Rating: 
Summary: Drivel
Review: Pure drivel. I couldn't help but feel that I had just read the screenplay to Blair Witch Project. And we know that was a baaad movie.Pass on it.
Rating: 
Summary: Premise, Promise, and Payoff!
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the Read
Review: 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)
Rating:
Summary: Weak book gets much undeserved praise
Review: This is without a doubt the worst book I have read in five years. The characters are weak, the dialogue is stilted, and the ending just leaves you frustrated. The book starts out promising, I mean who doesn't want to read about 5 morons locked in a hole who hopefully end up doing all manner of terrible things to each other, but it simply doesn't carry through on its own premise. The reader is given only the barest of reasons for why these kids are to be locked in a hole for three days. Sure it is said that "Martyn" wanted it to be an experiment in real life but it is never fully explained what this experiments point is, or why these idiots agree to be part of it. Once it is figured out that Martyn isn't coming back, you expect them to get all Lord of the Flies on each other but the worst thing that happens is that one girl gets slapped a couple of times by one of the other girls. Ohhhhh, that was just about more than I could handle. Whatever. No suspense, no tension, no anything. The worst part of this book have to be the last four or five pages where there we are given information that hints at a much more compelling story that we will never get to read because apparently the author was too weak to try and pull it off. Save yourself the trouble and do not waste your time.
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