REVIEW: The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser

A bullet of a novel, Gabriel Bergmoser’s The Hunted will keep your heart racing and palms sweating with the turn of every page. A perfect balance of horror and thriller, this story stealthily juxtaposes the ever expanding landscape of outback Australia with the echoing terror of being hunted like an animal – cornered and deadly afraid. Told with a dual storyline, divided between past and present, our two protagonists explore the vast endlessness of rural Australia through their inability to escape it. The bleak landscape leaves a lingering, unsettled tone and the uncertainty that befalls each character does little to keep this anxiety at bay as the story unfolds.

Gabriel Bergmoser (Photo by Jack Dixon-Gunn).

In the present, haunted by a dark past that is revealed in fragments, a man named Frank seeks seclusion in every aspect of his life. He owns a small service station seemingly located in the middle of nowhere, which is rarely visited by the tourists who pass through. Despite having a strained, borderline estranged relationship with his son, Frank is cornered into looking after his adolescent granddaughter, Allie, over the summer. 

Feeling captured and isolated herself, Frank’s granddaughter treads lightly, struggling to piece together the life of the grandfather she barely knows. Likewise, Frank struggles to connect with Allie, as she is coming to terms with the possible divorce of her parents and issues she is having in school. But their problems are soon eclipsed by danger when a young injured woman unexpectedly stumbles onto Frank’s property and a standoff ensues.

Meanwhile, in the past, a young Australian student named Simon searches for the ‘real’ Australia and is unsettled by the vacant landscape before him. While sitting at a remote pub drinking a beer, Simon crosses paths with the beautiful but secretive Maggie, whom he follows blindly into the badlands. Maggie has her own agenda, as she is searching for something more specific and elusive than Simon, and a living nightmare closes in on the two as they begin to face the dangers that arise when you are an outsider in a small country town, far away from home.

When the two storylines meet, they explode in a fight for survival and a race for redemption and freedom. Full of gore and gruesomeness, the often grotesque descriptions and rapid pace of the novel make it feel cinematic, as each scene unfolds frame by frame. Overall, this is a conflict-fuelled narrative where solace is sought through escape and isolation means danger. Tense and visceral, you will never see the ending coming but you will feel every moment leading up to it. More than anything, though, I have been left with this knowing feeling that although Australia is beautiful in its vastness, its quietness can also be very deceptive.

— Review by Renae Adolfson

The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser (HarperCollins Australia) is out now.

The Hunted

by Gabriel Bergmoser

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide...

Frank is a service station owner on a little-used highway who just wants a quiet life. His granddaughter has been sent to stay with him to fix her attitude, but they don't talk a lot. When a badly injured young woman arrives at Frank's service station with several cars in pursuit, Frank and a handful of unsuspecting customers are thrust into a life-or-death standoff. But who are this group of men and women who will go to any lengths for revenge? And what do they want? Other than no survivors ...?

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About the Contributor

Renae Adolfson