An electric set up opens Conner Habib's horror thriller Hawk Mountain: Todd’s childhood bully Jack resurfaces seemingly by chance and slowly begins to snake his way into Todd and his young son Anthony’s peaceful, if isolated, lives. Jack is as charming and confident as he seemed in high school. But Todd has his son to protect and he won’t allow himself to be pushed around this time – no matter what it takes.
As the story of their high school and present relationship unfold chapter by chapter, we see the jigsaw of their story slowly come together to create a dark vision of obsession, secrets, and a past that refuses to stay hidden.
Habib pens a masterclass in gaslighting and creeping, insidious, coercive control, with Jack’s malevolent energy and his presence in Todd’s life becomes increasingly sinister and intrusive. This is a story that intentionally keeps you guessing, but Habib’s visceral writing is slightly undermined by questions that can jolt the reader from the narrative: Why is Todd allowing a man who made his life miserable to stay at his house? Why hasn’t he demanded an apology from Jack for how he treated him in the past? And more importantly, why is Todd letting this strange, volatile man into vulnerable Anthony’s life?
However, the strange and tension-filled energy between the two men may hold the answers to these questions as we scour the past, trying to understand Jack’s hold on Todd - before it’s too late.
Does understanding your childhood bully mean you have to forgive them? When reassessing your own past means changing the narrative, does that change who you really are? And what happened between them on Hawk Mountain all those years ago?
The darkness in this novel spreads like a fungus through a tree trunk, invisible and silent, poisoning the body gradually until we don’t recognize the figure before us anymore. A tale of dark infatuation, a jaw-dropping, blind-siding twist and a suspense-filled, grisly narrative that doesn’t let up until the last page, Habib’s work is not for the faint of heart. The past can’t stay hidden forever, nor can who you truly are. It all must come to the surface eventually, putrid and bubble-bursting in this atmospheric and charged tale.
Hawk Mountain is published by Penguin
