Five students descend into a secret room on campus, locked in by a fellow student as part of what they believe will be the greatest prank yet. But when no one comes to let them out, they begin to realize they might be part of a far more terrifying psychological experiment instead.

This is a creepy, suspenseful, gripping read. Burt uses flashbacks of "the Hole" expertly to both lead the reader on and keep them guessing.

The last chapter adds a whole other dimension to the story, and was definitely a major twist. I thought it was really clever-I love an ending that has me thinking back through the book to see what I missed and how everything fits.

Some of the sections moved really slowly, especially some of the flashbacks in "the Hole" early on in the story.

This is a really quick read-it just took me a few hours-and a gripping, scary, interesting one. It's worth picking up. The movie version is really good, and is actually one of those very rare occasions when I prefer the movie slightly to the book ( )

SPOILER: While their parents think they are on a field trip and the school thinks they are at home, 5 kids will spend 3 days in the Hole, a windowless cellar in their school. Martyn, the instigator of the prank, will remain above ground, promising that when the 5 emerge, they'll have been part of the greatest prank ever. But Martyn doesn't come to get them... In a plot twist, the story turns out to have been written by Liz, the only survivor in the Hole. How much of it was true? Was it Liz's idea? Did she and Martyn cook up the prank? Very British; found Liz's ruminations pretentious but perhaps that's part of the mystery of who Liz was.

At an English boarding school the charismatic, practical joker Martyn, convinces 5 of his schoolmates to participate in his greatest prank. He leads them to an abandoned section of the school where there is a deep cellar. The wooden stairs have rotted away but Martyn lowers a rope ladder and the 5 willingly climb down into "the hole". Martyn then removes the ladder, closes and bolts the door. The 5 teens have told their parents that they have gone on a three long field trip to the mountains thus ensuring they will not be missed. Martyn told the group that once the field trip is over he will return and let the 5 out and won't everyone have a jolly good laugh. When the three days and nights have come and gone the teens realize that Martyn is not coming back after all and that nobody on the outside has any idea where they are. Food and water run scarce and emotions heat up turning the 5 against one another. Desperate to get out of the hole the teens begin to suspect that Martyn is a psychopath and the joke is on them.

Allowing for the fact that the author wrote this book when he was only 18 years old it had an intriguingly creepy premise. However, the narrative jumped back and forth between the teens in the hole, someone writing the story after the fact and a friend of Martyn's who had no idea of his prank. Very very very confusing. There are questions left unanswered, one of them fairly large, and the ending, while clever, doesn't help this mess of a book.
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Omg. What a device. Three stars for what I thought it was (a little over, actually) and a whole extra star for being what it is. In a way, in regard to what it is - not the story, it put me in mind of a much shorter simpler version of Liar. Simple but imaginative and effective. I know this is very vague but its hard to really say anything about the story itself without spoilery risks. It's a quick read. Read it. ( )

A very good story. While the book was relatively short, and the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more, it was well worth the read. ( )