Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Hike

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Hike by Drew Magary

24 reviews

unboxedjack's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

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breauseph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

Every single thing that happens in the plot of this book is a convenient coincidence. Although I kmow that it follows the logic of video games and that is also true in video games - things come to you conveniently when you need them - a video game is interactive where a book is passive, and that makes an enormous difference. For as much of a normal guy as Ben is, the scenes where he miraculously gathers all his strength to pull himself out of death's way are absolutely unrealistic and for all intents and purposes he really should die within his first encounter. In the end, we aren't given a spectacularly good reason why he doesn't.

There is no character development in this book. For everything Ben goes through, he has the same motivations at the beginning and the end and is pretty much the exact same person throughout. Teresa is a shell of a character, only there to humanize Ben and tether him to reality but only possessing characteristics that are convenient for Ben's hike. Like oh, he needs to fight someone? Great, we're given a memory out of absolutely nowhere that Teresa taught him some sweet Jiu Jitsu moves once. Now by the power of love and Jiu Jitsu he can - with no formal training we know of beyond one session of sparring with his wife - overpower and kill an enemy he was helpless against *when he had MORE strength.*

The single thing I can give this book credit for is its one half of an ounce of a critique of action movie machismo in that when Ben commits an act of violence it's written as if it genuinely affects him on a personal level.

But don't believe the hype about the ending. It's unearned, there's no development that leads you to it, and it makes no difference whatsoever for any of the characters.

I have really disliked some books in the past but I straight-up would throw this in the trash if it wouldn't break my dumb little heart to put a book in a garbage can. I described it as "slow" primarily because even though the pages turn quickly enough, it was such a boring slog that I just didn't want to read it and kept putting it down. Don't waste your time. If you want something well-written that scratches the same itch, Kelly Link's Good Trouble will do you just fine.

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eabh's review against another edition

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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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jetpackdracula's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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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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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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