The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes

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.

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This was one of the ones I picked out of a list of thrillers just to get started on for the season, and unfortunately it wasn’t a great hit for me. Maybe it was just the themes, but I didn’t find it particularly enthralling on any level. Just when it was going to redeem itself, it didn’t, so all in all it was pretty disappointing.

The House in the Pines follows our unreliable, memory-suppressed protagonist, Maya, who is brought back to a past she had run away from when a video pops up with of her ex-boyfriend. Two girls having dropped dead in front of the same man, with no explanation, and Maya has no recollection of how it went down the first time around. Seeking a resolution for her missing memories, Maya heads back to her home town to hunt down the truth.

The characters are not my favourite, though they weren’t necessarily written badly. I didn’t particularly relate to them, so I found it a bit difficult to get through the book. But generally, the characters were well-written and I was able to follow along with the story. Of course, as a thriller this novel was mostly plot driven, so the characters weren’t that important to me anyway. I do tend to enjoy the unreliable protagonist trope though.

The plot was for the most part okay. However, a couple of key points binding it together really ruined it for me. I won’t spoil what it is, but this concept for me really takes out the credibility of the story for me, and I would say it’s akin to magic. Actually, near the end the book was on its way to redeeming itself in the way it was explaining the trick. And honestly if I was more forgiving I probably could have looked past it all.

But the ending. Oh no, the ending. Or should I really say lack thereof? It wasn’t a surprise cliff-hanger or anything to give goosebumps. To me it was a straight-up non-ending. I was so surprised when I turned the page to find the acknowledgements. It really felt like the book was about to go somewhere great and finish with a great denouement and conclusion but then it abruptly ended. I almost wonder if my e-version was missing a chapter. This really was the biggest frustration for me and I think overall it just wasn’t justified.

Overall Recommendations

The House in the Pines revolves around an unreliable protagonist, Maya, who returns to her hometown to battle her suppressed trauma after witnessing an all-too-familiar event for the second time on video. While moderately thrilling, the novel really lacked some anchors of plausibility, at least for me, and also suffered from the lack of a true ending. If these things don’t bother you, then perhaps you may enjoy the book more.