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A review by stephbakerbooks
The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was a pretty mediocre thriller in my opinion. It kept me interested but nothing surprised me or made it feel memorable. That being said, I do love those kinds of thrillers on audio, and this audiobook was also excellent, so I wasn't disappointed in this mediocrity.
I do though get annoyed at the "everyone thinks she's crazy and doesn't believe her" trope in thrillers, and this one does have that. That was my main frustration with this story. I'm just so tired of thrillers only being suspenseful because they rely on their women characters being unbelievable. CAN WE HAVE A NEW TROPE PLEASE AND THANK YOU.
Thankfully, Maya spends a lot of the book alone doing her own investigating, and thus not interacting with the people who don't believe her. So I was able to get past it. I did like Maya as a character and I enjoyed the past timeline, where she's a teenager and we see her friendship with Aubrey and Maya learning about her father and her Guatemalan heritage. I didn't really care for any of the other characters.
The ending I felt was unsurprising—at one point, I just did not see any other answer to the mystery so it went the route I was expecting. It was fine.
Anyways, the book did what an average book does—kept me interested long enough to finish the story and feel some satisfaction from the wrap-up before disappearing into the fog of stories that exist in my mind from all the books I've ever read.
Thank you to Libro.fm, Penguin Audio, and the author for my ALC.
I do though get annoyed at the "everyone thinks she's crazy and doesn't believe her" trope in thrillers, and this one does have that. That was my main frustration with this story. I'm just so tired of thrillers only being suspenseful because they rely on their women characters being unbelievable. CAN WE HAVE A NEW TROPE PLEASE AND THANK YOU.
Thankfully, Maya spends a lot of the book alone doing her own investigating, and thus not interacting with the people who don't believe her. So I was able to get past it. I did like Maya as a character and I enjoyed the past timeline, where she's a teenager and we see her friendship with Aubrey and Maya learning about her father and her Guatemalan heritage. I didn't really care for any of the other characters.
The ending I felt was unsurprising—at one point, I just did not see any other answer to the mystery so it went the route I was expecting. It was fine.
Anyways, the book did what an average book does—kept me interested long enough to finish the story and feel some satisfaction from the wrap-up before disappearing into the fog of stories that exist in my mind from all the books I've ever read.
Thank you to Libro.fm, Penguin Audio, and the author for my ALC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Death
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Suicide