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A review by jiobiee
The Hike by Drew Magary
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 thatwe 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.
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;
It's not without it's issues, though; sometimes the pace feels misplaced. I felt that
I highly recommend. Go into this book with no expectations, no preconceived notions- and make sure you stay on The Path.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Grief
Minor: Confinement, Infidelity, and Sexual content