too, gee thanks! ;)
just enough is left out and just enough is described, it's very rich and my mind easily filled the gaps as if they were memories.
despite the climax moment, all the 'more mundane' ones around it seemed equally traumatic.
The authors reading adds a lot, the tense and calm urgency gives extra resonance. May be because he knew what was coming, but also can hear a lot of Connor in the story too.
great stuff, I imagine what became of Anthony... looking forward to forgetting this, so my mood can improve, and in a few years take a dive again :)

ruined my weekend

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