The House in the Pines: Reese's Book Club: A Novel

I loved the catchy name.. and book cover.. it looks creepy, right.. “The House in the Pines” by Ana Reyes is the authors debut novel about a woman named Maya, who seven years ago, had a best friend Aubrey who died “mysteriously.” That was the summer before starting college, it’s also when they both had met 20-year-old Frank who worked at the local library. Present day.. Maya is scrolling YouTube and comes across a video with this same man sitting in a diner with a young girl that is slumped over their table, she had just died, and yes if you didn’t guess, “mysteriously.” Whoa.. that instantly peaked my interest, what a strange coincidence. This starts an obsession for Maya in finding out what happened to this girl, also investigating deeper into her friends death. I enjoyed the premise of this book. I thought the mystery behind what happened was fantastic. It kept my attention, then the story detoured into another storyline/other things (sidetracked) a bit that detracted me from the original story. I liked the suspense, the atmosphere, and thought the intrigue was spot on, as was Maya’s character because I just love unreliable narrator’s. Even though this debut wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped, I’m looking forward to seeing more from AR 😊. 3 stars — Pub. 1/3/23 A Reese’s Book Club Jan ‘23 pick

In this mystery, protagonist Maya pursues answers to the question of what happened to her best friend, Aubrey, back in their senior year in high school. Maya is now a grown woman, living with Dan, her law school student boyfriend, but the question of Aubrey’s death has haunted Maya for seven years. The inability to process Aubrey’s death has propelled Maya into therapy and use and misuse of various medications. And Maya even really knows what happened to Aubrey: she dropped dead one summer day while talking to Maya’s boyfriend at the time, Frank Bellamy. Maya is convinced Frank somehow caused the death, despite a police investigation that determines he did not. Aubrey simply suffered “sudden death,” an event in which a person expires from an unknown cause. Nevertheless, Maya has never let go of the conviction, and fear, that it was Frank. Her suspicion causes her to lead her life “off the radar” to not attract Frank’s attention. People in Maya’s life have dismissed her fear as paranoia. However, her convictions are validated when Maya views on social media a video that has gone viral. In the video, Frank Bellamy is sitting with a woman who collapses and dies in much the same way as Aubrey did. Maya is propelled on a quest to find out, once and for all, what really happened to Aubrey and Cristina, the woman in the video, and what Frank’s power is. The book is well-written, with sufficient suspense to keep the reader turning pages to figure out, along with Maya, the fates of Aubrey and Cristina. The author freely plays with time, moving back and forth between the past and present. Dreams and symbols are incorporated into the narrative as well. This gives the story a somewhat mystical quality, like the magical realism that Maya’s late father Jairo wrote. In the end, Maya is able to unravel the mystery of Aubrey and Cristina’s deaths, at least to a degree. The narrative at times needs better transitions as it moves between past and present—but the jarring effect due to their lack may be deliberate, demonstrating the number of consequences the past can have on the present. In addition, although some questions about Aubrey and Cristina’s deaths, along with Frank’s involvement, are clarified, the explanation still seems incomplete and unclear. But that, too, may be a deliberate authorial choice. A lot of life is incomplete and unclear—like the nightmares that haunt Maya.

I bought this from Amazon, wanting to receive this book quickly to participate in the Reese's Book Club discussions. I revieved it within a couple of days of ordering. Some mild spoilers This story outlines the harsh impact of falling under the influence of a predator. The telling of the tale lets the reader see it before the characters. And women having to navigate a very skillful sociopathic gaslighting abuser without the understanding and belief from their surrounding loved ones is portrayed. How many women have had to navigate trauma without a supportive environment and family? As to the seriousness of benzodiazepine withdrawl, sadly it was not taught in the medical education systems to be avoided by a tapering. The same is true of other psychotropic meds such as anti depressants. Mayas connection with her mother and father save her. Folks criticizing the novel have said that Frank did not "Get what he deserved." Sadly this is the reality of women and violence, the perpetrators continue to walk among us. Yet Maya did get what she deserved, the love, empathy and belief of her mother and husband.

I really wanted to enjoy The House in the Pines, but I found it difficult to keep pace with the story. The writing felt disjointed at times, which made it hard to follow the plot smoothly. The characters, while intriguing on the surface, were not fully developed, and I often struggled to understand their motivations or connect with them on a deeper level. The premise had so much potential, but the execution left me feeling confused rather than gripped. Instead of being pulled into the mystery, I found myself having to reread passages just to keep track of what was happening. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver the immersive, page-turning experience I was hoping for.

This book was ok. I am so glad that it was a quick read because it did have a lot of slow and kind of boring chapters. It was also hard to keep up with the transitions of different times. There was times that I was halfway through a chapter and realized that I was in the past instead of the present. The book was a bit predictable for me but I'm an avid horror and thriller reader. I did like how the author described the "transitions" of being in one place and suddenly in another (trying to be vague to try not to spoil lol). I also liked how the author brought awareness to people who has mental health problems and drug addiction. It really helped me understand how hopeless a victim can feel and how everyone sees you as "crazy" or unreliable. Which gave me empathy for the character and throughout the book hoped for someone to believe her. I'm still left wondering what happened to Frank, I didn't like the cliffhanger they left us on because I am most likely not going to read the second book (most likely from Frank's perspective) if the author decides to write a part 2 book. I also thought it was funny how the book is titled "The House in the Pines" but the book keeps referring it as the cabin in the woods lol.

I enjoyed this one because it was way different than I anticipated. I think the writing style was really engaging. We have an unreliable narrator... who I will admit I feel like sometimes we went way to hard at proving how unreliable she was... which did get a bit frustrating. I liked that we got the present and then the trauma blocked summer when she lost her best friend, but I will admit that sometimes those shifts in perspective took a minute to realize. Maya at times becomes a bit much to take because we are working so hard to make her seem unwell but also she's intriguing. I liked the way things slowly unfolded in the past, but wished things had moved a bit differently in the present timeline. I think that the ending was a tad disappointing for me in that it felt rushed. So you may be wondering why I would say 4 stars for this one... It's honestly because the twist was not something that I anticipated or something I have seen in a lot of thrillers and made it more interesting for me.

Every once in a while, I hit a plateau, and it seems the books I choose are flat, boring, and just not what I want. It's like ordering a salad with grilled chicken when what you really want is a bacon cheeseburger deluxe, with a lot of bacon, and a lot crispy fries. Maybe a beer. Just saying. I received this book and read it in 3 sittings over the course of a day and a half. This is between working 2 full-time jobs, chauffering my kids around, and trying not be lazy. I couldn't put it down, but it wasn't a huge committment like one of Follett's numbers. The House in the Pines tells a great story, it's well-written, the characters are lilkeable and hateable, and there's no smut (I'm not a smut kinda gal). Most importantly, this book got me over the crappy book hump. Typically, I have a few books in the queue at once, but this one stole all my attention. At least now I have the motivation to finish the other "meh" ones I am reading, so I can move on to the next victims in the book pile. Definitely worth it, but if you're someone who can get through a book fairly quickly, expect it to last only a few days.

Spoilers! A girl with a drug addiction turned alcohol dependent refocuses on a trauma (her best friend dying) that happened when she was 17 after seeing a video of a girl dying. She then goes on a journey to confront the man she believes is responsible for the deaths of both women. While I didn’t guess the manner of which the guy was killing the women, there were a couple things that would’ve made this a more enjoyable read. The story jumps from past and present with no notification of which time period you’re reading. You are left to guess based on what is happening in the story (the girl’s relationship with the accused man; her best friend still alive; talking about leaving for college; etc). It would’ve been helpful for the chapters to be labeled as such. Secondly, she is in a long term relationship and no one, including her live in boyfriend, knows she’s addicted to pills. She is able to secure pills for a long time, go to work, and no one is none the wiser. There were just a lot of loose ends or things added that weren’t ever cleared up or didn’t need to be there. At one point her long term boyfriend won’t return her calls but it seen by her on social media with another woman. It’s never addressed and really doesn’t add anything to the plot. There’s things like this throughout the story. It was a slow read for me and then felt rushed at the end with a lot of details left out.