The Hole

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!

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.

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.

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.

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