After the Hole

by Guy Burt

Martyn persuaded five of his school friends to take part in what he called `an experiment with real life' - to stay locked in a windowless cellar in their school for three days, after which time he would release them. But three days passed by, and Martyn did not return.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Young Adult, Mystery, British Literature

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 1993

About the author

Guy Burt (he/him) is a novelist and BAFTA award-winning screenwriter.

Burt wrote his first novel, After the Hole, when he was 18. He went on to write two further novels, Sophie and The Dandelion Clock, and taught English for five years. When After the Hole was filmed (as The Hole, starring Thora Birch), Burt began writing for screen, and has become one of the top screenwriters working in Britain today. You can see his screenwriting credits here.

He now works on both novels and screenplays, and divides his time between England and Spain. He is married to philosopher Chon Tejedor and has two children.

Reviews

[astarion's bhaal babe (wingspan matters) · Rating 2 out of 5]

unpopular opinion time: the movie was better.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading the first two thirds of this book, I was thinking – I’m going to write this a really bad review. The plot was slow, the characters were indistinguishable from one another and the viewpoint shifted from third person to two different people telling you the story in the first person! It was very confusing and hard to follow, but I persevered until the end… and I’m glad I did.

Like the movie Arlington Road, the closing moments of this story totally change your perception of everything that has come before. I won’t give the ending away, but suffice to say, all the points of the book that I thought were shortcomings on the author’s part are explained as not only being a very clever plot device, but also essential to the story you’ve just been reading.

I saw the movie, The Hole, many years ago, so it was inevitable that I was going to compare the two. I think the characters are more individually defined in the film, which believe it or not, is not necessarily a good thing. Also, the police investigation, which is the central hub of the movie, isn’t in the book at all.

That’s not to say this book is perfect. I suppose many readers will have put the book down before the ending explains why the confused narrative HAS to be the way it is, so hopefully you’ll take my word for it and keep going. It’s a short book (150 pages), and the idea is a simple one, but the ending – and in retrospect the whole book – is very clever.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this. It sucked me in right away - I read about half of it this morning on the bus running errands, and then couldn't put it down once I got home. I liked the twist ending, and while I've read some reviews where people said they wished there had been some foreshadowing, I thought there was plenty. The "future" parts of the book were very idealised and just made me kind of suspicious, but also I just had a feeling that it couldn't end so happily-ever-after. I wish there had been a little more reveal to the epilogue, but I don't feel that it was too sparse. Leaving things to the imagination is a perfectly valid choice, even if I'm like "argh, I want to *know*!"[return][return]I hadn't realised there was a film of this. It seems to be completely different from reviews I've read, but I plan to check it out anyway.

[Szuwarek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wszyscy pisali o zwrocie akcji na koniec i myślałem że już go przewidziałem. Jak się okazało nie do końca ale przynajmniej miałem rację co do relacji Liz - Lisa.

Nie wiem co o tym myśleć. Nie polubiłem postaci, dużo rzeczy wydawało mi się takie strasznie niskie i niesmaczne ale może takie powinno być.

Nie rozumiem tylko po co zamykać ludzi w bunkrze. Wiem że Martyn ma być taki trochę owiany tajemnicą że nie wiadomo do końca kto to ale serio po co zamykać ludzi w bunkrze???

[Ghoul Von Horror · Rating 3 out of 5]

TW/CW: Language, underage drinking, use of c-word, underage sex, anxiety, sexual assault, toxic relationships, physical abuse, gaslighting

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:
On a spring day in England, six teenagers venture to a neglected part of their school where there is a door to a small windowless cellar. Behind the door, the old stairs have rotted away. A boy unfurls a rope ladder and five descend into The Hole. The sixth closes the door, locks it from the outside, and walks calmly away. The plan is simple: They will spend three days locked in The Hole and emerge to become part of the greatest prank the school has ever seen. But something goes terribly wrong. No one is coming back to let them out . . . ever.
Release Date: February 11th, 1993
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 164
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Liked the writing style
2. Characters were written well
3. Book flowed
4. Short chapters

What I Didn't Like:
1. Certain pages came off confusing
2. Ending is a let down

Final Thoughts:
I did not care for how the author would have three things going on;
• Elizabeth in the future
• The story of what happened in the past
• Lisa's recordings
It all felt like too much. We would also jump from Liz walking through town or riding the book right into them being in the hole, it made it all feel pretty confusing at times since there was no cut off point between what was happening.

I was hooked from the first paragraph. I have to say though that I did watch the movie first years ago and it's haunted my mind since. I never knew it was a book but when I found out I had to read it. It's definitely a short book coming in at only 160 pages so you can get through it pretty much in a day.

I didn't find the characters to annoying but I did find some of the things they did very unrealistic once they grasped the realization that they were unable to leave. I think it speaks volumes that the author wrote the characters like they wouldn't really tell somebody where they were going. I'm not really sure if a group of five teenagers would be unable to tell other people that they were going into this area alone to party so you have to really suspend your disbelief for that.

Like I said some chapters were confusing though but because you really didn't know it was happening. I'm not sure what happened in the epilogue. It's kind of implied that she maybe hallucinated because of her situation and she was actually in there longer that everybody else died and she was the only one that survived. But then we also get one that Mike maybe died on day 6. It's kind of like an ambiguous ending. Really don't even know what's real or what's true, so I found that annoying. I didn't need in ambiguous ending for this book.

Overall though I will say it's pretty good book but I do prefer the movie to this. The ending of a movie it's just amazing. It still creeps me out. If you have not seen the movie go watch it it's creepy and psychotic.

IG | Blog

[Lacie Scout Bateau · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started out seeing the movie that this is based on. I didn't realize ut was based on a book until my daughter pointed it out. I found tge movie to be very dark & gripping that stays with me and I often go back to watch it. I still get those shivers and the metallic taste in my mouth when I do so.
That being said, the book was slow, dry and the characters were flat; no depth. Everyone says that they don't see the twist that comes toward the end. To me it was poorly executed. I felt little to no emotion throughout, but wanted to finish it, thinking "okay here comes the good stuff." I am still left waiting for something that never happened.

[Jesus Flores · Rating 2 out of 5]

a volatile score, started as an ok simple 3 stars, then got a twist that make it 4 stars, and a second twist brought it down to 2.

A very poor character development in first part, that takes away complexity of the interesting second part.
A nice character with deductive abilities and some nice game of mind-strategy.
An interesting final twist that makes you forgive the shortcommings of the book.
An absurd expanded twist that makes you throw away the book

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's like if Stephen King and M. Night Shyamalan had a baby and that baby wrote a book. Towards the end you get this horrible, sickening feeling and then the twist comes and you get this gaping, mouth-open "wtf" feeling. It's well written and expands your mind but not a feel-good, for the heck of it story.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastically dark and sinister. The layers in this book leave the reader puzzling over it for a long time.
I first read this book in 1993 and its darkness stayed with me for years. A profound mind-bender.

[Emilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75/5

[Koltyn Krenz · Rating 2 out of 5]

5 kids decided to pull a prank on the school the prank made on sense. Most of the book was super boring and made no-sense whatsoever. The book plot was about how 5 kids found a room in the school and there was a hole. They decided that it would be a good idea to that they would all go down there for a prank which was a dumb prank. But when they got ready and they had one person hold the rope ladder then after they all went down he left. But he felt betrayed because he couldn't go down there so he left and locked the door but the other didn't realise how he felt about the situation. They were supposed to be down there for 3 days as the prank that's the whole plot. They basically sat down there and told stories to one another drank alcohol and had conversations. Then after awhile like half way through the book which was boring and confusing they found out they weren't gonna be let out so they had to find a way out that's when the book got more interesting but then got boring again. I wouldn't recommend this book is was a waste of time.

[Martyna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected a lot more. From the beginning I was irritated by the style the book is written in, that loose slack. It gives an impression that it is written by an elementary school student who came up with the idea that it was time to create something of his own. He sat at his desk and wrote ''The Hole'' and it personally seemed brilliant to him. The novel is written chaotically, without explaining its issues, with an ending disproportionate to the whole content.

[Dana Jerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got a good hard whiff about pg. 82 what was going on. S’ok.
Apparently the movie is quite different from the book.

This gem lurked on pg. 27:
“If we could all live our lives in the present, with no recourse to what has gone before or what might yet be, we would be so much the simpler for it. But in fact the here and now of life is all too often the least considered, while thoughts of the past and expectations of the future conspire to tangle our minds with irreconcilable regrets and hopes. That is part of what makes us the people we are, I suppose; but it was very good, for a little time, to ignore the outside and simply be together.”

[Jessie (Zombie_likes_cake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently was looking at my book shelves, as one does as a book nerd, and my eyes got caught by this cutie. When the movie adaptation came out I was obsessed. I am not certain but it was possibly the first time I experienced a story with an unreliable narrator, or at least one of the very first times. It also is a story about a group of people stuck in a place with echoes of "Lord of the Flies" and a general teenagers are disturbing spirit: seriously, what's not to love. I quickly moved onto the book that inspired the movie which at the time I equally loved. I haven't experienced either in something close to 20 years so I thought it would be fun to revisit and see what I think now. I haven't gotten around to the movie quite yet (but will soon), so I might update my thoughts on that here.

But the book. It definitely reads like a YA novel from the 90s, and I mean that in the best and worst way. The dialogue is sometimes cringe, the writing is overall rather basic and it is a very quick read. But I still think it is a cool story, a story that YA wouldn't do these days anymore. These teens being stuck in an underground bunker-like hole to avoid going on a boring class trip but things go South and now they all might die here! Dun dun duuuun! It's a solid take on the group in peril, the ending offers so many interesting possibilities and I appreciate how much book and movie differ in that regard, I think both do well with their respective choices in their specific format. I think the movie is a bit more thrilling (we'll see if it holds up to me now though...) but the book has much more in form of interpreting things. Most of it is highly spoilery but the ending makes you wonder about Liz in so many ways but I don't think it confirms anything in particular. And of course offers so many options as to what truly went down during the time in the hole. Loved this for that.

All that said, I removed a star from my old rating, it's not quite on that level anymore. I think we spend a bit too much time with romantic shenanigans, there is a reason for that, yes, but I think the movie might have found a better way to provide a faster pace. The novel takes a bit too long to get to the so good ending. But I can't complain too much, I flew through this, propelled forward to find out how it exactly ends because I only remembered it is not the same as the movie, the movie ending I remembered. This was quick, engaging, exciting, dark. Also a bit dated and could have been even punchier but I for sure enjoyed the read.

How would I have reacted if this was my first time reading? I don't know, I feel like the writing would have bothered me more but with my nostalgia I was willing to get past that. Like I said, it lost a star but I think my fond memories also made sure it would never drop below 4*. In that sense, I don't know if I can recommend this. But I am glad I reread this and I am so excited to rewatch the movie now.

[izz · Rating 4 out of 5]

okay so actually the epilogue is masterful and i love it! i also love that thats where the movie got its plot from bc the whole time i was SO confused as to why the book was so incredibly different from the movie, but i get it now! cool book i think w lots of humor but also suspense and a great ending that makes u think fr. i will say that mike (idealized version) is still my silly but the ACTUAL version as revealed in the epilogue…not so. screw him and screw martyn and honestly screw geoff so basically all the men. alex and frankie are my queens and liz/lisa is such a fascinating character i have to appreciate! wish alex was in the movie but wtv. desmond harrington as fake mike marry me pls

[AlohaMyPikachu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll be blunt... I didn't get the book.

I came across The Hole while searching for another book. Normally I'm not fond of psychological thrillers, but the synopsis was intriguing enough to get me to read the novel.

I was very taken aback by the constant flipping from the teens in the hole to third person to first person and so on. I'm not going to slam the author's choice, but for myself I found it hard to follow.

I am also left feeling lost, confused and a little dissatisfied with the epilogue. I believe I grasp somewhat of what it all means, but not enough to have me trying to explain it. I've seen comments there is a movie. I'm thinking that I'll check it out to see if the film will clear up some of my confusion.

I always try to find positives as well as dislikes when I review a book, so I will say that by page 120 or so, I started getting into the story because a lot of the focus was on the teens in the hole. The "twist" at the end, as so many have referred, was definitely startling. In a good way.

Overall, I'm glad I read this book, but I'm not sure it's one I'll recommend unless I know whomever I recommend it to is into this type of fiction and style of writing.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Hole' is catalogued as crime/thriller in our library - and sometimes as teen fiction, though that may be more on account of the teenaged characters and slim novella-sized length - but this book reads a little more like a slow but chilling horror to me. I literally got chills from the ending, anyway, and it made me a bit reluctant to turn the light out that night.
Highly recommended for anyone who likes a dark but very slow-paced story, not so much a whodunnit as a 'what's going to happen next?'. It's very talky, and the jumps between time periods can be confusing - you can tell that certain aspects of the plot are being deliberately obscured - and the ending, when it comes, is very effective and stark.
Two things sprang to mind while reading this; the equally slow-paced, lyrically weird and creepy Picnic at Hanging Rock (make sure you also track down a copy of the final chapter, published separately), and the real-life examination of a teenage sociopath in Dave Cullen's excellent Columbine.
So good, in the end, that when I'd finished I had to turn around and read a lot of the passages again to make a different kind of sense of them.

[Kealsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this isn't entirely fair but I'm going to compare this to Burt's second book, Sophie. Sophie is one of my favorite novels and it's very similar to The Hole in every way but one: the ending twist does not make the book. Sophie has engaging characters and an interesting plot the whole way through the ending twist just makes the book better, it doesn't make the book. The Hole has bland characters and lacks any sort of tension until the very end. The only character I found interesting was Martin (which is probably further proof that I should stop finding any male character to be the solely interesting one in any book with the way he turns out). The Hole isn't bad by far it's just... disappointing and bland. I hope it doesn't turn you off of Burt all together, though, he gets better later.

[Mike Bocchieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Bocchieri
Period 3-4
The Hole
Guy Burt
Pages:152
date completed: 9-27-09
Rating:8-10


In my book, The Hole, one of the characters, Mike, starts the story as a very laidback easy going person. Mike remains this way for most of the story but when Martyn( the boy responsible for trapping the students in the hole) turns off the kids water supply Mike soon becomes much more aware of the life threatning situation that he is in. Mikes main friend throughout the story is Liz, and Liz helps Mike become much more mature throughout the story, by talking with him and telling him her plans on how they were going to escape. By the end of the book Mike becomes very grateful of Liz's compassion towards him once they escape the hole at last.

[Samir]

this book is about 5 kid that find a deep hole in thier school and they were finished fromm school.one day the 5 kids planed to go in the deep hole and 4 of them went in and one of the kids locked the other 4 kids in and ran away.The 4 kids that were locked in the hole were left their because noone knew bout it the person that changed in the story was the kid that locked his friends in the hole.He changed because when they were planing to go in the hole they all agreed and when they got their one of the 5 kids betrayed the other 4

[Nel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Hole" by Guy Burt (1993) is an astonishing, albeit confusing, read. A group of teens believe they are cleverly escaping from their worlds of school and families, only to discover their escape was anything but that.

As I refrain from providing spoilers, I will advise future readers to journey along the story despite its' adolescent-style telling. Trust your intuition. The Epilogue provides the clarity you will begin to need.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Adding my voice to those crying out "I Didn't get it!". I really freaking liked the movie though but the book is hard to follow, switching between voices all the time without any warning and expecting you to be able to keep up with who is who and what is going on and it really doesn't work.
A rare case of the book being worse than the movie I'm afraid.

[M.L. Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched the movie first which was pretty good. I had read that the book was better and they were right. I can't stop thinking about what I read and how to make all the pieces fit. It is a great psychological thriller and I'll be rereading this for sure.

[Leilani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Re-read and this definitely wasn't the same the first time around. I'm also in the camp of the movie being better. Two stars since it was such a quick read and I do like the Rashomon style.

We've got three stories here which is also a story within a story...within a story I think (taking into account the epilogue).

One story is the main plot and are flashbacks told from 3rd POV. With the help of the resident school prankster, Martyn, five teens skipping a school trip decide to party in a hidden cellar until their classmates return.
During this read through, I was reminded that there was a fifth character, Alex. I'd completely forgotten about her and I'm glad the movie nixed her.

The second story is Liz writing down the events of the cellar party. These portions of the book read like a dreamy summer vacation. I ended up skimming these sections since these were mostly lies. Though it does show Liz's mental state, however, we never know if her mind really has been broken by the experience or if she is deliberately lying to protect herself from the truth.

Mixed in is the third story that consists of tapes recorded by Lisa, Martyn's alleged girlfriend who ends up "rescuing" the five from the Hole.
Within these tapes, we get the story of Lisa and Martyn's relationship from the time they meet to their breakup.
I'm also very glad the movie nixed this plot line as well.

During the epilogue, we find out that while Martyn does in fact exist (maybe), the relationship between Liz and Martyn is not clear and we find out that Lisa and Liz are the same person...say what?? So, if Liz was telling even a bit of truth on the tapes, then the two are somewhat familiar with each other. And this leads to the question of why Martyn would even help Liz with this plan.

So the book, I've definitely got mixed feelings about. The pacing is great, the unreliable narrator tends to be my favorite kind, and I never saw the twist at the end coming during my first read through.
However, what was the point of those tapes? Part of me thinks they were the truth because I don't know how else I can explain their existence within the book as they serve no real purpose and we already have an idea of who Martyn is. But again, I go back to why would he help Liz stage the cellar party.

I also wanted more of what happened during their time in the cellar. How the heck did everyone die? How the heck did Liz survive?? Does Martyn really exist???! How did Liz get out of the cellar?!?!? What days did certain events actually occur IF they did such as the water and electricity shutting off because they were down there for I think 18 days but the story only counts for five or six.

This is why I dig the movie more. I get the answers to my questions and then some. I also appreciated that it really started on day three after Martyn didn't return.

I don't know, I'll just stick to the movie with this one.

[Julia Leru · Rating 3 out of 5]

По-хорошему, если говорить честно, я бы отложила книгу где-то на 2/3. Если бы не смотрела фильм.
Сама книга слишком сумбурна, слишком медленно развиваются события, слишком часто прыгает повествование, слишком многое остается за кадром. И только образы героев фильма и знание развязки помогло мне дойти до конца.
Что такое "Яма"? Фильм - это блестящий триллер, с полицейским расследованием, четким сюжетом и хорошей логичной прорисовкой мотивов главной героини. Книга же - невнятный набросок того, что могло бы быть чем-то большим.
Лиз и ее друзья отправляются на выходные в загадочное место - Яму, темный бункер, закрывающийся снаружи. Они решают провести там три дня - пощекотать нервишки, напиться, может, даже заняться сексом. Их друг Мартин должен через три дня прийти, открыть дверь и выпустить их наружу. Но он не приходит.
Мы узнаем о том, что случилось дальше, из рассказа Лиз, и в нем все разрешается благополучно. Хэппи-энд, спасение, любовь.
Мы узнаем о происшедшем из психологического экспертного заключения, из дневника Лиз, из записей на кассете - и все далеко не так красиво.
Не ждите от романа описания смертей, там даже нет ни одной экшн-сцены - ничего из того, что вы видели/увидите в фильме. Смерти остаются там, за краем Ямы, в паре строк. "По данным экспертизы Майк умер на 18 день". "В версии Элизабет подростки не погибли".
Самая жуткая часть романа - именно экспертное заключение. Оно заставляет оглянуться на роман, заставляет снова прочесть его с первой страницы, уже зная, что рассказ Лиз - неправда. Но он для меня не был бы таким сильным, если бы я не видела фильма.

[Kags · Rating 1 out of 5]

First, there’s really no reason for the kids to be in the hole. Normal kids don’t find a death chamber and think “yeah let’s have a stranger lock us in here with limited resources for funsies”. the characters (if you could call them characters; they have no personalities and I could never once tell them apart) have not an ounce of self preservation
This was an extremely boring book. People are talking about “plot twists”, but there were none. There was no character development, no self-reflection, no interesting twists. It’s just six kids locked in a hole, talking about being locked in a hole.
Throughout the book, it jumps between past, present, and future in a manner that is extremely confusing. Some bits are written in first person, some are in third person, and 75% of the time, I don’t even know who is talking, because I can’t tell the characters apart. Not only does this switching bring the reader out of the story, but it also spoils the entire thing. The flashbacks consist of: “we got out of the hole, we’re trying to record what happened, and Martyn is still living life like nothing happened”. In the end, the main antagonist disappeared without any kind of resolution. Anything would have worked; maybe the six kids united after they got out to find Martyn and prevent this from happening to someone else, or get their revenge some other way, but there was nothing. The entire book gets spoiled within the first couple chapters, and it took everything in me to actually finish it.

[Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book originally about the time of it's release in 1993, in fact my copy is a first edition, albeit paperback, not hardback.

I loved it when I first read it and was delighted when a film based on the book (called The Hole directed by Nick Hamm with fantastic music by Clint Mansell) was released in 2001. I have wayched that film many times.

Re-reading the book now was fun. The story revolves around a group of students, eager to miss a school geography school trip, who happen upon a disused cellar (probably something set up as a bunker in WW2) that is isolated under the school and only accessible by ladder. One of their friends in school, the enigmatic and potentially dangerous Martin, facilitates this secret hiding place with the promise to release them a few days hence to coincide with the return of the field trip.

Needless to say all does not go to plan.

I enjoyed the book but think that the film version - in which I understand the author was involved - is a brilliant piece of work. The story is improved, the characters become more distinct and colourful to make it something of a masterpiece in my opinion however without the original book, the film would never have existed, obviously.

Worth a read and worthy of four stars as it has stayed with me for many years and will continue to do so.

[Guy Burt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed my very first novel! It feels like a lifetime ago that I was writing this: I was in my gap year before university and had got a teaching job for the year in a school in Devon. One of my duties was overseeing the kids' homework each evening, and I remember starting the story of After the Hole (or The Hole, as it was later republished once the film had come out) in an A4 ringbinder while sitting at the front of the classroom. The setting for the novel, and some of the characters, are stolen directly from my own experience at boarding school.

It's a bit rough around the edges, but I have a lot of fondness for it – so I'm really touched that people have taken the time to read it and review it. Not only did it get me started on my career as a novelist, but when it was optioned for a feature film it also got my foot in the door of screenwriting – which has been my day-job for the past 30 years. Not bad for a macabre little story scribbled down in a gap year.

Although it was my first published novel, it wasn't the first novel I actually wrote. That was Jo's Game, which I wrote when I was 13. If you're interested, you can read more about that novel, how it saved my life, and how I got started as a writer here on my blog.

– Guy Burt, Valencia, 2024

[Sunsettowers · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just didn't do anything for me. It's slow and a lot of time is spent in "the Hole" before anything even happens. I didn't care about any of the characters or understand why they were friends or why they even went into the Hole in the first place (playing hooky from school trip I understand, but sitting in a hole and doing nothing just because someone pitched it as a "locked in" type bonding experience? They didn't even try to get to know each other better or anything. And why they did it in the "truth", we have even fewer clues about. ) So mostly I read through what seemed like character study about characters I didn't care about to get to a few pages of survival/mind games that weren't super interesting, and then a brushed over twist and the end. It just didn't feel worth it for my limited reading time.