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

An interesting story with a unusual premise.The House in the Pines started out strong, wavered in the middle then picked up at the end. Ana Reyes takes us on a journey with a girl trying to end her addiction with a sleep infusing drug. after her best friend was “murdered“ in front of her, Maya is troubled with sleep issues. The perpetrator of the “murder” is Frank, an older man who has strange interactions with a few young women.Struggling with her dependency on the medication, the fact that she has not divulge this information to her live-in Dan, Maya decides to visit her estranged mother and possibly confront Frank. Her aim to learn of his involvement in at least two murders is her attempt at learning the exact circumstances surrounding at least two of the deaths.Great effort for s first novel.

While not the most revolutionary of mysteries, I really enjoyed this book club pick! Fast-paced and kept me entertained, which is what I look for in a good thriller. I do wish that the chapters specified if they were in the past or the present because I kept messing myself up with where things were at in the timeline.

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. 1/3/23A Reese’s Book Club Jan ‘23 pick

Once I started the book, I was keen to continue reading. The language flows easily, in short chapters that alternate between the present mystery and the events of her younger life. I quickly understood that Maya was going to be a flawed character because of her life experiences, witnessing her best friend die an unexplainable death and her subsequent struggles with meds and alcohol (not a spoiler as it is set up at the start of the novel). The prospect of mental illness hovers in the fringes of the story, too. When Maya decides to take control of her life and understand why she believes Frank killed her friend, the story becomes delightfully creepy and increasingly menacing with each new discovery. Frank is a puzzling character and we may never fully understand him, but we view him only through Maya's eyes and the accounts of other characters about him. Another key element of the novel that I really appreciated was the storyline involving Maya's father and Guatemala. At the end, when we finally understand how and why the events occurred, I was happy to suspend some disbelief for the sake of the story (stranger things have been documented) and just enjoy the ride. Because it held my interest, I give it a solid 4 stars.

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 read it fast as it was an easy read but also I wasn’t consumed with it… if that makes any sense. But a good book.

I really wanted to love this book but I did not. It was a bit difficult to comprehend the premise of the plot. I thought it was not a plausible story. The book was not one I would pick to read if I knew a bit more about the characters and the complex plot.

While I enjoyed reading House in the Pines, I found that it dragged on a bit too much for my liking. The book has an interesting story, but the pace seemed slow at times. However, the ending was well-executed and managed to redeem the book in my eyes. It tied up loose ends and provided closure to the story, leaving me satisfied with the overall reading experience. While I can't say I loved the book as a whole, I do think that more patient readers might find it worth a read.

I so wanted to love this book but forgetting the disjointed writing and the veering towards literary thriller but just not hitting the mark, and I was already losing interest when the ridiculous misinformation about hypnosis rendering people at ones mercy when all the doctor was using was creative visualisation and basic relaxation techniques - which psychologists and researchers don't actually use but stress management consultants like I trained as do - was inserted into the end.The struggles of the rather boring protagonist could have been better utilised, perhaps by having her drug withdrawal as a potential reason for her possible hallucinations and a lot more suspense and tension would have been added.I didn't like the writing style either. It was clunky and unstructured, and read awkwardly. The writer fell into the telling not showing system too, which irritated me. You can still show the reader their imaginary environment and trust them to work out the gaps between description without over-explaining everything, even in third person point of view.Overall, it was a massive disappointment.

A little on the weird side...Overall, I'm struggling to know exactly how I feel about this book. I found the whole concept of the book to be a little weird and I just don't know what to make of it. The ending was a bit of a let-down and did not wow me in the way that I had hoped or expected from a psychological thriller.The book from quite early on develops an almost dreamlike or supernatural feel and we meet Maya, who is clearly struggling with a drug addiction and its subsequent withdrawal. For a long time Maya has been struggling to process and come to terms with the death of her best friend, Aubrey, in their last year of school. Aubrey suddenly drops dead in front of Maya and Frank with no apparent cause or explanation.Frank is a bit of an enigma throughout, a strange character with very little background. He is someone that Maya has been spending a lot of time with over the summer and is who Maya believes has something to do with the death of her best friend. When Maya views a YouTube video years later of Frank in a diner with another girl, who also appears just to drop dead, Maya is more convinced than not that he is involved somehow and begins her search for answers.The story overall felt a little bit dry and lacked an element of shock and surprise. A feeling of suspense also felt like it was missing throughout the book. There were many moments where the author could have upped the tension and caused the reader to feel breathless in anticipation of what was going to happen. Following on from this, I felt the conclusion and reasons to be a little on the implausible side and slightly unfathomable.

I really enjoyed this creepy, dark thriller and read it very quickly.The story moves between present day and 7 years earlier just before Maya's best friend dies. I found it an original story and initially couldn't work out how the time lapses and other mysterious events could be happening. Maya is an unreliable narrator as she is dealing with alcohol and anti anxiety medication addiction following the traumatic events in her life. I did have to suspend belief slightly for the second half but I still found it a gripping, disturbing read. Recommended for creepy thriller lovers out there!

This is the Reese's Book Club pick for January and I enjoyed this book overall. It was creepy and kept me reading / interested throughout, maybe because I had no clue what was going on 😅 but at the end I felt quite satisfied and i do feel it is a book that will stick with me, which is always a good sign. However, I would say if you look too close or question this book (its not real life!!) You probably won't like it. So suspend your disbelief and enjoy!4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Really enjoyed this read. Sometimes these books don't live us to the hype but THITP was a hard book to put down. Can't help but wonder if Reece will make this into a movie - could make it very dark like a Girl on a Train! Looking forward to more novels from Ana Reyes.