Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Hike by Drew Magary

5 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Physical abuse, and Slavery

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Infidelity, Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

keen's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Slavery, Blood, and Cannibalism

Minor: Alcoholism

indiaaaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Terrifying, incredible, mind melding. Drags a little in the middle due to becoming an exhausting never-ending nightmare that nearly has you losing hope. It is kind of fake deep in a college short film kind of way, but is still worth it all in the end. Definitely a fun and crazy adventure that keeps you on your toes and turning pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Car accident

6whitepines's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity and Vomit

dealingwithdragons's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism

Anybody triggered by unreality might want to give this a skip.