The House in the Pines: Reese's Book Club (a Novel)

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Maya wants to be a writer like her father who'd died at a very young age in Guatemala so Maya only has the stories that her mother has told her about her father. At the age of seventeen Maya's best friend (Aubrey) was talking to Maya's ex-boyfriend (Frank) and just dropped over dead, literally. Maya has always believed Frank had something to do with Aubrey's death but she didn't know how he did it and after police investigations they just thought Maya was delusional with grief. Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is dealing with the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can’t account for. Do you agree with quote from the novel, above? Are you surprised that no one believed Maya’s theory about her friend Aubrey’s death? Why or why not? In an interview with The Mystery of Writing, Reyes said her novel was inspired by a cabin that she’s been thinking about for a long time.

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. Some cultures blame such deaths on evil spirits. The mind will always try to explain what it can’t understand—it will make up stories, theories, whole belief systems—and Maya’s mind, Dr. Barry said, was of the type that saw faces in clouds and messages in tea leaves.” I really enjoyed the pace of this as well. I couldn't put it down once I started. While I found some reveals fairly predictable, if you've recently read Shea Ernshaw's A History of Wild Places, you may see it too, I still enjoyed the story a lot. the book) suffers from doing way too much at the same time […] I really struggled with following this narrative, and the drinking/pill popping trope is so overused at this point. However, I do think there’s a reader/audience for this book. The synopsis is calling it “utterly unique” and I can see that because as the story develops after the halfway mark, it is indeed very different than I expected. Readers will either love or hate the ending, which will make for great book club discussions.” 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.The House in the Pines is a fast-paced powerful thriller that really pulls the reader unlike anything I have read before.”

A big component is that Maya has gaps in her memories of her time with Frank and what happened with Aubrey. So with that, she becomes somewhat of an unreliable narrator and the reader has to decide if what Maya is relying is actually the truth.If you could please stop being so cute and coming off as such a nice, friendly person to make it easier for me to avoid your terrible book club selections I would really appreciate it. If you can’t do that, then when it comes to the options you select for us to read, I’m telling you . . . . . 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. I believe in the unique abilities of human brain and how it could be manipulated but some parts of the explanations about events seem a little illogical for me! Overall, this psychological thriller felt menacing and chilling at times. It also had suspense, interesting characters, and a thought-provoking story line. If you enjoy psychological thrillers with an unreliable narrator, then this may be the book for you.

PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and Ana Reyes provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date is currently set for January 03, 2023. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine. The House in the Pines is an excellent mystery/thriller that kept me intrigued from the beginning. What happened wasn’t what I’d expected, which is always a treat. The main character struggled with very real, relatable things in her life, which made her feel close the entire time. And her curiosity fed my curiosity. […] I also enjoyed the twist on present and past tense. In the present timeline the author wrote the book in past tense. In the past timeline the author wrote in the present. It was a very clever way to give an immediacy to the past (especially as the character began to recall events).”I enjoyed this book and thought it was a unique premise. The story centers on Maya, whose best friend Aubrey died suddenly while with the guy Maya was dating named Frank. There is something weird and creepy about Frank that Maya can’t put her finger on, but she is convinced he had something to do with the death. 7 years later she sees a video posted online where another woman seemingly just keels over and dies while also in Frank’s presence and Maya knows she has to get to the bottom of what Frank is doing to these people. Ana Reyes' debut is chilling, atmospheric, and addictive—a perfect thriller. I didn't want it to end.” Ana Reyes said of The House in the Pines, “The idea of home, though always important to the story, emerged as a theme in ways I hadn’t expected.” Our unreliable narrator in this story is Maya. Maya has been addicted to Klonopin and alcohol for the past several years. Maya no longer has her Klonopin, and is experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Some of the withdrawal symptoms are paranoia, hallucination, and insomnia.