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The Author
Guy Burt was born in 1972. He was the son of two schoolteachers.
Guy Burt was educated at Hall Grove Preparatory School, where he won a scholarship to Chaterhouse. At the age of twelve he won an award in the W. H. Smith Young Writers' Competition, and has been writing ever since: amongst his other preoccupation's are composing and performing modern jazz. He recently graduated from Ballio College, Oxford with a first class degree in English, and now he teaches.
His second novel, Sophie, was also published by Black Swan.
Summary
At the end of the term in the Our Glorious School, a group of teenagers named Mike, Liz, Geoff, Frankie and Alex start an experiment. Martyn, a friend of them, has got the idea to make "an experiment with real life". He wants to put his five friends for three days into a cellar, and after this time he wants to speak with them about their feelings in these days.
So the children take food and other things for three days with them and go into a cellar in the schoolbuilding, named the Hole. There they have water and a lavatory. In the first three days they talk and drink alcohol and lead a "normal" life. After three days they expect Martyn to let them out of the Hole but the boy does not come to open the cellar. So the problems start. There is not much food left and so they have to help together. At the beginning they think that Martyn is ill and so he would just come a little later, but in the end they start to realize that they have become victims of a psychopathic genius who really makes an "experiment with real life". Nobody wants to eat anything, because he or she thinks, that another member of the group has to die because of this action. Then they start to talk about their situation and they find out, that they can survive as long as they have got enough water. But one day later the water goes out. As a result Liz has the idea, that Martyn is listening to them, and that he knows everything about them. Of course he is not standing in front of the door all the time, but he has put a cassette recorder somewhere in the room.
To prove that her idea is true, she mentions one day that it could be worse if there is no light and as a result some days later the light goes out. The only guy who knows about the fact that Martyn is listening beside Liz is Mike, because he is the only person who Liz can trust. After some more days Liz has the idea, which might free them. She says, that she has talked to a friend of her about the fact that she is in the Hole and that this girl will free them on the next day. And really on the next day the door of the Hole opens. But it is not Martyn it is his girlfriend Lisa. When they are all free again Lisa tells them the story about Martyn.
After Martyn has listened to the tape with the trick of Liz, Lisa tells him that she does not want to stay with him any longer. As a result Martyn rapes her and disappeares after this crime. Lisa had seen the tapes before she talked to him. When Martyn has gone she listens to them and so she finds out that her friends were in the Hole the whole time.
Characterization
Martyn:
Martyn was the one who wanted to make the experiment with real life.
After he had locked them into the cellar, he did not come back.
Instead he was always listening to them and recorded their voices, and the "stuff" they were talking about. He also turned off water and light.
Liz:
She was the one who started thinking clever without getting hysterical. She was the leader of this group, and everybody listened to her.
After those three days she recognized Martyn's plan, and played tricks on Martyn.(p.ex. she told the others, that she has told somebody where they are, and that they will be rescued at least on the following day)
she is the one who keeps everything under control.
Mike:
Mike is the only person who talks with Liz about what is going on. He and Liz trust eachother.
But both especially Mike is afraid of this situation. He always has in mind that this plan might not work out well.
Geoff:
He is the outsider of this group, because he doesn't think, that he will be rescued somehow.
Therefore he only thinks about himself and doesn't care much about any others. But Liz doesn't let him think this way.
He wants to keep alive as long as possible.
Message
From my point of view the message of "After the hole" is that if someone gets in this situation he should keep calm and start thinking how to get out of this situation.
It does not help to go crazy because you will never get to any useful solution.
Language Style
This book is written in "easy" - understandable English.
It is written in 3rd person, and the author wanted to get through a lot of dialogues in touch with what those three people were going through.
Critical Evaluation
I really loved reading this book, because I could not stop reading. It was so exciting, and I always wanted to know, if they would be rescued.
Luckily they were !
After reading I though about what I would have done in this situation. Luckily I have never been in this situation, and I never will.
+: In seinen Bestandteilen in Ordnung. Sprachlich bemüht.
-: Der theoretische Teil des Referats hätte ausführlicher sein können.
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