Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Pines

From the very first page I was sucked right in, and I felt as scared and helpless as poor secret agent Ethan Burke. We follow our lost main character as he awakens in town with absolutely no idea where he is, and with only vague recollections of his current situation. Matters quickly go from bad to worse as he realizes he has no wallet, no phone, and the sheriff of the town is less then helpful. Burke has to discover what is going on, and try to retain his sanity in a place where everyone is starting to think he is crazy.
Out of every monster, murderer, and creepy crawly mystery thriller I have ever read, there is something about the perfect town where everyone seems and acts happy, but there is a dark undercurrent that always unnerves me more then anything else. *shudders* Give me a vampire or a serial killer any day of the week and I will be find reading it, but the town of Wayward Pines had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end and my heart racing!
There isn't much I can say about this book without spoilers but let me just say, never in a million years would I have guessed the insidious truth about the seemingly sleepy town of Wayward Pines, and I ran to the library website to put the next book in the trilogy on hold!

Content Warnings

ladawson's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

lilifane's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is basically a Black Mirror episode. Or a combination of several Black Mirror episodes.
It's super fast paced, action packed, mysterious, scary, reads like a video game most of the time.
I liked the premise, I liked the protagonist, I liked the mystery a lot! The way you don't know what is going on most of the time, was really cool. I absolutely loved the ending. And although I know it's a series, it can totally be read as a standalone. I think I even prefer it that way and don't think I will read the other books anytime soon.
Two things that bothered me: I didn't care for the war flashbacks. I understand why they are there but I really didn't like them. And more importantly (and also the reason this isn't a 5 star for me), it was too violent. I was okay with most of the violent scenes because I get their purpose but the bonfire scene was just too much for me. It was really brutal, wish I could unread it tbh.

Content Warnings

More...