The House in the Pines: A Novel

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Some students are working through intense and dramatic experiences for the first time in my class,” she said. “It can be very poignant and it can be humorous. It feels more high-stakes than writing fiction.” Thanks to the author, Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review* Of course, if you are one of many readers who is OVER the pill-popping 'can we trust her' trope...you might want to avoid this. It only tends to annoy me on a case-by-case basis (and didn't here, although her habit was mentioned more than it needed to be) and I don't feel it detracted from the narrative too much, but if you are fed up with addicted protagonists, this won't be the book for you.

Cliches don’t mean a bad book! But The House in the Pines features some major thriller cliches of the 2010s and 2020s, from the substance abusing unreliable narrator reminiscent of books like The Girl on the Train and The Woman in the Window and The House Across the Lake to the character returning to her hometown after the traumatic murder of her best friend (see All Good People Here, The It Girl, The Shards , Stay Awake, Nice Girls and, well, let’s be honest and say that all of it might have started in 2004 with Veronica Mars and her desire to get to the bottom of the death of her BFF Lilly Kane. RIP, Lilly). One night while not being able to sleep, Maya witnesses a woman drop dead in front of her ex boyfriend on a YouTube video. This is very strange, as her best friend, Aubrey, suddenly died in front of this same ex boyfriend, named Frank. Maya has no idea the can of worms she opens will bring about more questions than answers and she must face that there were many things she can't remember about her relationship with Frank when she was a teenager and if she does confront him again it could be her life at stake this time and there won't be anyone there to save her. One of the most coveted designations in the book industry, the Kirkus Star marks books of exceptional merit.Details in mysteries and thrillers are usually there for a reason. They are either potential clues or possible red herrings. The next thing I noticed about The House in the Pines is that I was perpetually confused while reading it. Maya comes across a YouTube video showing a young woman, sitting in a diner booth, suddenly keel over and die. Sitting directly across from this woman is none other than Frank, the same man who happened to be sitting right next to Aubrey at the time of her death. The central mystery (well, there are two, the first one is whether Frank actually killed those two women, and if so how, and) what is the deal with the strange house in the woods that haunts her dreams, the House in the Pines of the title. Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Never Here, The Herd, and The Lost Night

I’m giving three solid stars because it was still intriguing, face paced, truly hooked me till the end. But I was expecting more satisfying ending!! A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. It had me guessing,” Witherspoon said in a video accompanying the post. “And like all amazing thrillers, it has a crazy twist that I can’t tell you, because it will give the whole thing away.” Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they'd been spending time with all summer.

I DEVOURED this book! Reyes’s prose is sensuous and transportive, threaded through with a sense of underlying dread. This remarkable debut confidently explores themes of storytelling, generational ties, complicated female friendships, and control.”

Ana Reyes’s debut is chilling, atmospheric, and addictive—a perfect thriller. I didn’t want it to end.” Lindsay is a total bookworm. Though she enjoys nearly every genre, her favorites are mystery/thriller and horror, because she's addicted to the twists and turns. Her happy place is the bookstore (or the library!) and nothing beats a lazy afternoon curled up with a great book. To me, The House In the Pines reads more like a coming of age/trauma and abuse recovery story with a side mystery. Was this a “meta” thing where I was supposed to be as confused as main character Maya, a pill-popping, gin-swilling Gen Z who is convinced that a mysterious older guy she was involved with as a teen caused her best friend to drop dead for no apparent reason seven years ago? Was creepy librarian Frank a really a murderer or just an abuser? Was anyone murdered? Did Maya imagine it? Was she Frank’s unwilling accomplice? (I was really hoping the book would tease these more intriguing unreliable narrator possibilities, but no.)Maya once saw this cabin as an idyllic place, like a cottage from a fairy tale, but now she knows the danger that lurks beneath.

Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer. It's like she was forced to relive it. I appreciated that her character was willing to return home and face all her fears and it did get creepy. This was a book I had high hopes for, but it failed to wow me. I put this in the liked but didn't love category. The author does a good job looking at addiction and memory. This book was atmospheric which I love in books, but again, I thought this was just ok at best. It was a little slow and when the reveal happened, I wasn't overly excited about it. The best part of this book for me was the atmosphere the author created. overall i'm super bummed out ... if you enjoy a slow burn, atmospheric read without any big twists, then give it a shot! At this point, the prescriptions have run out. She needs to stop. It's going about as well as would be expected, which is to say, not well at all. Then Maya makes a disturbing discovery.The things I liked: the conjunction between past and present, Guatemalan heritage and mysterious book of Maya’s father, the folklore, the psychological foundation of the book.