Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Pine

Pine is brilliantly atmospheric, quietly building tension and mystery with its beautiful descriptions of a wild, untamed landscape and the wild characters within. I liked the Scottish idioms; they felt authentic without being hard to understand and it anchored the book in its location.

The story was actually quite slow, but it still drew me in completely. I couldn't put it down, but for long stretches there's also a sense that not much is happening. That combined with some heavy emotional background for the characters gave the whole book a quiet sense of dread. I was tense pretty much from the start.

The end felt a little abrupt, though it did fit with the tone of the book. Perhaps I was hoping for more resolution to help lift the tension I'd been feeling. But still this is a great thriller that packs a really emotional punch.

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hnelson510's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

The Good: This book has many atmospheric moments, some truly scary. The imagery is strong and sticks in your mind.
The Bad: There was a point during reading this book that I was so confused and frustrated at the sheer number of characters introduced that I started noting them all with post-it’s. I counted 67 explicitly named characters. This is not GoT or the first in a series. I’d safely say that at a minimum 50 of these characters could have been edited out, or combined, and not only would the story have been EXACTLY the same, the reading experience would have been much more enjoyable. The page/word count of this book could have been reduced quite a bit if Toon had stepped away from the name generator.

The pacing is also all over the place, as the first 275 pages are meandering and slow, but 85% of the action/story takes place in the last 50 pages. I got a bit of whiplash, and not in a way that I found enjoyable.

The Ugly: On page 188, a character who is friendly with the protagonist, Lauren, defends Lauren to bullies by using “lesbian” as a slur. This is not addressed or reconciled in anyway, and actually seems to be one of the only things that stops the bully character from escalating. I was already hate-reading at that point, but I really almost put it down when I saw that. Super causal homophobia in an otherwise subpar book.

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