Customer Reviews

The Hole

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The cover and premise of this book intrigued me. The comparison to "Lord of the Flies" convinced me to give it a shot. The fact that Guy Burt wrote this when he was merely eighteen adds a bit of morbid fascination to this sinister and twisting tale.

Now let's get this straight...this book never reaches the status of "Lord of the Flies." Where the classic book of human depravity painted a broad picture, "The Hole" paints a focused and limited picture. I don't believe the author attempts to make huge social statements, but I do believe he sets out to unsettle us. And he succeeds.

The story revolves around five friends who agree to be locked for three days in a forgotten hole, a sunken room of a British school. The sixth friend is supposed to come and release them after this "experiment with real life." What they don't realize is that the sixth friend has no such intention. In fact, he intends for them to face the brutal horror of survival. As the reader, we don't understand all the reasonings at first, but we do sense a creeping, claustrophobic doom. We wait for something horrible to happen. Here's the clincher, though...

The book's premise appears to promise more than it can deliver. Even in the last chapter, I wondered if I'd missed something. After following first and third person accounts and tape-recorded accounts, I wondered if the mental gymnastics were worth the final payoff. Then, with my interest still firmly intact, I read the epilogue. Ahh, yes...it was worth it. There's more here than meets the eye. The author, in his focused and limited picture, paints vividly. Only as we step away from "The Hole" do we realize how truly awful the painting is. The author only hints at most of the dark doings, thus succeeding in releasing the horrors of our own thoughts.

As I filled in the details from my own imagination, I realized that "The Hole" does succeed in showing the dark side of humanity. It does so, in part, by allowing us to dredge it up ourselves.

Now that's some good writing.

The query on the back of the book and the intriguing cover worked as good bait, reeling me in to the pages that shaped Guy Burt's story. Initially, I thought the dialogue and meaningless Tarantino conversations between the characters were terribly written. There were two things that pushed me forward while reading this book, two things that kept me from throwing it into Clif's slush pile (a box of bad books in my closet that I will eventually get around to selling either on Ebay or Amazon). Number one, Mr. Burt was only eighteen when he wrote this book, so I HAD to cut him some slack as far as writing style. Number two, it's a short read, and I hate to quit a book once I've started it -- and guess what? I'm so glad that I didn't -- quit, that is, because in the end I find out that I've been tricked by Mr. Burt. His eighteen year old style of writing was merely a cloak, a disguise. The end of the book was a total 180, and it sent chills down my spine and I liked it... alot. I don't think this would have worked if the story would have been too much longer than it was, Although I wish the brilliance in the end would have dragged out a while longer. Bottom line, because it is such a short read, getting to the end is well worth the time and entertainment. I'm interested in how the movie will turn out. CW (the Basic Bottom line)

It is vacation time and the parents believe their children are on a field trip while the school administrators assume the six went home. Instead, the sextet decides to perform a human experiment. Five of them (Frankie, Goeff, Alex, Mike, and Liz) will climb into a forgotten "Hole" in a building in a neglected section of the massive school. The sixth Martyn will shut the door to the cellar to lock the quintet inside, but come back three days later to release the participants from the Hole. They would be heroes among their peers for this glorious prank.

During the volunteer stage of their captivity, the five students discuss their dreams and fears. However, as the time for freedom arrives and passes without Martyn opening the cellar door, the teens panic fearing death. They become desperate and start doing ugly things in hopes that someone will save them from the ordeal.

THE HOLE is a strong psychological thriller that will remind readers of the Lord of the Flies, but though quite good is not at that level of excellence. The story line is told in two voices. A therapist-narrator working with the survivor who is writing her story down as part of her healing. This technique takes away from the tension because the audience knows the results of the ordeal early on. Still, Guy Burt writes a taut, albeit slim thriller that will please those readers who enjoy dark psychological tales of human failure.

Harriet Klausner

I'm normally a tough grader and hardly ever give 5 stars to a book. This book deserves between 4.5 and 5 stars.

The book is a shocking, deeply disturbing tale of psychological suspense. It would be a good to very good book until the last few pages are reached. The ending twists the rest of the book around, and gives a solid explanation for some of the problems that you see before and raises the book to the status of excellent.

I enjoyed the book more than "Lord of the Flies". Its a quick read -- you can toss it off in 2 hours, but I don't have any problem with that. If you prefer longer books, then this might not be right for you. I certainly got value and then some for my money.

I picked this book up at the library on a whim. It looked like a quick read - and it was, but the story really sticks with you. Unlike some reviewers, I liked that fact that the author didn't go into extensive detail about the motivations behind The Hole experiment, or into why Martyn was the was he was. To me, the story was made all the stronger by the fact that so much was left up to the reader's imagination. Sure, I would have liked to have known more details. But that's not the kind of book this was. The ending of this book really makes you want to go back and reread it!

Five young classmates agree to be locked for three days in a cellar, which they refer to as "the hole," located beneath a seldom-used school building. Masterminded by a sixth classmate, Martyn -- known around school for his stunning pranks -- he's set the five up for more than they bargained for. After the three days, Martyn doesn't appear, then the water and electricity stop. The five begin to realize that they may never leave the whole. Or is there more to Martyn and this "prank" than they were lead to believe?

"The Hole" starts a well-crafted story that slowly builds its suspense through both the story of the five in the hole and through remembrances from a survivor. But, just when I found the conclusion to be very satisfying, an epilogue is thrown in that tossed in many confusing new questions about the reliability of the survivor and the veracity of the events I'd just read. If this ending had been hinted at throughout the book, I probably would have found the epilogue more palatable than I did. Instead, I felt cheated and disappointed.

The only thing I found unsettling about this book, is that so many people liked it. Why anyone would even consider comparing it to the Lord of the Flies? Beats me.

First of all, it is all rather predictable. Just reading the back cover pretty much tells you what you can expect. The Epilogue adds a twist, but I was so disappointed by the first 140 pages (95% of the book), that I was desperately looking for SOME sort of a twist anyway. The problem is that the book is simply boring. The cover says "The Novel of Psychological Suspense." Come on, not much suspense, other than waiting for the twist (which comes way too late to save the book), and no psychology, other than some pseudo-medical gibberish. I don't want to spoil it completely, so I will leave it at that.

It seems to me like the author wrote the book, then read it, and realized that it is worthless. So, not wanting to re-write it, he just added the Epilogue. Pretty smart, but to me it simply could not make up for how bland everything else was.

I thought it was a pretty good book for an 18-year-old, and that I should try to pick up some of his more mature books, but just realized that Guy Burt is now 37, and still far from fame.

At first, I thought the dialogue was confusing to the point that I wasn't even sure who the narrator was. Then, as I read further, I became enthralled. I had it all figured out. But, with the epilogue, I found that I hadn't figured anything out, although the clues were certainly there. A masterful work by an 18 year old writer.

One beautiful spring day, Martyn decides that he is going to create the greatest prank "Our Glorious School" has ever seen. Martyn is a brilliant prankster, always conceiving dirty, sly jokes that send ripples throughout the school. Everyone knows who the culprit is, but since he is so quiet and so good --- handing in homework on time, doing tons of extra credit work --- he never gets caught. Martyn hopes that this will be the case again. He rallies five specimens to take part in this prank with him, but he isn't looking to get a laugh out of them. Martyn is testing a theory. He wants to create an "experiment with life," one that none of them will ever forget.

The five students come from all cliques in the school: Geoff the strong, Frankie the festive, Alex the meek, Mike the brave, and Liz the savior. All venture down into a long-forgotten pit inside the school grounds while the rest of their classmates are on a school trip. Their parents all assume the five are on the trip as well. Sound cool, so far? The five students have time on their hands, time to chill, party and --- become trapped in the scariest predicament imaginable!

Martyn is supposed to pick them up three days later. When night comes on the third day, they realize he isn't coming back. And so the five unwittingly become part of an unimaginable mind game. Food, water, and then lastly light are taken away from them, one after the other. Fear, anxiety, hopelessness, and tension grow and threaten the five. Will they ever get out of there alive?

THE HOLE, a suspenseful and electrifying novel, digs deep inside the mind of Liz, the narrator and writer of the novel. Liz's perspective becomes dulled and strange as the book continues on, due to the deprivation and horror with which she is faced. Is Liz telling the truth? What really happens?

THE HOLE compares favorably to such books as William Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES and John Fowles's THE COLLECTOR. If you like psychological suspense and crave a quick reading thriller, THE HOLE is the medicine you've been looking for. The uncertainty as to what really occurs is definitely what British author Guy Burt is aiming for, and he knows how to keep his audience captivated through different perspectives and personalities. How do five completely different people survive an incident so insane? You'll have to read to find out!

--- Reviewed by Rachel, high school student and reading diva

I won't go into great plot detail as other reviewers have already done so. I have not seen the film and don't intend to as it is hard for me to imagine that it does the book justice.
This is definitely a psychological thriller with a twist. I enjoy books that leave something to speculate on at the end rather than being spoon-fed every detail and The Hole delivers on this front. While the writing is a little choppy at times, it was overall a very good read. It certainly is not a book that I will forget. My only wish is that the fictitious doctor's fictitious report at the end actually existed so that I would have more accurate fodder for my speculations.