Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Hike

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Hike by Drew Magary

14 reviews

eabh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was recommended to my husband by a dear friend. When I had finished my current read on a flight, I asked to borrow it since he was reading something else. It’s described as “cynical Phantom Tollbooth meets dungeons and dragons.” I think I may describe it as more Truman Show and Phantom Tollbooth go on a chaotic date with Pryansi and The Matrix. And their strange and endearing companion, Crab.

This is an offbeat, unpredictable, and highly unusual book, and certainly off the beaten path for me in terms of my taste in novels (see what I did there)? This book is a page turner that moves quickly, and you are left reeling and confused for most of it. And it was wild and interesting and uncomfortable and really freaking cool.

This book has themes of absurdism and existentialism, which as a reader and a human I really enjoy. The casual and strange elements of horror and suffering unsettled me, but they did not deter me from reading the book. This is a novel where it’s best if you go into it with no expectations and an open mind, because the path is peculiar and beautiful.

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samspur's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the weirdest book trip I've ever been on and I loved it. It's like a horror version of Alice in Wonderland x the Wizard of Oz with a dash of Annihilation vibes (the movie - I haven't read the book).

At first I didn't understand the abrupt chapter scene changes. It felt similar to video game levels where you progress to the next area, but eventually I grew to like it. One minute you'd be in the desert and the next under a mountain with a giant. My favorite was to retell the story to my partner and have him try to follow along.

I love the Crab! The book could have just been the crab scenes and I would have been happy. I also really liked Cisco's character and his wholesomeness. I wasn't expecting a lot from this book but it's quickly become a favorite for this year. Be sure to look at content warnings this is definitely a horror book.

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jiobiee's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

OVERALL: 8.3/10, or 4.2/5

A wonderful sci-fi fantasy adventure romp that moves at a breakneck pace, equal parts silly and scary. This is a plot book; funnily enough, this is a book that is more about the journey than it is the destination.

This is the closest I've ever seen a book come to feeling like a video game. Reading this book feels like you're going through multiple levels of the most deranged platformer you've ever seen, and I do mean that with love; it zooms through multiple points of the story like someone trying to speedrun their first playthrough. Watching Ben tackle each challenge using almost nothing but his own wit and ability is fascinating, and seeing how he deals with processing his traumas, old and new, feels as addictive as reality television. This book is a popcorn book.

The prose is easy to understand, and Ben is an easy character to understand; the real fun comes from trying to make your own assumptions about what Ben's journey on The Path represents; which makes the ending more satisfying, in my opinion. The ending is simple; a bigger twist followed by a much smaller, much more insidious and terrifying smaller one. The smaller one stuck with me;

imagine carrying all that weight from this journey, never being able to tell another soul, and coming to the realization that a loved one just experienced nearly the same lifetime of turmoil, completely unnoticed- incredible gut-punch.

I loved it.

It's not without it's issues, though; sometimes the pace feels misplaced. I felt that

we were stuck at the construction site for too long, but then everything after that felt a little too fast, even considering its fast pace.

And while sometimes the tone of the writing is genuinely funny and tongue-in-cheek, sometimes it drifts off a little too far into quirky-bitter-millenial-says-fuck territory. Never enough to impact the story as a whole, though.

I highly recommend. Go into this book with no expectations, no preconceived notions- and make sure you stay on The Path.

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biglibraryenergy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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stephanieluxton's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

I wanted to read this book because it sounded bizarre and sometimes it's nice to read something really weird to cleanse the palate. I think I was hoping for something similar to Welcome To Nightvale, Zerostrata, A Short Stay In Hell, The Left Right Game or a Studio Ghibli movie where weird things are happening but everyone just kind of accepts it as reality, or has to adapt to a world where things don't make sense.

This book is about Ben, a married man and father of three who is away on a business trip. When he gets to his hotel in the mountains, he goes for a walk by himself to enjoy the outdoors and his surroundings eventually devolve into a bizarre hellscape in which he cannot escape unless he keeps going.

Excellent concept.

My first issue with the book is the tone. It seems to flip back and forth between being a bizarre silly adventure then almost straddles a more extreme horror/slasher line, then just gets kind of bleak and depressing. This kind of book is fun to read because you don't always know what to expect next but I found myself not loving the powerlessness of the situation - it very much felt like Ben was a slave to his fate.

Ben's journey isn't easy but I felt annoyed that if there was a piece of information he needed, it generally fell right into his lap right before becoming relevant. He's given a series of tools that he basically uses right away. I think the story would have been more satisfying if he was more clever and able to outsmart his obstacles. He makes mostly really dumb decisions in the beginning and it feels like nearly every obstacle he overcomes is due to pure luck. For example:

When he's explicitly told that if he leaves the path, he will die. Then he immediately leaves the path and almost dies. This feels more unbelievable because it happens right after he's almost butchered by two scary men wearing dogs faces as masks.

I wish there were more characters in this book so that the sense of danger would feel more severe. When there's really only one character, the danger is lessened because the story must go on.

I will say that I did like the very end of the book. There's a couple little revelations that I appreciated and didn't expect.

In conclusion, I think the book had a lot of good ideas but I wish it had decided if it wanted to be spooky or silly as it's very difficult to pull off being both. This book reminded me a lot of Fairytale by Stephen King at times. Looking back on Ben's journey, it felt kind of pointless. I don't feel like he was introduced to us as being flawed enough at the start for me to appreciate the ways he's grown as a character. I feel like he just becomes more bitter as the story progresses (and rightfully so, I suppose).

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issymaae's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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smokehopper's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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3martini's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book just didn't work for me. I didn't feel like I could connect with the main character, and I think it's because of Magary's kind of sardonic voice that doesn't let you get close and vulnerable. And that's fun in his other writing, but it wasn't for me here. Kind of formulaic for me too.

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ribbenkast's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I rarely give books 5 stars but this is the first time I had to. The book is funny, tense, the prose is amazingly well written and the ending will leave me contemplating live for a few days.

it's Alice in Wonderland but more adult and it has a bunch of (ne essary) gore in it. I feel like it's very hard to write a fitting ending to these kinds of stories but Drew Magary has pulled of the perfect ending that won't disappoint. This book was a joy from start to finish

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