The Hole: A Novel

I found this under horror genre and the whole time I was waiting for it to get scary. The ending was abrupt I sat in shock for a second and realized what it meant. It's terrifying.

That I finished this novel in 2 sittings. The novel was so intense and the ending was so abrupt. The novel is so dark and twisted.

This is a very unique story, I think made more powerful if you can learn a little about South Korean social culture and keep it in mind as you read. It will give the story more impact.Still, very worth the read.

This is a strange book. Admittedly I was expecting a book a little more like Cipher when I started. It is a quiet story, with a invisible dread that lurks in the corners but never shows its head. If you are the kind of person that likes introspective, reflective novels, this is a good one to consider. That being said, the ending comes unexpectedly and may leave some readers feeling cheated.

Excellent life lesson. Too wordy for what was trying to be taught. MIL character was useless to story line's point.

[Somewhat spoilers herein.]What a clever novel. You're led through the story by a limited third-person point of view-- and I think your ability to grasp the tiny nuances framed oh-so-innoculously by the narrator will hinge on how sensitive you are to picking up on the red flags associated with this type of toxic dynamic. By the end, you will have secondhandedly experienced it, in how you're drawn in to empathize heavily with the protagonist, only to have him reveal hints of sharp details that cut through the initial Nice Guy illusion at the very end.Oghi is accomplished, driven, and self-made. And he deals with a wife who is unfortunate in life but fortunate enough in love that she has found a good husband in him. The impact is definitely more of a psychological punch than an emotional one, which fits the type of person the author was meaning to portray through Oghi.There is no explicit villain in the traditional westernized sense, because human beings simply are messy and wonderful like that. But there is a central source from which all the drama stems, and the blame-shifting is done so subtly that you simply accept it for what it is. A somewhat dry (due to the character POV, I'm guessing, since I haven't picked up the author's other works yet), but quick read, that could possibly be considered a "fridge thriller" for how enjoyable it is to think about in retrospect.

Was the book good? Meh...Was the book bad? Meh...Was the book anything like Stephen King's "Misery?" No... not by a long shot.I was recommended this book as a "If you liked Misery you would like..." post. After reading the description I decided to read it, and overall it's Meh...If you are looking for a truly suspenseful "What did I just read?!" book with action, violence, and craziness in every page; this isn't it. But that isn't to say the book shouldn't be read either. I don't want to give anything more away; but don't expect "Misery".

The images stay in your head of a crippled man who can speak trying to escape his mother in law

I thought the premise of this story sounded was interesting. It's a very slow moving piece, and the writing is lovely as it slowly winds its way through the story, but for me, only a hint of the psychological terror that was supposed to be so strong in the book. There was one instance early on when Oghi's in the hospital that was creepy and I thought the rest of the book would follow suit, but it didn't. So I think this is more of a deeper look into depression, deception, and hopelessness in life.So if you have any mental health issues, or need care after trauma, this would just enhance the feeling of hopelessness. I read the editorial reviews after finishing the book and they just don't match with what I expected from this. It's still a good book, just not sure it fits in with the genre I thought it was in.

I'm blaming this purely on postpartum brain because I usually love books like this but man. This missed the mark. The story goes nowhere and tells you nothing. It's somehow too short and too long at the same time. Hated it.

Some people compared this book with Stephen King's "Misery", but they're absolutely different. "Misery", of course, it's a great novel, but this one have a heart. A woman's heart. It's a sad story about two helpless people and the enormous hole they dig for themselves.

Ok, so it won the Shirley Jackson award...whooptie doo! The blurbs mention that it's "the Korean take on [Stephen King's ]'Misery' -- and certainly it has parallels to it. However, if you've read Edogawa Rampo's 1927 short story "The Caterpillar" you can't help but find 'The Hole' excruciatingly derivative. Maybe I've read too much Asian mystery stories, but I could see this one coming a mile away...and -- for me -- there was no tension or pathos in the narrative.