The Hike

Cat and Ginny are sisters who have some significant problems in their relationship. On top of that, they both have cheating husbands. Paul and Tristan appear chummy, but are they? When the group starts a day hike together, you don’t have to wonder what could go wrong. Everything does. These characters are shallow, conniving, and dangerous. At first, I thought the book would be a fun family drama. Who’s sleeping with who: that sort of thing. But the plot quickly morphs into a suspenseful, violent thriller that kept surprising me. The author supplies many plot twists and ends with a fantastic shocker. I found ‘The Hike’ very entertaining in a malicious way.

I hated the characters...all of them...therefore, I could have cared less if one of them or all of them fell off a mountain. I think the author was hoping that most readers would be sad or be sorry to see someone killed off, but still want to stick around to see how it ends, and who gets their "just rewards". At the beginning of the book, she kind of gave it away with the teaser that implied that only two of the four would survive. It served its purpose to pique our curiosity, and for the majority of the book, we don’t know which characters it will be...and I frankly didn't care. There were also many twists, which always helps to propel the "thriller plot", no matter what the characters likeability was. There is one person who is show more clearly meant to be the "best’ of the worst", but they all do so many despicable things to each other that I wasn’t particularly disappointed to read the last page, but I was eager to solve the complicated puzzle that the author cleverly presented. We received a lot of the happenings in the story from out of the character's heads. They were always making, (thinking), vague threats in their head about the others, such as "as long as I follow my plan today, she’ll realize what a mistake she’s made." The entire atmosphere of the book is threatening, with ominous signs facing the group at every turn... a vulture that follows them up the mountain, a reliance on a paper map that no one is quite sure how to read. The reader sees from the beginning that this trip is going to turn into a major disaster that has found a place to happen. The author did a great job of using the characters lack of anything resembling common sense to keep the readers interest with twists we didn’t see coming. I don't know if this was an accident or if it was done on purpose.... but it worked. I just hung on to see what these idiots were going to do next and when finally, at least one of them, would take a header off the mountain. I guess it was too much to hope that they would take the others with them. The story can best be described as totally meaningless entertainment...and a pure waste of good reading time. show less

The Hike is a suspense thriller by Susi Holliday. Two sisters, Cat and Ginny along with their husbands, Paul and Tristan have come to the Swiss Alps for a hiking holiday and although four set out together, only two return.

All four of these very unlikable people have secrets that we discover as the book advances. Ginny is self-centered and selfish, Cat hates her sister and is having an affair with her husband, Tristan. Cat’s husband, Paul, has been accused of being a sexual predator and Cat, for one, believes this is true. Tristan is an obvious womanizer with a superiority complex as well as being a selfish jerk. Throw into the mix a mysterious man who is following the four and seems to be particularly attracted to Cat. As unbelievable show more as the first half of the book was, it only got more confusing and messy as the story developed.

The author’s intention was to deliver a dark and very twisted thriller but The Hike was too far-fetched and the lack of credibility was almost laughable. The point-of-view that jumped from character to character only served to enhance the lack of sympathy that these characters deserved. Basically, The Hike is a story about terrible people as they do terrible things to each other. show less

Talk about twists and turns galore! This was my Kindle FirstReads pick for Sept 2022. Keeps you guessing until the very end.

Two couples go on a hiking trip together - Cat and her husband Paul, and Cat’s younger sister Ginny and her husband Tristan. Four people go up the mountain, but only two come down. At first they blame it on dangers from rock avalanches from the mountain, but soon it’s clear (and it wouldn’t be a good thriller without it) that there’s foul play and all four of them are harboring secrets.

POV alternates between the four of them (though Cat seems to be the protagonist), interspersed with short chapters from an unknown male.

Now, the story was done well, especially as the entire story spanned a single weekend. show more None of the characters were likeable. Now, a character doesn’t have to be likeable for me to enjoy a story, as long as there’s something understandable/redeemable about them. But these characters have no redeeming qualities, as we find out early on and it’s only solidified later. Some more than others. Left me not caring who lived or died. BUT, it worked in the context of this story. We’re left guessing at which man and woman survived (they are unnamed until about 80% in) until the reveal.

Some of the twists were predictable.

The ending was another big twist, but I wasn’t satisfied at how it ended. It seemed abrupt, even for a thriller.

Otherwise, I enjoyed this a lot. It was a fast-paced read - many chapters but they are all relatively short. Kept me turning the pages, and for someone who’s read a lot of psychological suspense & thrillers! show less

Clever plot full of twists. Cat plans a hike in the Swiss Alps with husband Paul, sister Ginny and her husband Tristan, but dark motives are behind it. The cleverly laid plans have to be constantly adapted as things don't quite work out as envisaged. Interesting cast of dysfunctional characters!

Oh dear-----this kept me reading, page by page because I kept wondering what, on earth, was going to happen next....and how things kept happening, YES. But I did NOT care for any of the characters and frankly, they only (spoiler) got worse as the story progressed. Disappointing.

Readable but for the utter ridiculousness that takes it far beyond believability. Zero likable characters and literally everyone is a murderer. There were a ton of twists and turns but absolutely none of them felt surprising. I was fairly done with the whole thing once the stalker appeared but kept reading just in case things came together in a big “oh wow!” moment. They did not. On the plus side, it was rather readable so I did manage to finish the book.