I have confessed this before, I am a fan of “survival while hiking,” “lost in the woods,” and “ no cell, no contact” fiction. So obviously, I was excited to receive Lucy Clarke’s, “ The Hike.”

Story centers around four friends who decide to go on a challenging and somewhat treacherous hike. Now, not everyone is eager to take the hike, especially since they hear about a missing girl who resembles our main character Maggie, but as friends do, the come together and do it. Of course, each Carrie’s secrets and burdens that will eventually come to light.

Maggie, a rather plain, and staid, and wholesome woman, in my opinion is the lead. Helena, a typical obtuse and difficult character, does have a big character transformation and arc in the story. Liz, a selfish, self centered and holier than thou character, is the one who wanted and needed this trip, so it came to be. Last but not least, Joni…

For me, this story started out very slow, even while introducing and building the characters. However, Ms. Clarke, did do a good job of dishing out a fair amount of conflict early on. There was plenty of action, atmosphere and great descriptions of hiking. The characters were strong, albeit not really likable.

Different women, different lives, survival of the fittest and a murder mystery.

Told from each of the women’s’ perspective, this twisty and lively thriller is worth a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Lucy Clarke delivers an emotional rollercoaster with The Hike. The story starts off innocent enough - a group of friends going on their annual vacation, each carrying their own problems with them. Liz, who chose the vacation this time, brings them to a mountain in Norway, where they’ll spend several days hiking a mountain. And that’s where things get complicated.

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading this book. Lucy Clarke did a phenomenal job of making it difficult to know who to trust. Everyone involved in the story has just enough motive to be distrusted, but is likable enough to root for. The wilderness setting provides a great atmosphere for the mystery of this book, and the way the chapters are set up really help to keep you guessing. Although this book is absolutely a mystery, at its core it’s also a story of friendship, love, and life. I’d highly recommend this book to just about anyone!

Grade: B

Four British women head North to backpack in Norway as a girls’ getaway. We have Liz, the leader and most put-together of the group. Maggie is a struggling single mother with a heart of gold. Helena has a carefree lifestyle of career and fun. And the fourth, Jodi, is a world-famous rock star. However, these women bring more than just their gear to this trip, where they battle the elements and each other.

It was the Norway aspect that drew me to this book. Norway is a dramatic, breathtaking country, and Clarke brought the landscape to life. Clarke states in a note at the end of the book that the location of this novel is fictional, but it seemed completely realistic to me. I also really enjoyed the fact that the climate and environment are a force in the story. While they aren’t the main antagonist, they are fascinating in the role. The weather and the environment take no sides and have no bias or ulterior motive; it just "is," and there is nothing anyone can do to control it. I feel as if the bulk of the tension in this book came from the natural world.

The pacing of this novel works well. I never felt that the forward motion of the narrative stopped, although there were a few places where I noticed that it had slowed for a chapter or two. As with any thriller, there are some twisty moments, and the ones here did not disappoint. The twists were not overly creative, but they were unexpected and made sense in the grand scheme of the plot.

I found the characters of this novel to be the weakest link. It isn’t that they were badly written or unrealistic, but more in what they brought to the story. All four women are at a point of some crisis in their lives. While these moments come to everyone, it was just too coincidental that all four women were going through some trial at the exact time of this girls’ getaway. I would have liked to see one of the characters be, well, okay in life to provide some balance. There were also moments where the women just made incredibly stupid decisions, and I did feel that the plot relied on these moments a bit too much.

This book is written from multiple viewpoints. This is a popular technique in modern novels, but I don’t feel it works especially well here. For one thing, there is no tonal difference between the narrators. There were times when I would forget who I was supposed to be focusing on. All the viewpoints were written in the 3rd person. I feel it would have been more effective to write in 1st person with voices different enough to differentiate one from another or skip the entire format of multiple viewpoints and tell the story in the 3rd person omniscient viewpoint.

While this book had some flaws, I can’t deny it was fun. While it falls firmly in the “popcorn thriller” category, it is the kind of delicious popcorn that will keep you taking handful after handful.

This was my first Lucy Clarke book but won’t be my last. I was guessing until the very end and that’s what I loved. I couldn’t even trust my own assumptions! The pace was great and this is a must read !

Lucy Clarke has quickly moved into my must-read authors list, so I was super-excited to receive this ARC. My excitement was worth it. This is advertised as a thriller but is much more. Liz, Maggie, Helena and Joni have all been best friends since grade school. They take a girl's trip each year and this year Liz chooses hiking in the mountains of Norway. Yes, this sounds like the setup for a lot of books of this genre and you wouldn't be wrong. The difference to me was each character is given a distinct voice and interesting backstory. I liked each woman and hearing her story. Now of course emotional baggage and drama still ensue but wait! The author throws in a nice little side plot to help take care of the thriller aspect. Did not see all that coming. Kudos for atmosphere too. I really felt like I was hiking in the woods and mountains and feeling the characters' exhaustion. Norway has been on my bucket list for years, so the setting was perfect! This is just a nice, fast-paced escapism sort of book. I recommend this author to fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware for sure! Look forward to more!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Lucy Clarke and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC. All opinions are my own and I will post my review to Amazon, Instagram and various other retailers and social media sites upon publication.

What do you get when you drop members of Sex and the City + Daisy Jones, lifelong friendships, yet a bundle of secrets in the woods? This book!

For a domestic thriller, I rather enjoyed this! A slow burn for about 60% of the book painted the friendships & fictional mountainside so well!! Like, how much was shown not told was very captivating! I was drawn in and happily strapped in for the trip and enjoyed watching the full characters unfold before me.

The twists were well done and had me flying through paragraphs to see how the last 40% would unfold.
The ending was sooo good, too!
It was great to see how the characters developed, too.

The Hike was a good, fast-paced book that feels like a combination of a mystery and novel about female friendships. Four women nearing 40 who have been friends since high school go on a 4 day hike on a across a mountain. They're unprepared for what a hike like this would entail from a knowledge and enduance perspective. A few things give the story an ominous feel: hen they arrive, the locals tell them a woman disappeared on this hike one year prior and hasn't been found; a few locals feel somewhat creepy and have mysterious backstories; one of the women knows a big storm may be coming.

The women head out on the hike and intertwined with those chapters are the chapters of one of the locals working on a rescue/body recovery of an unknown female hiker.

The book kept me reading and I was curious to see what happened next. I lked the pacing though I wish I'd have known a bit more about each of the four hikers. .Their backstories felt a little rushed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Four childhood best friends set out on a hiking trip where they leave with only the bare minimum and are set to hike up a large mountainside in Norway. Liz, the organizer of this annual girls trip is fit and trained for this event. The other three did not take it seriously, and are struggling to finish the hike..
Lots of craziness on the mountain lies ahead.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

First, I would like to thank Netgalley for the arc of this book. When I first started this book, the prologue sucked me in instantly. I had such high hopes for the book, and it fell a little flat to me until about halfway through. I didn't want to stop reading, just a slower burn than I would normally have with a thriller. With that being said, I gave it 3.5 stars. My first book by Lucy Clarke and I will be checking out more!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I honestly have mixed feelings about this. This claims to be a thriller, but I didn't really find it thrilling. It really reads more like a drama than a thriller. That's not to say I didn't like the book. I enjoyed the writing style; there's a bunch of detail inserted without being an info dump, and the imagery is very vivid through said details. I was interested in each character and their backstory. The plot was engaging enough that I easily kept reading, but it was too slow paced (for me) to be considered a thriller. There were some tense moments yes, but I didn't really get anything from the "suspects" presented in the book. None of them really instilled fear or had a foreboding presence. When the "big reveal" came, it was almost as if the author tried to hard to make it unexpected, but the shocking moment fell flat. And the ending just bummed me out altogether.

This book was a little slow for me. Everything ties together nicely at the end and the book does pick up about half way through. Every year four best friends take turns picking their next vacation journey. This year is Liz's turn to choose. Liz, Helena, and Maggie are all getting ready for their backpacking trip but no one has heard from Joni yet. They finally get to Norway to begin their trip hiking Blafjell Mountain. They are all spending time together in the lodge when Joni shows up! They next morning they begin their journey. There's something about Blafjell Mountain that doesn't feel right but no one can place it, they always feel like they are being watched. Back at the lodge, there is a rescue alert for a woman that fell off a cliff on the same trail Liz, Helena, Maggie, and Joni are hiking. Are the best friends really alone or are they being watched? What will happen to the four women? Will we find out what secrets they've been hiding for each other?

Four best friends - Liz, Joni, Helena, and Maggie - set off on a four day hike through remote Norwegian wilderness. The lifelong group of friends takes a yearly trip and takes turns deciding where to go. This year, Liz, a type-A doctor whose marriage is on the rocks, decides that what she and the girls need is the healing power of walking. She encourages her three best friends - Joni (a rock star with substance use problems), Helena (a city girl who would never be caught ~dead~ without her lipstick), and Maggie (a sweet, single mother) - to ascend a literal mountain with her for this year's trip. The route that Liz selects for them to take is described by the locals as being a "thin place" where the dead are closer to the living. Upon arriving, they learn that Maggie is a ~dead ringer~ (sorry for these puns) for a girl who went missing on the mountain almost a year to the date before. Told from multiple POVs, this thriller winds between the past and the present. Four women started off on the hike - how many will come back?

I enjoyed this one! I read it essentially in one sitting. This atmospheric thriller was a quick, easy read with lots of suspense. I especially enjoyed the focus on female friendships.

Thanks so much to Lucy Clarke and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC through NetGalley. The Hike will be available for purchase in late August.

🏔️ ℝ𝔼𝕍𝕀𝔼𝕎 🏔️ • 𝙰𝚁𝙲 •
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒌𝒆
Author: Lucy Clarke
Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕
Format: E-📖

This was a super fast paced pace thriller! It follows the story of four women who have been friends since childhood and vacation together ever year. This year they are spending four day hiking in the mountains of Norway. All the while trying to hit the reset buttons in each of their lives. The the trip plays out they discover that they might not be the only one looking to lose themselves in the wilderness. If they aren’t careful, not all of them will make it home…

Likes:
• The beautiful imagery of the mountain and beach!

• How each of the four women have traumas and conflicts they are trying to overcome while on this trip. And that you are given little snippets of their history together!

• The multi POV. I love when this type of story telling works!

• All of the little towns people from the lodge! They each had their own little quirks and personalities that lend to the mysterious nature of the book!

• The thrills and twists: Yeah sure, they were pretty predictable, but they were still good twists! And the largest point of contention, did not see the resolution of that one coming! But I did predict all of the little hiccups that happened along the way!

• Also the emotions that are drawn out of you! I actually cried during this once or twice! Not sure if it was just because I had finished ACOWAR right before this one or not, but I still got emotional!

Overall, this was your standard thriller and was not life changing like a Karin Slaughter book by any means, but it was still entertaining and had you are the edge of your seat! It was fast paced so it really helped make the suspenseful vibe and increased your need to finish the book! I would definitely recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books for granting me the ability to read the ARC! Publication for The Hike is August 29, 2023!

This is my first Lucy Clarke book and it did not disappoint.

Liz and her three best friends go on a girls trip every year. This year Liz has planned a hiking trip through the mountains of Norway.

This book took me to the mountains without having to leave my couch. I was kept on my toes the whole entire book trying to figure out who the killer was.

The book did not go the direction I thought it was going to go by reading the description. I also feel like the ending before the Afterwards kind of rapped up quickly. The afterwards was great and a ending to the book.

Even with that I was entertained the whole entire time. I felt myself picking up this book every second I go a free moment. This is a fast paced survivalist thriller.

I will definitely be reading Lucy’s back catalogue.
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Disclaimer - avid hiker here - note - never get into a fight with Mother Nature you will not win no matter the extenuating circumstances.

First the characters are very vibrant and come off of the pages. 4 women who were best friends since school have an annual retreat and this hiking trip was this years trip. Each character has her place in the group - her strengths and weaknesses and how they tie together.

What threw me off and what is keeping me from giving this a 5 star was the timeline. How on day two is there a search started and for whom ? When you read this you will understand what I am saying.

There was some omg moments to look forward to and some eeek! moments and some slap that girl silly moments.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!!

Four friends plan to hike a dangerous peak in a remote part of Norway…. What could go wrong.? I loved the authors use of the remote wilderness as a character. Told by a different narrator each chapter and it left me wondering what was going to happen next. This is a fast paced thriller that kept me entertained.
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to reading this book in exchange for an honest review.

Friends since their school days, Liz, Maggie, Helena, and Joni take a vacation together every year, most of which have been spent on a beach. This year, they challenge themselves to climb a mountain in Norway, for which none are prepared. They also aren't prepared for murder, but they aren't alone on the trail.

This book is very atmospheric, with the Norwegian scenery crystalline in the prose. While the climax and resolution aren't as tight as the suspenseful leadup--and they rarely are in thrillers--the book is a very enjoyable read. I look forward to checking out more of Lucy Clarke's work.

#TheHike #NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-Arc copy of this novel. A edge of your seat novel that will have you rooting for Liz!

This was my first Lucy Clarke book, but won't be my last!
This was a little bit of a slow burn for me, and took a while to introduce the characters at the beginning, but it was a good one. The plot and story line were good, and it was a great thriller! As an outdoors person, I really enjoyed being able to relate well to the story. Great descriptive writing.

Thank you, Netgalley for this ARC! I appreciate being chosen to read this before the release date!

I’ll admit, I’m not an outdoorsy person, at all. I couldn’t relate to a group of women wanting to take a hike up a huge mountain for their holiday/vacation. However, I have read other books by Lucy Clarke, and I knew if I was going to like any book about the subject, it would be written by her. She really brings the scenery to life, and while yes, this isn’t a romance in any way, she made it beautiful. The story itself really reels you in. It has short chapters which I love, multi narratives as well, which I love. I stayed up late a few nights reading this book and finished it in the early morning since I couldn’t finish the last hour or so. I highly recommend this book, it hooks you from the start and keeps you guessing.