Hooked: A Dark, Contemporary Romance

The plot of Hooked relies on a tangled web of revenge motives, and most of the characters seem to act on plans to enact vengeance on one or more characters. James, or Hook, wants to get revenge on Peter Michaels, but this desire for revenge extends at times to Wendy, as well. Prior to the events of the narrative, James wanted revenge on Croc, his uncle, and as Hooked concludes, this desire for revenge extends to Smee, Moira, and Starkey, leaving James as the most revenge-motivated character in the novel. However, these individual motivations are parallel to the characters targeted by James. Smee is acting out of revenge, as well, since he saw James kill Croc, Smee’s father, and he resents that James got to spend time with Croc at all. James wants revenge on Peter for killing his family, but Peter committed that act out of revenge for Andrew Barrie, James’s father, who slept with Peter’s wife, resulting in Jonathan’s birth. In each situation, the current revenge motive is rooted in a prior act of vengeance, resulting in a cycle of motivations to violence.

The myriad revenge plots of Hooked all rely on the blind spots in each character’s perception of their own narrative.