Hideout by Jack Heath

On January 9, 2021March 21, 2023 By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Thriller13 Comments

Hideout Cover

Publisher: Allen & Unwin (Trade Paperback – 1 December 2020)

Series: Timothy Blake – Book Three

Length: 406 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Australian bestselling author Jack Heath brings back his cannibalistic protagonist, Timothy Blake, for another gruesome adventure in Hideout.

Timothy Blake, occasional FBI consultant and full-time murderous cannibal, is on the run, convinced that his former employers are close to capturing him for his unfortunate habit. With nothing to lose, Blake decides to take out one final target and travels to a house in rural Texas where Fred, the ringleader of a group of dark web torture video producers, lives. However, his plan to kill and consume Fred quickly goes out the window when he finds out that this target is not alone.

Fred has gathered five of his cohorts, known as the Guards, each of whom makes a living off torturing, extorting and killing people on the dark web. Pretending to be an online associate of the Guards who is in trouble, Blake manages to con his way into the house, convincing them that he is a just as twisted as they are. His subsequent plan to pick off his new companions one by one seems like a winner, until one of the Guard turns up dead by someone else’s hands.

It soon becomes apparent to Blake that another killer is stalking his new hideout, one who is determined to keep their secrets no matter what. With his cover likely to be blown at any second and his ravenous hunger for human flesh threatening to overwhelm him, Blake needs to find a way to survive and overwhelm his companions. However, the discovery of a group of desperate people chained up in the building behind the house complicates everything, especially when the Guards’ latest victim arrives. Can Blake take out this group of psychopaths before he is picked off by another killer, or has this cannibal finally met his match?

Hideout is a fun and compelling novel from Canberran author Jack Heath, who has once again come up with an exciting adventure for his distinctive protagonist. Heath is a well-established author who primarily made a name for himself with young adult and children’s thriller fiction, such as his Six of Hearts, The Liars, The Danger and The Scream series. However, Heath has also branched off into adult thrillers with his Timothy Blake novels. The Timothy Blake series started in 2018 with the first entry, Hangman, and it follows its dysfunctional cannibal protagonist as he investigates a series of different and thrilling mysteries. Hideout is the third entry in this series and is set shortly after the events of the second novel, Hunter (which was also released under the title Just One Bite). This is actually first Jack Heath novel that I have read, and while I was deeply intrigued by the previous Timothy Blake books, I did not get a chance to grab a copy. However, I really enjoyed Hideout and I am definitely going to go out of my way to obtain any additional novels Heath writes in the future.

This third Timothy Blake book proved to be quite an impressive and compelling read, as the protagonist finds himself trapped with six other psychopaths, each of whom torture and kill people online for a living. This proves to be quite an intriguing scenario, as this bold protagonist bluffs his way into the house and plots various ways to kill them. However, the whole scenario inevitably gets out of hand, and Blake finds himself having to investigate the murder of one of the killers he is trapped with. This results in an excellent story and I loved the blend of mystery, great interactions, and the character’s attempts to keep his cover, especially as Heath also throws in a little commentary about current society (some of which is exceedingly relevant, particularly this week). I really liked where the author took his awesome story, and all the various twists, revelations and surprising actions made for quite a compelling and thrilling read. I especially loved all the excellent foreshadowing that the author utilised, as nearly every stray thought or memory from the protagonist came into play somewhere later in the book. The story is extremely fast paced, and readers should be able to power through it in short order, especially once they get wrapped up in the captivating narrative. I also appreciated how easy it was for those people unfamiliar with the previous Timothy Blake novels to read Hideout, as Heath has made it quite accessible, with all the key elements from the previous books explained in sufficient detail. Naturally, as this is a novel about a cannibal living undercover with dark web torturers, this is a particularly dark book and people who have issues with torture, gruesome killings and cannibalism might want to avoid it. Overall, this was an amazing narrative, and I had a fantastic and exhilarating time getting through it.

I quite enjoyed the damaged and intriguing protagonist that was Timothy Blake, and it was rather fun following the adventures of a cannibal. While there are some obvious parallels to Dexter in this character as a killer who target criminals, I felt that Blake was distinctive enough in his own right and he ended up being an interesting character to set a book around. I really enjoyed seeing the entire narrative unfold from his perspective as the character adds some intriguing elements to the story. There is something desperate and feral in this character that translates off the page, and he is haunted by some of the events from the previous novels, especially as he believes that his freedom or life is nearly over. While the origins of his cannibalistic tendencies are not really covered in Hideout (I assume that they are detailed in prior books), you do get an idea of this character’s troubled past and how he helped as an FBI consultant. Despite being a killer and unrepentant flesh eater, Blake is constantly trying to be a good person, and it was fascinating to see him try to save certain lives while plotting the deaths of the various members of the Guards. Blake also proves to be a canny investigator and trickster even though his formal education is rather lacking, managing to fool the people he lives with while also solving the curious mysteries that Heath came up with. I loved the cannibalistic side of the protagonist and it was quite amusing to see him considering the various people and corpses he encounters, wondering about how much meat he could get off them and how likely he could get away with eating. This hunger proves to be an interesting driving force for Blake throughout the book, especially as, to maintain his cover, he has to consume a vegetarian diet, which messes with his mind a little. I also enjoyed the way in which Heath is clearly not amazingly attached to his protagonist, as Blake goes through some stuff which changes him in some substantial ways. I ended up really liking this complex and enjoyable character and I look forward to seeing what his future adventures entail, especially as Heath sets up an interesting potential story arc for the next book.

Heath has also filled up Hideout with some other compelling characters who stay on the property with Blake for most of the book. The most prominent of these are the members of the Guards, the six psychopaths who video themselves torturing people to make money. While on the surface all of these characters are despicable, Heath spends time examining each of their personalities and histories, fleshing them out and showing that their various motivations are a lot more complex than initially believed. This helps to create a richer story, especially as each of the characters have their own unique secrets that come into play throughout the narrative and ensure a much more complex mystery for Blake to solve, as well as adding in some compelling connections to the protagonist. There is also a further group of characters on the property who are a major part of the book’s plot. Like the members of the Guards, there is more to these characters than initially appears, and their plight is a rather intriguing ethical inclusion to the story. One of these characters is featured quite significantly throughout the book due to their prior connections to Blake, and it was fascinating to see the massively negative impacts of Blake’s interactions with them. All of this results in quite a character-rich narrative, and I quite enjoyed seeing how some of the arcs played out and how the protagonist interacted with them.

Hideout by Australian author Jack Heath ended up being a fun and compelling novel, and I had an amazing time reading it. Heath makes excellent use of his unique protagonist, inventive plot scenario and fast-paced story to create an awesome thriller that readers can easily enjoy and get through quickly. While a bit gruesome in places, this is an undoubtedly entertaining thriller that readers are going to have fun getting through. I look forward to seeing how the Timothy Blake series continues in the future, and the next book should be a fantastic and exhilarating ride.

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The Chaos of Now by Erin Lange

On October 29, 2018August 19, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Young AdultLeave a comment

The Chaos of Now Cover.jpg

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Publication Date – 2 October 2018

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From one of the most intriguing authors of modern young adult fiction comes this powerful story about bullying in the modern cyber world and the potential impacts our choices can have on those around us.

One year ago, a student at Haver High, Jordan Bishop, walked into the school cafeteria and committed suicide by setting himself on fire, a reaction to the relentless online bullying he was experiencing. Since that event, life at Haver High has not been the same. Not only do the scars of Jordan’s actions remain but radical legislation brought in to combat cyberbullying ensure that students’ online lives are openly monitored by federal cybersnoops.

Eli Bennett is a young hacker who is desperate to graduate and leave town in order escape his father and his father’s new girlfriend, Misty. Eli is happy enough at school with his only friend, Zach, although he wouldn’t mind getting to know the beautiful Isabel. But when he is approached by fellow hackers Seth and Mouse, he finds himself drawn into an entirely new challenge. Seth and Mouse were Jordan’s friends, but have had to keep their relationship with him a secret to avoid backlash from the other students. Desperate to get some sort of justice for their fallen comrade, they are seeking a way to get back at those students who drove Jordan to kill himself. Their idea is to create a website where Jordan’s bullies can be publicly shamed, and they need Eli to make it untraceable to the authorities. Despite being haunted by a previous hacking mistake, Eli agrees to help, interested in the potential of this sort of website.

Calling the website ‘Friends of Bishop’, the site provides the students of Haver High with an anonymous forum to post videos about bad behaviour in the school. With the help of a few bombshell videos, the site becomes a hit, and Eli and his friends believe they are making some real changes. With the cybersnoops desperately try to shut down the site, the hidden Friends of Bishop revel in their notoriety and the praise of many of their classmates. But when their quest for justice takes a nasty turn, Eli finds himself facing the real-world consequences of his actions and must try and work out what the right thing to do is.

The Chaos of Now is the fourth book from the talented and at times controversial young adult author, Erin Lange. Lange is probably best known for her 2012 debut novel, Butter, which focused on a bullied obese boy’s plan to eat himself to death on a live internet broadcast. Her next two books, Dead Ends and Rebel, Bully, Geek, Pariah also looked at the lives of socially isolated high school students, as well as the consequences of bullying behaviour. The Chaos of Now takes a deeper focus on extreme cyberbullying and the potential impacts it can have. I absolutely enjoyed The Chaos of Now and powered through it in less than a day as I became absorbed in its fantastic narrative, its emotional and moral heart and its very intriguing elements and warnings.

This book contains a poignant and well-thought-out story that takes its protagonist on a captivating adventure as he is faced with a series of moral dilemmas and explores the resultant consequences of his decisions on himself and those around him. There are some incredible emotional scenes as the main characters examine their anger, grief, guilt and internal moral compasses when they look back at what they did or what they failed to do. There is also a heartrending plot twist towards the end of the book which paints the entire narrative in a completely new light while also upping the stakes for the protagonist and his friends.

At the centre of this incredible book lies a powerful message about the modern epidemic of cyberbullying and the dangers of our modern computer based world. Within the context of the story, the protagonist is drawn into a quest for justice after a young man who is bullied online commits suicide. The architects of this revenge are the victim’s friends, who feel guilty for not standing up for their friend and not coming forward after his death. As part of their quest, they create an anonymous website where embarrassing and incriminating videos can be posted about the people who drove Jordan to commit suicide, as well as videos about any other bullies or people the protagonists believe need to be taken down a peg. Lange does an incredible job exploring all the aspect of this cyberbullying, from an examination of the events that led up to Jacob’s suicide to the impacts of the posted videos on the people they are shaming. Lange does not try to shape this as a black and white issue; instead, everything that occurs has the potential for negative consequences. For example, throughout the course of the book, the protagonists post several videos, each of which appears to have different levels of embarrassing or incriminating footage. While the potential impacts of some of these videos appear to be minor, some are later revealed to have major consequences for the people involved. At the same time, the more explicit videos have huge, life-altering consequences for the people involved. Through the course of her narrative, Lange shows the full effect of these videos, whether they are extreme or seemingly innocuous, and shows how the people’s lives are affected and how other people treat them because of what is revealed. Often these outcomes are quite devastating, and the protagonists, having become cyberbullies themselves, are left examining whether their victims actually deserved to have their lives ruined in this way, and if their actions can truly be considered justice. The final message of this book, that cyberbullying or any form of negative online actions can have severe and often unforeseen consequences, is quite powerful, and I thought that Lange did an incredible job highlighting this throughout her novel.

Another intriguing part of this book is the extreme way the government attempts to deal with the problem of cyberbullying. In this book, following the extreme suicide of Jordan, the government introduces harsh and controlling rules about internet privacy for students and gives government officers known as cybersnoops the ability to monitor everything young people do on the internet. This is a thought-provoking reaction, and one that could potentially be used in the real world to address the problem of cyberbullying. Readers will be interested to see Lange’s thoughts on such a program being introduced and how the youth impacted by it may react. The resultant story comes across as a cautionary tale. While more needs to be done to combat the issues of cyberbullying, Lange’s stories suggests that certain approaches could be just as problematic, as many of the protagonist’s actions are as a result of the restrictions imposed upon them.

I really enjoyed the coding aspects of this book, and it was fascinating to see the various computer and coding terms included throughout the story. Lange’s ensures that these technical aspects are explained to the reader in a clear and concise manner so that even technical luddites like this reviewer are able to have a good understanding of what is going on in the story. Readers of The Chaos of Now should also take note of the various ways in which the internet or someone’s personal electronic devices can be used against them, and is definitely an informative inclusion.

Lange’s focus on her protagonist’s personal relationships is another great part of this book, and provides an invaluable social heart to this novel. At the start of the book, Eli only has one friend, Zach, a fellow coder who serves as Eli’s social and hacking conscience. When Eli makes friends with Seth and Mouse, he is happy to have new friends and works with them on their website. But, as the book progresses, Eli’s relationship with Zach suffers as he constantly hides his dodgy actions with the Friends of Bishop website. It is interesting to see how Eli is forced to assume the more moral and cautious role with Seth and Mouse, who are much more obsessed with revenge than Eli is. Having assumed this role, Eli feels a lot more guilt for the group’s actions, as he knows he should do more to curtail their more reckless actions. This is further compounded when Eli gets angry and momentarily abandons his moral position, and the resultant actions cause significant harm. The later part of the relationship with Seth and Mouse is very intense and contains one hell of a climactic scene. The Chaos of Now also contains the heart-warming story of the growing relationship between Eli and his father’s girlfriend, Misty, who becomes one of the most likable characters in the entire book. I also enjoyed the relationship between Eli and the bully Malcolm who Eli has several negative encounters with at the start of the book. While Eli at first wants to destroy him like the other bullies at Haver High, his discovery of Malcolm’s deeper problems and the future awaiting him makes Eli rethink his position. This focus on the protagonist’s relationships is an extraordinary part of the book, which weaves into the story very well and plays a big part in the protagonist’s decisions and actions.

The Chaos of Now is a great piece of young adult fiction that provides an amazing insight into one of the key issues affecting the youth of today. With some mature themes, this book is definitely intended for the slightly older teen audience and is probably most appropriate for high school students who are a similar age to the characters of this book. As this book provides an intriguing and powerful insight into the modern day issue of cyberbullying and presents a look at the extreme consequences that could result from these actions, I would strongly recommend it to these students, as they would be most interested in the message and story that it contains. While not intended for older readers, the content of this book is instantly relatable for anyone who has ever been to high school and is aware of the current issues surrounding cyberbullying and problems with the internet.

Lange has created a terrific book which I felt covered some of the issues around cyberbullying perfectly. Featuring a heartfelt and at times crushing story that tries to understand the different sides of this complex problem, this is another superb and memorable release from an incredible young adult fiction author.