Julie's Review: The House in the Pines

Author: Ana Reyes
Series: None
Publication Date:  January 3, 2023
Publisher: Dutton
Pages: 328
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Psychological Thriller
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: 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.

Review: I do love a good thriller and you add in a bit of mystery and I'm hooked. Off the bat, Maya isn't the most reliable narrator. She's coming down off drugs that she's been taking for years for sleep and admittedly has been drinking a lot in her past. So while you appreciate her honesty, you wonder if all of that has maybe clouded her ability to see what is real. As she watches a viral video with a man that is someone from her past, it sends her spiraling. She returns home to dig into what happened to her and her best friend. 

While Maya even questions her sanity as she comes off the medication, she knows that something isn't right with just walking away from what she needs to know. She starts digging into the viral video and starts to look into her own past. The story is told both in the present and in flashbacks to that summer before college when she was involved with Frank. 

What I liked about the novel was that we saw the past unravel with Maya as she investigated what happened recently and delving into her past. At first I thought that she was being gaslighted but I wasn't sure how but the reality of what happened to her, for me, was much worse. 

For fans of thrillers, you won't want to miss out on this debut.