Thank you so much to NetGalley and Putnam for this advance copy of The Hike in exchange for my honest review. This one is out now for purchase!

I’m landing on 3.5 stars rounding down - this book had a decent pace, and definitely moved quickly, and we follow 4 friends that reunite for a hike up the mountains of Norway. We’ve got Liz, the organizer of this years’ trip, Helena the edgy “cool” friend hiding a pregnancy, Maggie the newly divorced awkward friend and Joni the rock star. Everyone knows how much I love a messy dramatic character, but these ones were a little too cliche for me, and the “twists” scattered throughout the book were a bit too random to me. There were also random Norwegian characters showing up that really didn’t add anything until the last 25% and then ended up having a much bigger role out of nowhere.

Thank you again to the publishers and NetGalley for this ARC - The Hike came out at the end of August (2023) and is now available!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this book for na honest review.

This book is about a group of women you like the outdoors and decide to go on a four-day hiking adventure. Everyone they run into on the way tells them to turn back because a storm is coming but they decide to continue on. This book was just ok, it was boring at times. I am not much of a camper but I know now I have less likely to go camping.

Lucy Clarke is one of my go-to authors, and her recent The Hike was phenomenal. I love any book that take place outside, but Clarke took it to the next level. Four friends choose a weekend hiking trip for their annual vacation together, but everything quickly starts to go wrong as secrets are revealed both on the mountain and within their friendship. A classic "who can you trust" thriller, this is a book that I could not put down until the shocking end.

Fast friends since secondary school, Liz, Helena, Maggie and Joni take a holiday together each year and this time it’s Liz’s turn to choose the destination. Tired of the trips centered around a pool, Liz has chosen a hike in the mountains of Norway. Never knowing if Joni is going to join them or not they set off for Norway hoping to find her already waiting for them. When Joni arrives, they are delighted, to have the rockstar in their midst, but will she be able to outrun the demons that haunt her? Liz is determined to make this four day hike, a hike that is dangerous and the others are ill prepared for. Even when warned about weather conditions, Liz forages on, but there are secrets on the mountain, things that someone wants to keep secret. Secrets that are worth killing for. Are the woman safe on the mountain or are their eerie feelings along the way real? Each woman her her own secrets as well and when these secrets are revealed, hearts are broken, hearts that desperately need to be healed. Will anyone come off the mountain unscathed and is there anyone they can trust, including each other? This fast paced thriller will have you up way past your bedtime as you join this group of fast friends on an adventure none of them had bargained for! Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Effective in creating a lot of ambiance and juggling a big cast. I found it slower paced than your usual thriller.

An exciting, fast-paced new thriller with a gorgeous setting. The Hike follows four friends on their annual vacation - this year, it's a hiking trip in Norway, and the setting works fantastically to build an increasing sense of suspense as the four women find themselves in over their heads in this isolated (or is it??) and wild place. The four women's POVs felt different enough from one another to justify their separate viewpoints, and the tension built up over the course of the story really well. A solidly enjoyable read, with a satisfying conclusion.

Thank you to the publisher for the advance review copy.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! This was my first book by Lucy Clarke but will not be my last! Some parts of the story felt a little cliche but overall a suspenseful and entertaining story that kept me reading to the end.

This was a fantastic, fast-paced thriller filled with suspense. The Hike follows a group of four friends on their annual vacation together. Hiking in Norway is their destination this time around.

The story is told from the POV of each of the women and a Norwegian man named Leif. As they go along on the hike, the tension and suspense rapidly build.

The isolated setting and the fear of the four friends are brilliantly captured by the author. Their desperation as things progress, and they realize the danger they are in is gripping. I couldn't put the book down. I needed to know what would happen next.

I was completely surprised and blown away by the ending. I absolutely recommend this one to anyone wanting to read a great suspense thriller.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I want to start off stating that this is my first book ever by Lucy Clarke. That being said, I do believe I will pick up even more by her going forward. This book highly surprised me in the fact that I enjoyed it as much as I did.

The different POVs really help you slowly get to know each character’s backstory, as well as you get a chance to really get to know how each is feeling throughout the hike. The twist was predictable, but the book still kept my attention.

Super fast read, super fun! Great pace, great characters, great scene setting.

I want to personally thank NetGalley, as well as the author, publisher, and anyone else involved in providing copies, for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Reviews will also be submitted to Goodreads when possible.

Four lifelong friends go on a hike in Norway for their yearly trip. They aren’t exactly adventure people but are giving this a shot, Each character takes turns narrating, along with a mystery man who is on his way to rescue someone. The book is very suspenseful and has you wondering who it will be. I felt the best connection with the characters at the ending and felt they opened up the most then,

I'm ripping through this book at breakneck speed. Another of Clarke's travelogue thrillers--the reader gets minute detail of setting and place, which is what this reader loves. Four friends on a hike in Norway--what could go wrong? I'm halfway through the book and am very much looking forward to what happens next.

TW: Language, drinking, drugs, divorce, toxic parent relationships, pregnancy, graphic sex scenes

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Maggie, Liz, Helena & Joni. Old friends bound by history, adventures, old secrets.And now, bound by murder.They lace up their hiking boots for the adventure of a lifetime in the Norwegian wilderness: a place of towering mountains, glass-like lakes, log cabins and forests stolen from a fairytale.It’s the perfect place to lose yourself – until a broken body is found at the bottom of a ravine.Somewhere out there, someone knows exactly why a woman has died. And in this deep, dark wilderness, there’s a killer on the trail . . .
Release Date: April 27th, 2023
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 384
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Enjoyed the way the writer wrote
2. Atmospheric descriptions

What I Didn't Like:
1. The rambling
2. All the different women's chapters had the same tone
3. 5 pov's... Why...

Overall Thoughts:
This turned out not to be the hiking book I thought I was getting. So much filler for the beginning with them at home and then a concert.

I thought it was funny that they acted like Vilhelm was stalking them when he was already at the river fishing. I don't think it's odd that he didn't yell out to them. He was probably worried he would scare them. And isn't he from this area so why is it so odd he is out here fishing? And yeah he went somewhere where there was no path but they don't know this area so they only know the tourist trails...sooo perhaps he knows something they don't know.


So the whole thing about Joni being outed for lying about being sick and unable to continue on with her tour goes no where. Not only that but Liz could lose her license ends not being a big deal to her. Why wouldn't they turn around to figure out these things? Why even make this such a deal that they would have a fight about it if it never mattered?


I STRUGGLED to care about these women. They bicker back and force over the smallest misunderstandings.

I seriously don't understand the women in this book. Maggie finds out that she's being stalked by a man who almost kidnapped her till Vilhelm and her friends showed up. Do they then decide to go back with Vilhelm (who offers to show them the way back) or stay and stay at the ocean? Of course they stay at the ocean and then the whole time they wonder if the stalker is out there watching them. These women are so stupid. Why wouldn't you just go back? It's like the old saying how a man will never ask for directions or turn around.

I am just so annoyed with these women. We find out that Joni took a bag of cocaine because she's an addict so that makes sense. But no one takes the time to think why did she take this bag maybe she is an addict. No instead the women start jumping on her for not going to the one woman's mother's funeral. I don't understand how we got to that. This is my biggest issue with this book why are all these random shit coming out it doesn't matter. You are going to die let's blame the person who kept us walking.

Omg and now they found a drug drop site. Sigh.

Final Thoughts:
If I could describe my experience with this book then I could sum it up in one word; BORED . It is so completely slow and takes forever to even get to any form of "action." The author would take you to point where something was so close to happening and then just pull you back while the character was saved. This happened so many times and honestly I feel like it stalled the story and we were just going through the motions of these characters. These women had so many things happen to them that had zero to do with that plot and all before they hit the trail.

I had a dnf this book at 60%. I just did not care. I did not like the women. I did not want to know where the story went. I hope I never meet these women ever in my life.

I am going on a hike tomorrow, so I will try to not imagine this novel happening to me out there 🤣. Lucy Clarke strikes again with an awesome read, full of twists and suspense! She’s really good at describing your entire surrounding, I felt like I was with this group of women out on the cliffs. If you enjoyed her One of the Girls novel, this will deliver on all the things as well!

I was really enjoying this book in the beginning then it started to get a bit slow for me. I started skimming to see how it would end. Overall the characters were okay. I thought the death was a bit cliche but I know some won't expect it and enjoy this one. Overall not a bad story but not one I would recommend to my book club.

The Hike was an interesting read about lifelong friendships in a remote setting. Intersecting characters and interesting dynamics between the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC!

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

Well, this made me not want to hike ever again - just kidding. It was a fun, quick read that was somewhat predictable but it kept my attention.

Sometimes you need a thriller that's fun and trope filled. The Hike is your classic "best friends take a girls trip and things go wrong" story, but it's well executed and the characters were written well. Take a brain break and give it a read. Then go take a hike👻

I didn't love this book as much as I'd expected to, but I did like it. I enjoyed seeing the different friendships and how they all correlated, and finding out secrets about each of the women in the story. I'll definitely continue reading books from this author in the future.

Four best friends and a yearly epic trip! This year is Liz's turn to plan it and with what feels like her life crumbling around her, she needs more than just a beach vacation. She needs an adventure and to feel like she has a purpose outside of work and her family. She needs the long ago planned Norway trip. What feels like the trip of a lifetime quickly turns as everything keeps going wrong. Now the 4 friends are trapped on a mountain with a killer and they just can't pinpoint who it is.

A book based around a hiking trip in stunning Norway plus a killer on the mountain? Count me in! Lucy Clarke just has a way to set the scene and her characters with the perfect amount of details that always make her books a must read for me. This book was no different and I couldn't put it down!

Thank you Net Galley for the e-ARC!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I loved the setting. The author did a fantastic job setting the scene and making me feel like I was right there with the women. The dynamic between the friend group really made for and interesting story. We got twist after twist and I did not see the end coming!