Match Book
The Hole
小山田浩子
2020 · Literary fiction
How it reads
The Hole is literary fiction (surreal literary fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is eerie. It's atmospheric and uncanny, with a sense that something is wrong. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in a rural setting, in the present day, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are identity, secrets and nature. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. It's a short book. It's a hidden gem — known to relatively few readers.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something eerie
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or heartwarming
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- literary fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- rural
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- eerie
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- third person, one viewpoint
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- hidden gem
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- HarrowJoy WilliamsShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, surreal literary fiction
- The HoleHiroko OyamadaShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, surreal literary fiction
- WitchesBrenda LozanoShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
A Spectral HueCraig Laurance GidneyShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn- I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward DarknessIrene SolàShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
SistersDaisy JohnsonShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
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