Stag Hunt

by Anthony McGowan

Hardcover in very good condition; first edition; author's signature on title page; minor creases on upper edges of jacket; head of page block slightly sunned; content clean and clear with sound binding. AE

Genres: Thriller, Crime

Hardcover

First published January 8, 2013

About the author

Anthony John McGowan is an English author of books for children, teenagers and adults. He is the winner of the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal for Lark. In addition to his 2020 win, he has been twice longlisted (for The Knife That Killed Me in 2008 and Brock in 2014) and once shortlisted (for Rook in 2018) for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and is the winner of the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize for Henry Tumour.

Reviews

[Lieselot Mauroo]

I thought some parts were good. Other parts I didn't feel were very good.
The outcome of it all did surprise me and took me off guard, so I liked that.
The last 100 or so pages were definitely more interesting than the the rest of the book.

[Ali Imran]

simple yet tantalizing way of making the bachelor party a memorable one, a bloody, murderous one I might say. sooo worth reading! LOVE it!

[Liam Ostermann]

I bought, in a charity shop, this book years ago, not quite twenty years, but close. I read it and enjoyed it but this type of crime/thriller isn't my usual reading, even all that time ago. It is de trop to talk about the novels manifold cliches - that's standard for this kind of genre. What annoyed me was that the author clearly had negligible understanding of the UK class system and had no idea of abuse with English boarding schools. I am not complaining about misrepresentation but that his portrayal has no depth and, should you want, could be demolished so easily. Not because upper middle class English men are better than those portrayed, they are not; or because English boarding schools free of bullying and sexual abuse, they aren't. Upper class men are almost ghastly beyond belief - just look at former PMs Boris Johnson or Tony Blair. The schools they attend are poisonous swamps. I just find cliched predictable writing like this dull and annoying.

But I suppose it is a good thriller - if that's what you want. It's better then Ian Fleming's banal books but that is hardly a ringing recommendation is it?

The read date is a guess.

[Ian Mapp]

Better quality than I was expecting from the blurb. Schoolboy revenge in adulthood in a country home on a stag do sounds a bit of a cliche, but the book had enough about it to explore other areas.

The revenge was for boarding school rape - which seems a bit extreme. The victim gathers the friends in a country house, including the hero - moriarty - who is a friend of the groom whos stag do it is.

Moriaty is more working class, so this gives the author the opportunity to explore the class systems, as well as male bonding/rivalries.

Where the book fails is the characterisation, which means the characters merge into one and you lose track of who is who, who is doing what to who and at the end, the double twist leaves you not really caring.

[Carolina]

Livro encontrado na biblioteca de Almada, e que foi mais interessante do que estava à espera.

Um homem sem grandes características individuais é convidado para a despedida de solteiro de um amigo não muito próximo. Mal sabe ele que os "rapazes" envolvidos cometeram violência física e sexual nos seus tempos de escola, e agora serão vítimas de uma vingança.

O mistério está bastante bem feito, e o criminoso só é revelado mesmo no final. No entanto, é um pouco difícil de distinguir as personagens, porque têm nomes muito parecidos, e acabei por não saber quem era quem. Também não gostei da tal história da "Tunísia", porque o processo de arrependimento deste criminoso coloca um pouco a culpa na vítima.

De resto, foi uma leitura bastante vibrante.

[Emily Catherine]

Little trigger warning that it is quite a dark book that covers some upsetting themes. However, I personally loved this book, the middle of the book may appear to some to be slow but there are lots of hints to the ending if you look for them.

[Stephen Wright]

A book with the tagline; “desire and revenge, love and murder” cannot be hopelessly boring and a jumble of words for the first 40 pages - I need some immediate intrigue not a lengthy description of a professor analysing one of platos writings

[Sarah Whittaker]

Not my cup of tea. Started well, lost interest for the middle but read to the end.

[Eff's Library]

DNF-ed it half way through. I can't really say if the story is bad or it's a cultural thing cause we don't have stag hunt in my country and I got zero clue what people usually do. I saw some review says this book highlights the difference of class between the gents. But I bought the book solely based on the blurb expecting a murder mystery thriller book yet, 150 pages in I still haven't seen any progress. It feels like I'm living the life second by second with the characters instead of pacing by plot because of the detailed conversations and scenes.

So I'll give the author the benefit of the doubt and just assume I can't make it through the book due to the cultural difference thing.

[Dash]

Some interesting and disturbing concepts, mixed among a generally standard whodunnit-style novel, which ultimately bore no surprises.