Book info

• Title Holes
• Author Louis Sachar
• Year 1998
• Genre Young Adult

Stanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck, so when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre (which isn't green and doesn't have a lake), it's not exactly a surprise. Every day he and the other inmates are told to dig a hole each, five foot wide by five foot deep, reporting anything they find. Why? The evil warden claims that it builds character, but this is a lie. It's up to Stanley to dig up the truth.

Thoughts

I’d never heard of this book or the author, and I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know what to expect as I opened it up, but I was pleasantly surprised. It took only a moment to realise I was reading another children or young adults book, but the story was brilliantly captivating.

Initially, it seems to be some kind of redemption story as a kid pays his dues at a detention centre. Then the back story starts to get filled in, and as it all weaves a beautiful path towards the end, every step just makes more and more sense and feels totally right.

I didn’t like the idea of eating onions for a week, but the writing was so good that I actually thought I could smell onions as I was reading. The twist at the end, explaining how they managed to take the suitcase unscathed was brilliant.

Rating: 4 / 5