The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Librofm/Penguin Audio for the ALC and Dutton/Netgalley, #partner, for the advanced e-galley of The House in the Pines in exchange for my honest review.

Publisher: Dutton / Penguin Audio

Published: January 3, 2023

 

Summary:

Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend’s sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed….

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.

Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking 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. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer–the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey.

At her mother’s house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father’s book that didn’t stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born, but time keeps running out, and soon, all roads are leading back to Frank’s cabin….

Utterly unique and captivating, The House in the Pines keeps you guessing about whether we can ever fully confront the past and return home.

 

My thoughts:

When I was pitched this book, I have to say the cover completely drew me in. But when I heard it was about memory and manipulation, I knew I had to read it…those are some of my favorite tropes in a psychological thriller and they totally come together here in such a unique premise!

I loved the way this story played with memory, how we sometimes put certain memories aside to protect ourselves from past incidents by self-medicating, however in doing so that leads to a whole new set of problems. Maya has been self-medicating ever since Aubrey died and now has been struggling with addiction ever since. I loved the way the author developed her character. She was so dysfunctional and had a sense of unreliability to her, yet you could not help but want to root for her. You wanted her to find answers to what was going on. Frank, on the other hand, gave me the creeps right from the first time we meet him. And I loved how we don’t learn the full picture of him until absolutely necessary. This character development for both is just stellar writing!

This book is crazy addicting. It moves back and forth in time and I will admit there is a lot going on – sometimes I did feel it might have been just a bit too much – but I still found myself totally engaged. There is a lot to unpack here, so if your bookclub reads psychological thrillers, this would make for a great bookclub pick!

This is a debut novel for Ana Reyes and I’m excited to see what comes next from her.

 

Audio thoughts:

This is the type of book I love to listen to because you just cannot put it down. Yes, it does start off a little slow and there is a lot coming at you at once, but it eventually picks up and you don’t want to stop listening. The narrator, Marisol Ramirez, did a great job bringing this book to life and I thought her pacing and intonation was spot on!