The Hike

The Hike, by Drew Magary, is about a man who gets well and truly lost. The man in question is Ben, a thirty-eight year old with a wife and three kids and a house and an important business meeting to get to. Before he goes to the meeting, he decides to take a walk. The walk turn into a hike. The hike turns into a mad sprint for his life. Then he gets lost.

The hotel is gone, as is the road, and all traces of human civilization. The only thing left is a path, and, seeing no other options, Ben follows this path, in the hopes that it will take him somewhere eventually. Then, strange things start to happen, and they keep getting stranger. Only one thing is clear: If Ben goes off the path, then he will die. As long as he stays on the path, he - well, the point is he should stay on the path.

The Hike is a beautifully written page-turner with memorable characters and one of the best endings I've ever seen. Honestly, I think The Hike is my favorite book now. It's hard to find words to express this fully. There's just nothing about it that I don't like. It has a great little mystery and a few twists which not only genuinely caught me by surprise but also made me completely change the way I framed the whole thing. I love it so much.

If you like good books, then you should read this book.

Bangs & Whimpers

Bangs and Whimpers, edited by James Frenkel (I'm not sure how much credit he should get), is exactly what it says in the cover: stories about the end of the world. There are nineteen stories in all, each by a different science fiction author.

There are a surprising amount of different themes in the book, although the sun explodes one time too many, in my opinion. Some of the stories are sad, some dark, some hopeful, and a few actually funny. The only thing they have in common is that, by the end of the story, something very bad has happened. Well, most times. See? So many kinds of stories!

Because they're so different, it's hard to say anything aside from "they're good." I mean, umm... They're short stories, so the longest take at most an afternoon. Most of 'em are science fiction. I love them all, except "Finis," and maybe the lemming one. The cover uses mainly warm colors.

Look, this is too hard. Just... if you have ever enjoyed anything post-apocalyptic, or any story in which everything goes wrong, or sci-fi stories with interesting twists and mechanics, or bleak stories about human weakness, or hopeful stories about human ingenuity, then you will definitely love at least one of the stories in Bangs and Whimpers.

John Dies at the End

John Dies at the End is a book in which, in the final act, a man named John is killed. Seriously, just look at that title, and imagine an entire book written in that tone. That's reasonably close to the truth.

As for the plot, John Dies at the End is about David Wong and his best friend, John. They live in the smallish town of [Undisclosed], and spend their time being obnoxious and sometimes drunk. One day, John takes a drug called Soy Sauce, which makes everything terrible forever, because it exposes him to a dark alternate universe of doom. Dave gets infected as well, and they go on an epic journey to save the world.

There are, like, millions of quotes where people talk about how this book successfully uses humor and horror at the same time. And, yeah, they're pretty much right. I laughed out loud at many parts of the book, and at other parts I was deeply horrified. Very deeply. As such, I think the easiest way to see if you will like it is this:

If any of the following subjects are complete deal-breakers for you, and you would never read a book with them, do not read this book:
Spiders
Cockroaches
Penises
Cursing
Gore
Eyes
Alternate universes
Death
Severed limbs
Fun
Painful transformation
Untied plot threads
Murder
If none of these things immediately make you want to flee from this review, you will probably like the book. If you aren't even bothered by any of these things, you may have found your new favorite book. I, personally, thoroughly enjoyed it, despite feeling very uncomfortable at parts. I'll leave it at that.

James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl

This book was AWESOME!!! It's about a boy who grows a peach as big as a house. Then he finds a hole in the peach and he goes in the hole. Then he opens a peach seed and inside there's a whole room! And there is a giant silk worm, a giant lighting bug, a giant grasshopper, a giant ladybug and a giant spider. The grasshopper nibbles off the stem of the peach and then they all go rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling and then the peach rolls into the sea. Then sharks come and the peach gets lift up by seagulls! Then they go from one adventure to another to another to another and at the end they are famous and they live in New York.

This book is about weird things, adventure, friendship, adventure, and more adventure.