Another Lucy Clarke that worked for me! I loved her book I read last year (ONE OF THE GIRLS) so I was excited to get to this one. It's similar in its structure (short chapters, multiple POVs) and has the same overall tone of mystery, suspense, secrets, etc. Though this is one of those "thrillers" where you will find yourself saying "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?!" I just leant into the fiction of it all. Also, the ending was a bit of an eye roll, but again, overall, didn't take about from the experience. If you enjoy hiking, this would be a great pick for you.

I am still sitting here, staring at my phone, wondering how on earth this book could have wrecked me in less than 25 pages. I enjoyed the way this thriller was written so so much. My heart is still a little tender from that ending but...
Never ever will I go hiking alone ever again. These four friends trekking across the Norwegian wilderness stalked by not only people but their own inner turmoil kind of sealed the deal on me being an inside person.
Overall, this was one of the best thrillers I've read this year.
Thoroughly impressed and I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time. I am a sucker for anything set in Norway so I may be a little biased, and no matter how creepy those woods seemed I loved every tense moment of this book.

Liz, Maggie, Helena, and (sometimes) Joni take turns picking destinations each year for their annual friends trip. Typically it’s a relaxing beach, but this time Liz is picking something adventurous; desperate to incorporate some change and control in her life. Off the ladies go on an isolated hike up a Norwegian mountain that a couple locals have warned them about. Not everyone is who they seem out in the wilderness, and the friends may be in even more trouble than they thought.

Overall, I think this was a solid 3 ⭐️ read for me for a survivalist thriller. The plot seemed to have intermittent slow pacing. I did enjoy the multiple POV and the conflict of secrets/resentments among friends. There was also something about the resolution at the ending that was just okay for me, but it wasn’t bad by any means.

This book was a very unexpected thriller. What I mean by that is, with a few exceptions, I did not predict this story and nothing went the way I thought it would. It was gripping and suspenseful, I would highly recommend it! Definitely a strong five star read!

A group of friends reunite each year for a trip. Typically, they enjoy sandy beaches and cocktails. This year, they are hiking a mountain in Norway. From the start, it becomes clear that the women, and the wilderness, are hiding secrets which may put them in danger.

I had a copy of this book for a while, and I kept procrastinating on reading it for a while. I am so disappointed with myself for not jumping to read it sooner. Once I started, I could not put it down! I tend to avoid books focused on nature adventure, but I loved the descriptions of the setting. We also get a small glimpse into Norwegian culture when we meet locals. I loved the pace of the book which felt suspenseful from start to finish. Would recommend, especially if you’re looking for something to read during a cold, rainy/snowy season.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for the opportunity to review this ARC!

This book was just okay for me, it is a standard survivalist thriller. It did have some interesting twists and I liked that it was set in Norway which did make it a bit different for me! I think this was one step up from most domestic thrillers for me, as I really couldn’t put it down. I just wish somehow the ending had been a little less predictable. All in all, I liked the characters a lot

Lucy Clarke consistently produces books that are like a bag of white cheddar popcorn - I do not have the willpower to put them down and will glut myself on it with no remorse.

Clarke pieces together solid thrillers with well-rounded characters and fast-paced plots. I also love how she hints at another story line as she goes, leading the reader one way and then directing them another. It's very satisfying to be along on that ride.

"The Hike" is no exception. Much like "One of the Girls", we are taken along on a trip with four friends, and the book is revealed slowly through all of their perspectives. Spliced in are short segments about a woman's body, having been seen on a ledge beneath a precipitous drop and a man who goes out to find out whether she is dead or alive. As a reader, you are left to wonder who that body might be, which of our characters has fallen victim to a fall?

Clarke's books are solid summer reads, hitting a spot that few thriller authors hit for me. It was a pleasure to receive this ARC, and I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for my copy. The opinions expressed above are entirely my own.

The Hike
By Lucy Clarke
Pub Date: 29 Aug 2023
PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons
General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers
Rating: 4/5

Lucy Clarke's The Hike is an intricate story of friendship and survival. True to Clarke's writing style it is a slow burn that quickly ignites. It is a gripping and suspenseful tale with well-developed characters. Psychological thriller fans will enjoy the plot twists in this book.

Synopsis:
Neither Liz's marriage nor her job are fulfilling her. She plans a daring journey to regain control of her life and redefine her destiny. As a result, she convinces her three closest friends to join her for four days together backpacking in Norway's extraordinary mountains. However, the group quickly discovers that they are not the only ones seeking solitude in the mountains as they travel further from society. There are many sinister secrets and dangers in the wilderness. Will their vacation become a life-or-death struggle?

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for allowing me to experience this exciting novel. Lucy Clarke's books are always highly enjoyable.

#TheHike

Honestly, this book had me from the start. Four friends with a ton of secrets, drama and history on a hike in Norway - what could go wrong? I feel like this book was super fast past for being a thriller. I feel like those are the best kinds of thrillers, because you don’t want to put down. You want to see what the outcome is for the girls. My only but is, part of me feels like this reminded me of something I’ve read or seen in the past. This was my first Lucy Clarke book and it won’t me my last! This definitely didn’t let me down.
Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books for allowing me to read this book before it’s published for my honest review. Needless to say when this releases I will be adding this to my library

A quick and easy read with enough twists to keep me engaged and eager to find out what happens next. What girls’ trip doesn’t have someone yelling at someone else at least once? It did annoy me that these women, who stress that they’ve been so close for years, were so secretive with each other and hashed things out when they were lost on a mountain buuuuut I guess that makes it interesting.
3.5/5

This one was a tad misleading. I also shouldn’t have read it so closely on the heels of She Started It, because they’re essentially the same story – a group of lifelong friends, all of whom are hiding secrets, go on a remote vacation and not all of them come back. In this case, our friends are hiking in Norway, rather than being lured to a private island, but the dynamics are very similar (and again, I had a hard time telling them apart). There’s Liz with the seemingly perfect family (but she and her husband are doing a trial separation); there’s Maggie whose entire identity is wrapped around her daughter; there’s Helena the wild party girl (I think she maybe has a good job too? That part was unclear). And also Joni the rockstar, who joins the vacation at the last second after several months of group chat radio silence.

We’re given to understand that these four take a vacation together every year, and each year someone different gets to choose. Tired of the same old “drinking by the pool” vacations, Liz decides they should go “wild camping” and hike Blafjell, a mountain in Norway. No word on why they decide to do it at the CLOSE of tourist season, rather than DURING tourist season, when it would be safer and the weather more predictable. This trip is truly something out of my nightmares, by the way - four whole days of hiking and camping, including climbing up a damn mountain, while carrying all of your gear on your back. Everyone besides Liz is about as enthused about it as I would be. And for her part, Liz is mostly just trying to escape from her life, imagining herself as some kind of Cheryl Strayed figure. We also get chapters from “the search,” where lodge owner Leif is racing against time to get to a body on the mountain, spotted by some German hikers.

The novel opens as the women are all preparing to leave, and we see the ways in which their lives are not as perfect as they’ve painted them (it’s also a classic case of idealizing someone else’s life because you’re dissatisfied with your own). They spend one night at the lodge in Norway before setting off on the trail, and basically everyone they come into contact with tries to talk them out of it (again, no idea why they’d decide to do this hike on the literal last day of the season!). There’s even talk of how the top of Blafjell is a “thin” place – as in, the line between worlds is thin and there might be ghosts up there. And also Maggie bears a striking resemblance to Karin, the woman who went missing exactly one year earlier…on the exact same hike. It’s a lot of build up and wind up, and it ends up not really paying off. I’d have preferred a more straightforward survival story.

It’s fine - one of those books you can fly through in an afternoon. I’m pretty sure in a few weeks, I’ll have trouble distinguishing this from She Started It.

⭐️REVIEW⭐️
The Hike by Lucy Clarke
Out 8/29/23 from @putnambooks #gifted

This was an easy breezy read. I read it in the 3.5 hour train ride from Santiago to Madrid. And it just was ok.

The characters seemed rather one dimensional and the plot “twists” were meh. I wanted to love it, but this was just fine for me. The “paranormal” aspect thrown in was unnecessary.

I did love the scenery of the story and the end epilogue was well done.

Recommend for those willing to go in knowing this is nothing new and there’s a lot going on.

This book was well written. The characters were real and relatable. The hardships they encountered as they completed their hike was edge of your seat exciting. The complications of facing the facets of intrigue faced was a true testament to their resilience and friendship.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishing for the ARC of The Hike by Lucy Clarke. Liz and 4 of her friends take a yearly vacation together. This year the trip is a 4 day hike in the Norwegian wilderness. One of them will not return. Read to find out what happens. Lucy Clarke is a favorite author of mine. This book was great!

While The Hike had amazing pacing and each chapter was the perfect length, the overall story fell flat for me. I was interested to see what happened but felt like I was reading a campfire story. This was was a quick read with guessable twists but was still entertaining.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The synopsis of this book had me HOOKED...but the novel fell short for me unfortunately. I liked the whole friendship sort of vibe we had going on, but if they are lifelong friends how the hell were there these big secrets? And why wait to share until you are ALONE in the WILDERNESS? I mean this isn't something bad, it just felt pretty dramatic to me. The book took me a while to get through because I wasn't in love with it. This might be a reflection on me and my reading tastes, but I just didn't feel a connection to it.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Four women who are the closest of friends take a girls trip every year and this year they choose something different which will be out of their comfort zones. They decide to fly to Norway to go hiking in the beautiful and possibly dangerous mountains for four carefree days to escape their everyday mundane routines and life problems while also catching up with one another's lives including babies, husbands careers and also some regrettable life choices over the years.

Not all the women are thrilled with the idea mountain hiking yet they're always supportive of one another even when they'd rather be on a sunny and warm beach in some other beautiful, exotic location. The people are welcoming although somewhat aloof in the small village of Norway and give the ladies instructions and advice with some warnings of dangers they could encounter while hiking. At times they feel they are not alone and being watched by an unseen,.creepy presence. The women aren't prepared to find themselves discovering something very bad that places them in great danger if found out while at the same time two of the women have been harboring painful secrets which will affect the group but only one will reveal a secret so ugly and shameful that it could cause a breakdown in the friendships or it could possibly cost one woman her life!


I loved everything about this book from the beginning to the final page. I'm a fan.of locked room mysteries and thrillers and that's what this story was even though it took place in the great outdoors. Oh, the writing and storytelling were just so good I hated having to put the book down to take care of my reality (sigh). I have now become an official fan of this author "Lucy Clarke" as I had read another of her books called "One Of The Girls" which I was also crazy about.

The atmosphere and scenery were made so visual that all my senses were alive with all the lovely, descriptive words and phrases where I felt I was an invisible party hiking alongside the women. Just so much fun and enjoyable entertainment with continuous threats of menace or physical danger lurking around every bend.

Not all the women were warm, fuzzy characters. Each of them at different times could be annoying or irritating but that's what made the story saucy, spicy and oh. so delicious! I highly recommend this book and I am so looking forward to the next novel "Lucy Clarke" writes as well as reading some of her previous books.


I want to thank the publisher "Penguin Group Putnam/G.P. Putnam Sons" and Net galley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given this novel a rating of 4 1/2 MESMERIZING AND EXCITING 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌠 STARS!!

Title: The Hike
Author: Lucy Clarke
Publisher: Penguin Group Putnam
Publication Date: August 29, 2023

“No help.
No cell coverage.
No one to hear them scream.”

Four friends take an annual trip together, this year to the mountains to hike. It was definitely a creepy setting, between the elements and survival skills needed. As their story is going on, simultaneously there is a story about a woman found dead in the mountains. Eventually they intertwine. I loved the development and background of each character. The ending wrapped up fast and kind of fell flat. I wish it was a little more drawn out and not rushed.

This is my first read by Lucy Clarke, and I was very impressed. The story follows four women who have been friends since grade school as they meet up for their yearly vacation. Each year a different person gets to pick what they do, and this year the woman in charge picks a three day hiking trip in Norway. At the beginning of the book we are told that one of the women is dead.
The story was beautifully atmospheric. I know that this is a thriller but the way it was described made me want to travel there. It sounded gorgeous! The relationships between the women, who all have their own personal issues they are dealing with, was believable and steered clear from a lot of the more stereotypical plotlines. There were parts of the book that I found predictable, but overall it was a fast, fun, and engaging read. I'll read more by her in the future for sure.

Holy moly that was fantastic. It was every bit creepy, thrilling, edge of my seat, heart stopping. I could NOT put it down. I am feeling all the feels right now with that ending! Thank you so much Netgalley and Penguin Group for allowing me to read this one. 5+ stars