5. Hawke’s Harbour - S.E. Hinton

I started reading this book totally unaware of who SE Hinton was, or of The Outsiders. However, since reading this, I desperately need to read her other books!

I barely read the back before starting and so anything that happened during it was a pleasant surprise - I prefer reading some books this way. The time jumps did confuse me a little, with all the characters existing in all time frames, it was difficult to remember whether a certain event had occured before or after the current piece I was reading. However, as the book goes on, it becomes clear and is all set in one time frame, combining all aspects of the past. In seeing so many different sides of the characters, it’s easy to compare to real life - you may know someone from a certain way, but suddenly see them in a different light and it shows more sides to their personality. It also helps you to understand the characters more.

The story is, at first, more exciting and jumpy, and becomes more settled and, to a certain extent, romantic in nature. It has fascinating views of how people interact and deal with others, but without being one of those purposeful stories which try to make you look at yourself in a different light. I dislike those types of storise and am glad that this is different.

Written for the most part about males, it’s strange to remember that the author is a female - I am unsure of how this compares to other books by Hinton, but at first, I thought it was a male author. Just a random, possibly interesting sidenote.