the hike // drew magary

published: 2016

pages: 278

isbn: 9780399563850

read: 2/2-4/2017

rating: 1) didn't care for it 2) liked it 3) LOVED IT  

SYNOPSIS

When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects.

On a quest of epic, life-or-death proportions, Ben finds help comes in some of the most unexpected forms, including a profane crustacean and a variety of magical objects, tools, and potions. Desperate to return to his family, Ben is determined to track down the “Producer,” the creator of the world in which he is being held hostage and the only one who can free him from the path.

MY THOUGHTS

GUYS! I know the year juuuust started but I LOVED this book. I think this might be my favorite of the year....

I found this book through the ig account, bookpairings.

I followed her because she loves to pair what she reads with a drink and well, I love to read and my bf loves to drink so i was like "hey! perfect!"

the cover alone is THEE only reason I picked this book and luckily my library had it.

its not a scary read but because I'm a huge chicken shit I was kind of hesitant to start based on what the book is about...but guuuys! i love this book.

I just finished it and I'm having a serious book hangover.

I have it on my amazon cart and I'm thisclose to buying it.

I loved everything about this book.

it starts right away which is something I'm not used to really.

most stories take time to build but from the get go, the story with the path starts so you get right to the point.

I love this book because of Ben, he gets into some shit and instead of being a typical macho man he breaks down when shit hits the fan. when he's broken and feels like he can't go no more, his family is what keeps him going.

he went through so much shit but every time he felt like he should give up, he kept pushing and everything that he needed was there for him as he needed it.

so even though he was trapped he was always safe as long as he stayed on the path.

I LOVED Crab and Fermona. heck, i even loved Cisco.

I loved that Crab was there to help him when he needed it. I was sad when they had to split buuut i was honestly shocked when I found out the truth behind Crab.

I loved Fermona because she was this lovable giant who, even though she was kind of "evil", she was still good for her word. I don't want to spoil to much of her part in the book so I'll just say that for the most part, she was the best. probably my fave.

and Cisco, he was a trip. i don't want to give this away either so ill just say he arrived at the right time and was exactly what Ben needed and i know its just a book, but i hope wherever he is, he made it alright.

and Ben's wife....I skipped to the end so I knew right away how it ends but I wasn't expecting that little twist. and I kind of loved it also.

...one day, heck even a couple of hours can seem like soooo many years.

I read a couple of reviews on goodreads about this book and people weren't crazy because this is honestly a wtf book but it was, in my opinion, a good read.

its unlike anything i have read. maybe in a while....maybe in forever,

and if you decide to pick it up, have an open mind about it.

I will definitely be re-reading this book.

ill leave you with some of my fave parts of the book and like before I'll do spoilers afterwards....

"my friend, just because God loves you does not mean that He can save you from suffering."

-Cisco pg 202

"you don't have to say anything. it's love. love doesn't require an explanation."

-Cisco pg 232

"there's no honor in surviving. its what you're supposed to fucking do. half of the people who survive stuff don't even know why or how they did it. I know I don't. 'honor' is some bullshit word men made up to jerk themselves off. you can get away with anything if you just say you did it with honor."

-Ben pg 232

"there comes a point in life when you've seen so much that hardly anything surprises you or bothers you and that's a shitty moment. wisdom is so terribly overrated."

-Ben pg 249

as you can tell (but in case you cant), this book has a lot of cussing. i mean not a lot, there could be more words in there but they're definitely sprinkled in there so, ya know. if that's not your cup of tea then you've been warned.

thanks for reading!

#lesreads on IG

SPOILERS

Ben arrives at his hotel and asks the check in lady if there is a trail to hike in the back to which she replies no.
he doesn't believe it so he goes on his own and finds a trail. ...and he curses the lady.....


he's walking, taking notes about where he's at when he finally notices a path made by an atv.....he keeps going and he sees a house behind a fence and he sees this big guy dragging a dead girls body and he freaks out.
before he runs away he notices that the "guy" is actually a regular body, dog faced guy. he freaks out takes off and of course the dog man runs after him.


he thinks he's going back to the hotel but of course since he's now on the path, there is no going back.
he thinks he's getting away but in fact he's running into another one.
he remembers his football tactic and he manages to knock him down.


he manages to get away and he stumbles upon a tent and a camping area with no one around. he doesn't trust it so he decides to sleep several feet behind it just in case someone came that would be able to help him.


then he wakes up to his high school sweetheart and even though he's married, he sleeps with her.


the next day he keeps following the path and runs into Mrs. Blackwell, he's freaking out and asking her for a phone or a weapon but of course, she has none of that. she tells him that she can help him get to another city and will feed him so but he has to pick her weeds.
he's like wtf!? but he does it.
she then gives him 3 beans and he's like you're crazy.
she explains to him what they are, what they'll do and how they work and he thinks she's crazy but he takes them and takes off.
while on the path he runs into the dog men again and that's when he learns that the beans actually work.


I think after that his next mission is to beat this huuuuge giant cricket but before he goes in the house he meets Crab.
they, well he, defeats the cricket finally and it turns out that he's hiding access to a boat and they take off. but of course the boat has everything he needs. (everywhere he goes, he always has access to what he needs.)


his next mission is to climb this mountain and reach Fermona's castle. which he does. she kidnaps him and keeps him locked up for about a week. stuffing up getting ready to fight.
she finally gets him out and he decides to fight the 1 guy vs the 5 dwarfs. of course the 1 guy is a dog man and thanks to crab getting him a bag of beans, he's able to defeat the dog man and the dwarfs as well (cause I mean, you knew Fermona wasn't going to play fair).


since he wins, he manages to convince Fermona to release all of her prisoners (all those others that were on the path that couldn't get past her) and he takes off.


they take off and this is where Crab and Ben split ways and well, you learn that Crab is actually Ben. he came back to help this young Ben make it through.


Ben goes back to Fermonas cave because he needs a mixture of some human bones and stuff that he can only get from her. and I think he also captures her here.


after they separate he ends up in another hotel where he eventually gets taken to a hot ass desert by Voris. 
there he spends about 10 years trying to build him a castle.
that's where he meets Cisco.
he was dropped of by Voris too to also build him a castle.


they spend several years together and eventually Ben realizes that the last missing ingredient to his potion is gold. which Cisco (who is from back before America was discovered) has in the form of a tooth.
Ben goes crazy and they both end up toothless.


so they finally have their potion and they use the last bean and voila! he has a vacuum which he needs to suck up the smokes. (they were there to guard Ben and Cisco to make sure they worked and didn't run away.) they use the vacuum, suck em up and take off on the truck that was always there.
Cisco was amazed at the technology of it.


they drive, drive, drive and hit another hotel, try to kill Voris and get rescued by Fermona who's sorta angry because Ben fed her hot dogs and she's spent the last 10 years looking for more.
he tells her where to get them and she gets them out of the hotel.


they take off again, and they end up at the beach with an amazing layout.
that's where they learn they have to split up and Cisco ends up leaving the very next day. Ben stays for a week.


then afterwards, he turns into a crab....we've come full circle and he goes on to help his younger self. irritated by how naïve he used to be.


as a crab he just walks and walks for weeks (I mean there's other stuff) until he hits a table and he comes back to Mrs. Blackwell.
there she tells him that he can turn back into a human and take a train to meet the producer or he can take the gun and kill himself.
he takes the gun and gets on the train.


he then learns that he's actually the producer.
he gets taken to this, iduno, office? where he meets a producer.
there he learns that basically what happened is, certain people are chosen, they study their past and build their path based on that and once and IF they make it to the end, they can either go back to their life or they can go to another universe where its the same but even better.


Ben then gets a knife and cuts himself in half.
the real Ben goes into the real world and the other Ben gets to go enjoy the "better" world.


so Ben gets out, goes back to the hotel to get his stuff and heads home.
he makes it home, hugs his kids and sees his wife and that's when he realizes that she also went through the same thing.
the night she came home from work crying about how she killed people but she couldn't talk about it because they would kill her finally made sense to him.


and that's it.


there's honestly a lot that I left out.
a lot, a lot. the stuff about his wife and the back stories explaining why the things that happened to him on the path happened and how they were connected to his path....


its just a really good book. I think I did a crappy job of telling it to you but trust me.


this ones a good one.
I loooove this book!