The Hike, by Drew Magary, is an odd tale, the story of Ben, who finds himself wandering a strange world that is filled with elements from his life. He has to avoid a number of potentially deadly situations as he tries to find his way through this strange world. In the end, he both learns a bit about himself and comes to peace with some of his past.

At first, it felt like Ben just makes one random encounter after another, and it seems like there is no real point or purpose to these events as he wanders this strange world. After some time, they start to gel and there is a larger picture that emerges. However, at the end, it isn’t quite clear what the purpose of Ben’s wanderings has been. I have my guess, but it is really only that, a guess. Or, I’m dense. Probably more likely the latter. But, still, while the story of Ben’s hike is entertaining and, quite honestly, very unexpected, the reason for it left at least me guessing.

That said, I enjoyed it enough that I will for other books by Magary.