The House in the Pines: A Novel

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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. on a positive note, i did eventually find myself somewhat invested in the story, but mostly because i hoped to be proved wrong with my suspicions. it was atmospheric and i enjoyed the scenes at the cabin (wish we would have gotten more of that). i also appreciate that the author went a little out of the box with the plot Professional Book Nerds - Talking The House in the Pines with Author Ana Reyes by Joe Skelley - audio – 40:00 I do enjoy debut and while the premise drew me in, the writing felt uneven/choppy and the transitions weren't smooth sailing. 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.”

In what ways were the various representations of home (Maya’s hometown, her family’s home in Guatemala City, Frank’s cabin, and even Pixan’s fictional home in the mountains) significant? I think the most helpful thing I can say about The House in the Pines is that if you want to read it, you might enjoy it more if you don’t think of it as a thriller at all. An ancient poplar loomed at the entrance to the abandoned road, its rounded mass of huddled gray limbs reminding her of a brain. She passed beneath its lobes, twigs branching like arteries overhead as she entered the forest.-------------------------------------- Deep in these woods, there is a house that’s easy to miss.Obviously The House in the Pines was a had me at hello since it featured not only a house on the cover, but also a house in the name. How could I not immediately want it, right? Then I started reading it and not only do we have a triple whammy of an unreliable narrator (she’s an insomniac . . . because she’s going through Klonopin withdrawal . . . . and she’s boozing to take the edge off/help her go night-night). Again . . . . The POV was mostly Maya’s with the exception of one time the reader is just mysteriously teleported into Maya’s mother’s head for a few paragraphs.

I was really intrigued by this story. It pulled me in from the start. I enjoyed how Reyes structured the telling of the story. There are both past-and-present timelines, as you slowly piece together what happened between Maya, Frank and Aubrey that summer and how that has impacted Maya's life ever since.

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 once saw this cabin as an idyllic place, like a cottage from a fairy tale, but now she knows the danger that lurks beneath.

Reyes’ thriller, published Tuesday by Dutton, tells the story of a woman who believes that a friend’s death years before was the result of murder—and discovers that the friend’s boyfriend at the time has been linked to other mysterious deaths.overall i'm super bummed out ... if you enjoy a slow burn, atmospheric read without any big twists, then give it a shot! THE HOUSE IN THE PINES focuses on Maya's grief and determination to find out the truth about her high school best friend Aubrey's death. Maya suffers from a lot of trauma after her best friend's death and she abuses Klonopin and alcohol to mask the grief. Her boyfriend Dan is supportive towards Maya's grief, but Maya knows that she needs to learn how to cope with these memories. When Maya visits her mother's house, years after Aubrey's death, she believes she can handle the emotional baggage her hometown once gave her. However, when clues to Aubrey's death in fact link her to her ex-boyfriend Frank, Maya has to find out the truth about what happened to her best friend. How did the alternating timelines contribute to the novel? Do you enjoy this writing structure in general?

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. 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. 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. 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! Maya tells us that in high school, her Guatemalan grandmother died and that she went to Guatemala City for the funeral. Okay. On this trip, she found an unfinished novel that her father had been writing. Was the book a clue, perhaps?

Memories of her best friend's death have kept Maya under the influence of self medicating to forget the past. Her friend Aubrey died in front of a man named Frank that they were both interested in and almost split their friendship. I want to thank the publisher "Penguin Group Dutton" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!