S.E. Hinton's Genre Shift

From gangs and discovering group identity to....Deleware vampires and insane asylums.

Remember that childhood literary tale, The Outsiders? That tale of greaser versus sosh; poor and destitute versus rich and provided for? Well, after almost 20 years, S.E. Hinton has resurfaced with her new book, Hawkes Harbor.

The plot is progresses from IRA gun-running to coke parties in New Orleans and the main and fearless character is in an insane asylum recovering from being possessed by a Deleware Vampire. Hmm...

So this begs further investigation into...

Book critics: where do they come up with their book jacket comments/Crtiques/praises? How can a sentence or two summarize a book that is so, so far off the radar from Hinton's other books? Well they wrote them, nonetheless.

You are in the bookstore and see a title that catches your eye. There will undoubtedly be some sort of bold-faced back-up for how wonderful the book is, and what a life-altering experience reading it will be for you.

Some 'rave reviews' just are window dressing, like these I've noticed recently

'An orgasmic smattering of prose not found north of the Yukon drainage'

'More fun than eating a pomegranate!'

'This author can write!'

'A calliope of whirligig-composed wonder!'

I mean c'mon, there is nothing like this backup marketing for Photography. Imagine every photo you see in a glossy magazine is emblazoned with 'This photo is really something,' or "the photo you are about to enjoy is extremely good.'

Marketing writing is important, and fills those lonely pages at the front of the book.

Tell us too much, like 'in chapter 1, the main character is introduced." "In chapter twenty-four, the plot thickens." "By chapter 67, you'll have lost interest."

Right.