Reviews

The Hike by Drew Magary

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mimijeebies's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

4.5

njdarkish's review against another edition

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2.0

Eh. This was weird for the sake of being weird. It felt a lot like the randomness of Alice in Wonderland, but a lot less meaningful. I stopped caring about what happened pretty early only and wasn't especially interested with all of the developments in the insanity that is Ben's time on The Path.
It's really a shame, because this seems like a book that I'd like, but I really didn't care for it.

wollstonecrafty's review against another edition

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@ mr. magary where is teresa's companion novel!!!!!!!!!!!

noahfence2007's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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).

Content Warnings

rooooomie's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

elisehernke's review against another edition

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4.0

WHAT a ride
Loved the ending even though it left me like !!!???
Definitely an anxiety inducing experience, but once you get to the end, it’s worth the journey
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