Customer Reviews

Hold Tight

5 star:		(97)
4 star:		(63)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Harlan Coben has a tendency to create mulitiple plot threads that never seem like they will ever come together. This book is no exception.

In his new book, Coben, explores a problem in today's society. Privacy. He explores how the internet changed everything. Now, that anyone can post anything they want about you and there isn't much you can do.

At the center of these themes is the Baye family (pronounced "by"). Mike and Tia have recently installed a spy program to keep an eye on their sixteen-year-old son, Adam. They do this after a friend of Adam has recently commited suicide. After a cryptic IM, Mike tries to keep Adam home but then he runs away. So begins the search for the teenager. The search takes Mike into the seedy part of the Bronx.

Meanwhile, a killer is at large and killing what seems to be random women. The reason behind it all will keep you guessing until the end. Also, a patient of Mike and his partner needs a kidney transplant and the mother holds a devestating secret. A father tries to come to terms with the fact that he cannot keep his daughter from harm after a popular teacher embarrasses her in class. We also see the police working the killer's case.

All threads converge very nicely into a sweet bow. Some are a little too forced but all in all, the suspense never relents and Coben once again keeps you guessing until the very end when the final secret is revealed.

Harlan Coben specializes in writing intricate and suspenseful mysteries that keep you turning pages late into the night. His first (and to my mind, his best) standalone murder mystery was "Tell No One". Since then he has written several more novels which have been increasingly similar in plot. I was pleasantly surprised that "Hold Tight" marks a departure in formula, in that it doesn't center on an ancient murder case or the long ago disappearance of a family member. While this does mean that the book struggles a little to find its own momentum, at least Coben is trying something different instead of giving us more of the same.

"Hold Tight" juggles a number of different stories, all of which in some way center on the theme of parents trying to protect and/or understand their children. While initially they seem to be quite disparate plotlines, eventually the connections between them become apparent and it is this process of putting the jigsaw pieces together that is the most satisfying part of reading "Hold Tight". One of the things that I really like about Harlan Coben's writing is that there are never any loose ends or things that get left unexplained.

"Hold Tight" is a little slower in pace than his other novels and at times it gets confusing keeping track of so many people, but it's still is a satisfying mystery that keeps the suspense going right until the final pages.

I have read all of Harlan Coben's books - I was totally addicted to Myron, Win & Esperanza and at first, was disappointed that his new books did not include these favorite characters. But once I read the first non-Myron book, I had a different opinion about Coben's literary skills. I believe he not only develops interesting and pertinent plots and subplots, but does so with a commanding literary skill. I do not believe the Myron books were as skillfully written as his recent books.

I could not put this book down once I started reading. It took hold within the first pages and I felt this is the best book he has written. I especially like how he develops subplots that seamlessly come together until there is only one plot. I also like the way he chose a topic that is very prevalent to every parent today - internet, text messaging. Before the advent of this technology it was easier to keep track of your child/teenager without totally invading their privacy. With this technology, it becomes almost impossible to know what your child is doing.
I can't wait for his next book! or the TV series being developed on Myron.

Hold Tight is definitely one of Harlan Coben's top three books -- and it may be his best yet! It is a book that grabs your attention from page one and never lets go until the last word on the last page. Hold Tight is largely plot-driven, although Coben's characters are mostly interesting and ones that people, and particularly parents, will be able to relate to. They are not characters, however, whose visual profiles came strongly to life for me. Further, if you have read Coben's Myron Bolitar series, I think you'll consider the characters of Mike Baye and his friend Mo to be pretty reminiscent of his characters, Myron Bolitar and his friend, Win. As I said, the strength of this book is its plot, not its character development. But what a plot it is! Basically, the book revolves around two story lines: (1) Mike Baye and his wife trying to deal with the increasing withdrawal of their 16-year-old son after a friend's suicide, and (2) a pair of brutal, seemingly unrelated killings, which serve to highlight the domestic troubles that ensue and draw the Baye family, their friends and neighbors in a sea of tragedy. In addition to Hold Tight's exciting plot, Coben wraps the story around the following highly relevant ethical questions that most parents have to wrestle with: How do you weigh a child's privacy against a parent's right to know? How do you differentiate normal teenage rebelliousness from out-of-control behavior? When and how do you intervene if suicidal signs appear? Be prepared to put off whatever you were planning to do once you start Hold Tight, as you won't want to put this book down. I highly recommend Hold Tight to all readers of exciting, suspenseful plot-driven thrillers.

First of all, I have always enjoyed Coben's work and I also feel that just about every one of his stories falls short of what it could have been. Coben seems to have a very powerful positive gene that forces his stories to be created with great moral characters and purpose. It is impossible to pick up one of his novels and not feel as though you are drowning in the most all American family you will ever come across. Coben also has a fault in my mind for getting way too attached to his characters. Myron Bolitar, his primary alter ego for example was slowly transformed into a comic book super hero, and the further the series progressed, the further Coben became attached to the character, and the further the character lost any semblance to reality.

What makes Coben's stand alone novels such as `Hold Tight' more engaging than his Bolitar series is that he has no real attachment to the characters and you are left with the idea that something bad just might happen. Characterization is not a primary concern of Coben, from one book to the next; the protagonist is pretty much the same. Here as with his other stories, you find a man with no real flaws other than being blinded to his everyday life due to pressing work concerns... the normal everyday life disassociation effect. But you don't read Coben for great characters, you read him for the action that he occasionally pulls off with great success.

So I am primarily giving this book two stars not based on the 2 dimensional characters, not based on the better than average but not great prose style, but on the plot. I have to hand it to Coben here. He really goes for his greatest triumph with this book. The plot is totally complex, original, and interwoven. You follow a dozen or more characters over the course of two days and it fits together fairly decently. A lot of the threads felt underdeveloped or utilized, but this was a stretch for Coben and I appreciate that. On the down side, there were so many characters and the story jumped so often, I had to take a moment time and again to remind myself just who and what this or that person were and what they were last doing. The story also added weakly, Coben had so many threads, you could see him trying to wrap up maybe three dozen of them over the last few chapters and only a couple felt complete.

I like Coben a lot; I will read him again and again as his new books come out. I don't think that this was his most successful effort. I think he gave it a good try. I hope he broadens his scope even more with the next one and pulls it off.

While I usually admire Harlan Coben's writing and was prepared to thoroughly enjoy another of his novels, "Hold Tight" left me cold. The plot, which seemed to have such promise in the beginning, became such a stretch as one one plot twist connected unbelievably to another on the flimsiest of circumstances. I found myself yelling "gimme a break" time after time. His characters became caricatures and I didn't care what happened to them.

Definitely his worst novel.

Mike and Tia Baye are worried about their son, Adam. Ever since Adam lost a good friend to suicide, he has withdrawn from the family. After much deliberation they decide to install spy software on his computer to keep track of his internet activity. Everything seems normal until an instant message from a mysterious source turns the Baye's world upside down.

Betsy Hill mourns like any mother would over the loss of her son Spencer. As troubled as he was no one thought he would ever take his own life. While reading her son's Myspace memorial page she comes across a photo that changes everything she thought about her son's death. Now she must confront Spencer's best friend, Adam, who is the only person who may really know what happened the night Spencer died.

Soon both families are intertwined in a desperate search for truth that will reveal shocking answers. As the questions are answered more families become involved and connections to a baffling police case come to light. Now Mike and Tia must dig through all the layers of secrecy if they hope to save their son before it's too late.

Harlan Coben holds nothing back in his latest offering. This is high caliber suspense, gut-wrenching drama, and engrossing mystery all rolled into one. Coben brings the thriller genre full force into suburbia and gives us an eye-opening glance into the very real dangers that threaten families in our society. In Hold Tight we are effectively thrown into the middle of every parent's worst nightmare and what a scary and sobering experience it is. As always Coben's writing proves to be second to none as he effectively weaves several storylines together and somehow manages to link them all together without ever revealing where the story is heading. Coben's fans will also enjoy some character cameos from his last novel, The Woods. Hold Tight can certainly be read as a stand alone title, but I highly recommend readers pick up a copy of The Woods to get the full effect of both stories.

Coben has not only created another addicting masterpiece, but he has blessed us with an unforgettable cautionary tale about parenthood. This one will no doubt keep you up all night nervously flipping through the pages. However, in the end you will want to hug your kids tightly and tell them how much you love them. If you haven't read Coben before you will indeed wonder why after this one.

Harlan Coben is skilled at devising very unusual thrillers with twists and quirks that take the reader all over the emotional and psychological map, and this book is no exception.

This time around, the parental nightmare of a teen suicide is the launching pad for an excursion into the world of adolescent angst and the dilemma parents face in how to deal with it, particularly when it spirals terribly out of control. Throw into the mix a psychotic killer trying to appease his own demons, and you have Coben's portrayal of a middle-class neighborhood that could almost be set in a Bosch landscape.

What really goes on behind the placid facade of our neighbors' public personas? This is essentially the question Coben poses in this engaging novel.

Vividly-drawn characters, taut pacing, and clever plotting help drive this work, and deliver a very fun and satisfying experience for the reader.

The only reason I held back that fifth star was that the ultimate fates of a couple of the "bad guys" were somewhat vaguely resolved, and this detracted a bit from the satisfaction factor of the book's finale. But it's a minor point, and doesn't at all affect my recommendation for this work.

Hold Tight sets up a range of stories in one community: a teacher who in a moment of temper mocks a student and ruins her life; a brooding teenage son clearly in trouble who disappears, his parent desperately trying to track him down; a sick little boy seeking a kidney transplant; a mother mourning her son's recent suicide; a pair of killers pursuing suburban women -- and more. Each individual story is tense and exciting in its own right, but I also loved wondering how they would come together. I won't give anything away but to say he did not disappoint; the stories do connect in ways that made me gasp. This Harlan at his best: real people in situations that could happen to anyone, struggling to survive, wondering what went wrong. Loved every minute of it.

Harlan Coben rewards his fans with yet another quality mystery, HOLD TIGHT written in typical Coben style: he writes about ordinary families with secrets that cause extraordinary problems, and he does this quite well.

The central family in this particular novel is Dr. Mike Baye, his wife Tia, their fifteen-year-old son Adam, and their eleven-year-old daughter Jill. Average family. The problem starts when Dr. Baye and his wife, who up until recently had the illusion that they were in control of their children, have enough reasonable motive to start spying on their son's internet activities and whereabouts. Like many of Harlan Coben's books, there are four or five sub-plots going on at the same time that seem to have no common denominator. Just when I started to grow a little weary of all the short stories within the story, they all started to tie together, then the illusions start to shatter and crumble like a house of cards.

What I like most about this book was that it brought up some viable situations concerning young people, technology, and parenting. Also, it was fun to have some old characters make an appearance here. However, HOLD TIGHT was not as thrilling as some of his other novels were and nowhere near as funny as his Myron Bolitar series.