Friday, January 27, 2023

BOOK REVIEW: The House In the Pines by Ana Reyes

 


                                                      Pub Date 03 Jan 2023

                                                    PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Dutton
                                                      Buy from Amazon

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 REVIEW:


The House in the PinesThe House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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.
Now years later she sees a you tube video of Frank with another woman and she just drops dead.
Maya is aso trying to stop her addiction that she started years ago and then goes to find Frank and whatever happened to this woman.
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....
I really did not understand at first what was going on and the more I read and about the house thhen I knew something creepy was going on.
Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for the book to review.

View all my reviews



                                                                 Ana Reyes


Website
https://www.instagram.com/anareyeswriter/


Ana Reyes has an MFA from Louisiana State University. Her work has appeared in Bodega, Pear Noir!, The New Delta Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and teaches creative writing to older adults at Santa Monica College. The House in the Pines in her first novel.

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