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British author Lucy Clarke gifts her audience with a brand-new wilderness thriller, set in the beautiful but dangerous surrounds of Norway. As story of friendship, secrets, adventure, thrill seeking and underhanded deeds, The Hike is an adrenaline filled tale that I absorbed from the minute I opened this book to the last word. The best description I can come up with for my mind-bending experience I had with this book can be summed up in the words of Jerry Garcia: “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” I had initially agreed to review The Hike with no small amount of trepidation, fearing that it might be too “weird” for my tastes. Can you blame me, though? I don’t even how I’ll do my usual novel summary for this review, because pretty sure anything I say will sound like the mad ramblings of someone on a bad acid trip, but here goes nothing: I don’t usually go for books like this, so in case you’re wondering why I decided to give The Hike a try despite the publisher description clearly indicating that this will be a totally insane and off-the-wall experience, it was because of two words that jumped out at me: video games. Try as I might, I can never resist any novel with a video gaming, and I was also really curious to see how Drew Magary would weave together elements from video game and folk tale as the blurb suggests. Indeed, what we have here is completely unprecedented. Admittedly, the story does play out in a style somewhat reminiscent of those classic text-based adventure computer games, but I have to say unless you’re going into this using Catherine as a baseline for trippiness, this one is going to be WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD. Also, this book reinforced that sitting on your couch and reading about hiking is much better than actual hiking. The thought of wearing three-day old clothes and not showering is disturbing. I was barely surviving this weekend when the power went out for 13 hours LOL. Ain't no way I'm trekking through some unknown mountain eating dried food and shitting in the woods. I'm more of a beach gal LOL.
When I finished I felt like my mind got twisted somehow odd but fun... and yet I gave it three stars. The Hike is a fast-paced nail biter of a thriller that twists and turns much like the setting it takes place in. Which is kinda left me wondering, how does one rate a book. Let's face it, we all do it mostly subjective, though I like to think that I am quite objective, I can be honest and admit, in the end it's all about how much I really enjoyed reading a book. The people are welcoming although somewhat aloof in the small village of Norway and give the ladies instructions and advice with some warnings of dangers they could encounter while hiking. At times they feel they are not alone and being watched by an unseen, creepy presence. The women aren't prepared to find themselves discovering something very bad that places them in great danger if found out while at the same time two of the women have been harboring painful secrets which will affect the group but only one will reveal a secret so ugly and shameful that it could cause a breakdown in the friendships or it could possibly cost one woman her life! Because while I think this is quite clever, even rather brilliant at times, I didn't enjoy reading this that much. And I can't tell you why. I really don't know. I found myself wondering how much I have left in the book, rather early on and it kept recurring. I didn't connect much to the characters, which I don't think has much to do with the character building, but simply with my likes and quirks. So basically, while in theory this should have been at least a 4 Star book for me, I don't think I would have finished it if I didn't get the ARC. Saying that, I was thinking that it would make a fantastic movie, I totally would love it.. I think.The Hike is one of those books for which I had high expectations, but ended up falling short. Since I didn't despise the book, I'm going to keep it relatively brief. If you want the headline review: it wasn't for me, but for you, it just might be the cat's meow. Imagine asking a three year old to tell you a story. The beginning makes since when the kid starts with "Once upon a time..." and the ending is logically tied to the beginning, "They lived happily ever after", but everything in between in nonsense and has no rhyme or reason. From the author of The Postmortal, a fantasy saga unlike any you’ve read before, weaving elements of folk tale and video game into a riveting, unforgettable adventure of what a man will endure to return to his family
This is a story about 4 friends who decide to take a hiking/camping trip on the Blafjell Mountain in Norway. If you want to learn more about Bookshelves specifically, please read the Bookshelves FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).A gonzo fantasy adventure with a simple premise: a guy gets lost in the woods. Yet with Magary, getting lost means being chased by dog-faced murderers, crashing into an iceberg, almost getting eaten by a giant, and being forced to build a castle for the undead. In short, things get weird.” In an interview, the author shared how she had been on a hike in Norway, when she started to think about writing this novel. She said… Eight novels in and Lucy Clarke just keeps getting better. The Hike is easily my favourite Lucy Clarke novel to date. I love a good isolated thriller mystery novel and The Hike is a fabulous example of a destination thriller. Fans of Lucy Clarke and newcomers will lap this one up in no time at all. I honestly didn't expect it to turn out this good or this deep. Bravo! My faith in humanity is restored. My faith that wildly imaginative literature continues to be written, and written fearlessly, and all the while a great Tale is told as well. Maggie, Liz, Helena and Joni. Old friends bound by history, adventures, old secrets. And now bound by murder.
The hike feels, at first, like a silly and sometimes rather funny adventure, starting off with a hike during a business trip. But then it soon becomes a fantasy-land and terror-strewn nightmare and then we're treated to a wonderful reversal-filled surprise after surprise.It's amazing how much Clarke was able to take on in The Hike. In short chapters from alternating viewpoints, she explores themes like marriage, motherhood, the complexities of female friendship, and drug addiction, while also telling a propulsive, suspenseful, atmospheric survival story. Each of the four friends at the center of this novel is thoughtfully crafted, with unique traits and viewpoints that made it easy to differentiate among them. Their internal conflicts and their conflicts with each other, even as they were dealing with the external challenge of being inexperienced hikers and potentially being stalked through the wilderness, made for a tense, engaging reading experience.
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