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This was heading for the full five stars right up until the ending, which for me, just felt rushed and anti-climactic. It was as if the author simply ran out of steam and wanted to quickly wrap everything up, which is a great shame, because up until then the book had been pretty much perfect.

Sachar gets so much right here. The writing is top-drawer: the intersecting stories and flashback tales about Stanley's family history are woven through the plot quite brilliantly, creating an entirely compelling and (un)believable tale in which themes of fate and destiny and friendship and justice are explored. The characters are compelling and all have great depth. Stanley is a character you can't help but root for. Wrongly accused, he is entirely accepting of his sentence: a torturous ordeal digging holes in a desert. He takes it on the chin, he doesn't grumble. Instead, he sees the experience for what it is: an opportunity to change himself and maybe the path his life was following.

Overall, Holes is a great read: it's inventive, compelling and quirky and it's easy to see why it has received so many plaudits.