Pine: The spine-chilling Sunday Times bestseller

The book is atmospheric and has the potential to be interesting. I loved the setting, and the Scottish folklore and the elements of witchcraft sprinkled throughout the novel and the story at its core had a lot of possibilities.Lauren, the ten-year-old girl protagonist, could have been any age. It wouldn't have changed the story one iota. I think the author failed to capture what it is to be a ten-year-old kid. Lauren is likeable, and you do root for her; she has a rather crappy home life, and her school life isn't that much better. She has one friend her age, but the rest of her friends are her babysitters. I felt a little sad for her. Maybe I'm unfair to the writer perhaps that's why she didn't feel like a ten-year-old girl because she's a lot older than her age.It's an easy read. You will get through the book pretty quickly. But the story doesn't really get going for about 200 pages. The first 199 pages are dedicated to building some history for the characters and the village they reside in. And like I said all those elements are excellent. But do you need to spend that much time doing that? The last hundred and thirty pages flew by, and I felt this could and should have fleshed out a lot more than it was. This book is 330 pages long and really what we got could have been easily condensed into 180 pages long. Its labelled as a horror story, but for me, it feels more like a YA thriller.

I don't like to give poor reviews, but felt I should alert other potential readers! This has a striking and evocative cover and I was hoping this would be a well written and gripping book, but it wasn't really either. I had expected more as there are good reviews by Waterstones and others.I did not initially realise how young the central character was, perhaps this is for Young Adult readers? And perhaps it explains the style of writing. Some of the English was rather odd, the use of the word 'gotten' for instance. I thought it was written by an American. Nothing wrong with that, but it didn't really sit well with rural Scotland. Then I wondered if it was more commonly used in Scotland, in which case I do apologise!In its favour it was a readable story and with very strong characters, and very credible also.

This is a strange and beguiling book, Francine Toon has previously written poetry and as a debut novelist she has certainly written an impressive first.Set in a Scottish Highland community there is a good sense of isolation. Lauren lives in chaotic squalor with her father Niall and there is a mystery surrounding the disappearance of her mother 10 years previously. The author writes with great tenderness and there are some eerie, dreamlike passages in the book which vaguely reminded me of Jenn Ashworth's Fell, which by the way is another great book.I thoroughly enjoyed Pine, the writing is seriously impressive and I will certainly look out for whatever Francine Toon offers next. I would just say that if you like a fast paced action packed story this may not be for you, but if you appreciate a well crafted eerily haunting story then this is one for you.Highly recommended.

This is a beautifully written and incredibly atmospheric debut, and it’s clear that Francine Toon is a new voice to watch on the literary fiction scene. This book is almost electric with atmosphere - set in the Scottish highlands in winter, you can feel the wintry chill rolling off the pages. I read this book on a sunny holiday but it completely transported me to this small community in a remote area of Scotland. After that I was completely spellbound, both by the quality of the writing and the way the plot unspools - it’s chilling and haunting, with a dash of the occult and a few dark twists. More than anything this book has a big emotional impact as the mystery of the main character Lauren’s mother’s death is revealed. A very beautiful and original novel.

I did enjoy reading this book. I had heard a lot about it. The cover has a quote which mentions the word" gothic. " I would not say that I chose to read it solely on that factor, but it was a contributory factor in my choice. I understand that the term "Gothic," has a broad spectrum when applied to various aspects of culture. However, I feel that the character of Lauren's mum Christine, who appears as a supernatural element in the novel, was just too much of a flat character, who did not really add to the overall plot. The killer, revealed at the end of the novel, is for me, absent from a major part of the novel. What motivated him? Why did he choose to do a similar thing ten years later? Overall, an enjoyable read, but I feel that some of the undeveloped aspects of the plot, would have made it a more rounded novel.