[Insert pun about reading slumps and Holes]

It’s there, somewhere. I just can’t quite grasp it.

Spoiler warning!

Everyone has seen this movie and the movie is the best movie adaptation ever so if you’ve seen it you know the book.

I was in the worst reading slump. I couldn’t get through Dia de los Muertos, I picked up The Walking Drum and it just wasn’t grabbing me. I was contemplating rereading the Wideacre trilogy just to be able to read again!

Then I looked at my roommates bookshelf. I have lived with this man for two years, I am the one who organized his shelf, I have never noticed that he owns Holes by Louis Sachar. Like most people i loved the movie adaptation with Shia Labeouf when i was a child. I never realized it was a book until years later, and it wasn’t until recently that I rediscovered it and wanted to read it.

For those who don’t know Holes is about a kid named Stanley Yelnats who is sentenced to 18 months at Camp Green Lake for stealing sneakers. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake but there is plenty of mystery and there are curses to be broken.

Now the spoilers start, if you wanna turn back.

This book is great. It’s simple, it’s a page turner. I’ve seen the movie but I still found myself worrying about Zero when he runs away and is sick. I worried when they were in the pit with the Yellow Spotted lizards. I was anxious for Sam and Katherine. Ugh, all the anxiety!

I also had forgotten a bit of the ending so when Stanley carries Zero up the mountain I was like “Oh! Their descendants did The Thing!” which of course it tells you. Part of me thought it was beautiful the way it all happened.

It was fun rediscovering these characters while reading, I found myself picturing them as the actors but that didn’t bother me any. It was fun relearning the history behind the curse and the camp and how Stanley and Zero are both linked to it all. It was fun watching Warden get her shit shut down. It was just FUN.

It took me maybe three hours to read last night and it’s gotten be thoroughly out of my reading slump. Dug me out of my hole. Hehe. No? Okay.

Book 7 of 36: Holes by Louis Sachar

• 1- Don’t Read
• 2- It’s Good
• 3- Read
• 4- Highly Recommend
• 5- Must Read

Just read this book. It’s fun and quick and just perfect. It’s obviously a bit more simplistic than i normally read but let’s be honest, complexity does not make the book. Some of my favorite books are ‘childrens’ books. Holes is simply a great read if you are a non-reader but it’s also a good read if you are. It’ll hold your interest, i swear. And if you liked the movie you will love the book. The adaptation is spot-fucking-on but the book is just always better than the movie.