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A review by capyval
Holes by Louis Sachar
5.0
Very pleased with this one, and I feel generous today, so I rate it 5 stars ;)
Written for children and teens, but enjoyable and entertaining enough for adults as well. The writing style is simple and yet so good, and the story is easy to follow, but it’s not plain at all. The protagonist is Stanley Yelnats, a boy that ends up in a detention camp to pay for a crime he didn’t commit. In this desert and extremely hot place he’s forced to dig holes in the dry land. For what they dig? To build character, they say. Stanley arrives at camp as a sweet but insecure boy, hung up over being overweight and traumatized by bullies. This is a strange place where he will be forced to do physical labour and treat with other boys that seem even tougher than anybody he had to deal with in school.
Without overcomplicating the story, Louis Sachar tells us about Stanley’s ancestors and their history of bad luck. The book comes and goes from the present to the 19th century, to explain and enhance the plot. One of the things that I liked the most from this book is that it contains good messages without being moralizing; and it doesn’t feel cheesy either. It reminded me a bit to A Series of Unfortunate Events, but Holes is by far less sad, perhaps a tad more realistic and, more importantly, the mysteries get solve in one short book; so in conclusion I enjoyed this one much more (I also think it’s wittier, and the writing style is better).
Written for children and teens, but enjoyable and entertaining enough for adults as well. The writing style is simple and yet so good, and the story is easy to follow, but it’s not plain at all. The protagonist is Stanley Yelnats, a boy that ends up in a detention camp to pay for a crime he didn’t commit. In this desert and extremely hot place he’s forced to dig holes in the dry land. For what they dig? To build character, they say. Stanley arrives at camp as a sweet but insecure boy, hung up over being overweight and traumatized by bullies. This is a strange place where he will be forced to do physical labour and treat with other boys that seem even tougher than anybody he had to deal with in school.
Without overcomplicating the story, Louis Sachar tells us about Stanley’s ancestors and their history of bad luck. The book comes and goes from the present to the 19th century, to explain and enhance the plot. One of the things that I liked the most from this book is that it contains good messages without being moralizing; and it doesn’t feel cheesy either. It reminded me a bit to A Series of Unfortunate Events, but Holes is by far less sad, perhaps a tad more realistic and, more importantly, the mysteries get solve in one short book; so in conclusion I enjoyed this one much more (I also think it’s wittier, and the writing style is better).