This was an interesting read. It did not really grab me with the premise however I kept reading waiting for some action. I was disappointed. The book is more of a psychological thriller. Mind games abound. The ending felt like a let down. It was a bit of a stretch. I do however think that this will be a popular choice for consumers.

3.5 stars. I really liked the unique premise and creepy undertones of this book. Sometimes reading a lot of thrillers feels like reading the same book over and over again. I enjoyed how unique this one was although a bit far fetched ending. I feel most thrillers you have to suspend your disbelief though and just go with it or you’ll hate most of them. I think the story worked here.

My main issue was the format and confusing timelines. It flipped back and forth between present and past without warning which made it confusing in my opinion. Overall good story with great plot and would read more from this author again. I’d recommend to any thriller fan that doesn’t mind a crazy ending.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you've ever been in any type of manipulative relationship then this book may be somewhat triggering for you. The creepy cover is truly what drew me in and I was honestly expecting something completely different. The House In The Pines is also the first Reese's Book Club pick of 2023. All in all I found it to be an enjoyable read and loved Reyes' writing style. It is a fast-paced psychological thriller and I instantly felt immersed in the story. I have a love/hate relationship with unreliable narrators, but this one definitely worked for me. The House In The Pines is a unique and fresh perspective for the psychological thriller genre.

Maya lost her best friend, Aubrey, to a tragic and unexplainable death when they were seniors in high school. Aubrey suddenly dropped dead in front of Frank, Maya's then enigment love interest. Now, seven years later, Maya is living in Boston with an upstanding boyfriend and a secret addiction to unprescribed anxiety medication that numbs her to the memories of that terrible loss years ago. Maya loses contact with her supplier and is forced to quit her meds cold turkey. When Maya sees a trending YouTube video of an unknown woman suddenly dropping dead in front of Frank, the memories of what happened all those years ago begin to trickle back in. She returns home to excavate her past and find out what Frank has to do with the unexplainable deaths.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Dutton for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes is a story about what happens when you lose blocks of time and your best friend.

Maya is the protagonist of the story, when she was in high school, she briefly dated a man called Frank. After she meets him, one day her best friend Aubrey suddenly dies. Why would a young woman with the best of her life in front of her, suddenly die?

Seven years later Maya is still trying to figure this out. No charges were ever filed against anyone, but Maya knows that Frank had something to do with it, so she goes back home from Boston and starts conducting her own investigation of what happened on that fateful night.

Maya is having withdrawals from an antidepressant that she has been on for a while. Not an easy feat. One day she comes across a YouTube video showing a young woman and a man seated in a diner. All of a sudden, the young woman dies, the man she is with? It is Frank her ex-boyfriend. She gets suspicious in that the two girls that died were in Frank's presence.

The reader learns a bit of past history of Maya, her mother, Brenda had gone to Guatemala in her younger years and lived with a family for a while. She becomes close to the son of the family, but their relationship is cut short as he is killed. Then Brenda finds that she is pregnant.

The only thing that Maya has of her father is an unfinished book. Her father aspired to be a writer. The book is a mystery to Maya, she spends time translating it to English. So, with the mystery of her father, how did the two girls die becomes all-encompassing for Maya to figure out.

Told in flashbacks from Maya's time in high school and seven years later, the reader learns more of the story, about Frank and his father, a professor and a mesmerist. The story seemed confusing at first, but it all comes together at the end.

I wasn't expecting this as I started reading the book, but I did thoroughly enjoy it. I give it 5 stars, gave me the creeps.

I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

I was unable to finish this book, but it was mostly due to personal issues than issues with the writing. I found the book really hard to get into and I didn't find myself connecting with the characters or the story. It was also really off-putting that the main character and I share a name. However, from what I read the writing was good and the story was well thought out, it just wasn't the book for me.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read this ARC for an honest review. I loved the creepy vibes in this one and the mysterious setting.

Late getting around to reading this one but I did enjoy it. Having the main character on medication/coming off of a medication and hallucinating had me thinking the story was going one direction but Reyes threw a twist that I really didn’t see coming. This was a really quick read for me and I did like the way she tied the ending back into Maya’s love for writing and her father. It’s not a book I would read for a second time but I did enjoy it!

Thank you Dutton for the ARC!

Thank you to The Penguin Group/Dutton for my ebook ARC of 'The House in the Pines', I thoroughly enjoyed it! This review may contain spoilers for the novel.

'The House in the Pines' is a great short mystery with all the elements needed for both fantastical and realistic horror. Maya is our seemingly unreliable narrator, and she is set up perfectly to not be trusted- she's addicted to pills, unable to sleep, and is convinced that her high school best friend was killed by her ex-boyfriend just before she went off to college. Even in the high school flashbacks we get of Maya, she is unreliable. We aren't meant to trust her, but we are sucked into the mystery as she hunts down the real cause behind her friend's death after finding an online video of her ex killing another woman...a woman who looks uncomfortably like Maya herself.

The winding road we are lead down to Frank's mysterious cabin and Maya's own mind is worth the journey, and as more details are revealed, you can begin putting together the pieces, just like Maya is.

I appreciated the unreliable narrator approach, and I love a good mystery with some horror elements. Adult Maya and teen Maya don't feel like wildly different people, the settings feel fleshed-out and real, the only complaint I have is that the twist feels...a bit too far-fetched compared to the rest of the novel, and that the parallels between her own story and Maya's late father's manuscript weren't as strong as other elements.

I am hoping we figure out the mystery of Ruby in a later book, as that was one loose end I'd have loved to see tied up.

As-is, 'The House in the Pines' is a great, quick read that packs a punch. Great for a rainy weekend, a trip to the beach, or any time you want a compelling mystery.

Congratulations to Ana Reyes on an intriguing debut novel and on making Reese’s list! I was hooked by the premise of Maya’s best friend’s unexplained death and invested in figuring out what happened to her. The reveal is a fresh one, and I liked the ending well enough. Suspension of believe is definitely required, but for what it is it’s explained as thoroughly as possible.

I enjoyed the audiobook overall, but it was confusing at times which timeline I was listening to–especially when I resumed listening after stopping to do something else. The pace was good, but the plot felt a little disjointed at times with the flashbacks to Maya’s earlier life.

Maya’s character was well-written in that she successfully portrayed the unreliable narrator, but a lot of readers feel that the pill-popping “crazy” female MC is overdone.

For some reason this book took me a minute to get through. I’m not sure if it’s because the main character Maya irritated me by the lack of communication that she had with her loved ones. I found myself at times wanting to shake her and say if you just freaking communicated with your mom and boyfriend this might be better. Instead she would give pieces of herself in little tidbits. I do understand that a major episode happened to her when she was younger with her friend Aubrey and no one believed her. However, as an adult she should be able to communicate her own issues with those around her.
Once you get past her downfall it has a good story line and it did hold my attention to finish the book.

Thank you #netgalley for the advance copy

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes is fantastic!

What a creepy atmospheric novel. There are twists and turns that kept me reading to try to see what was going to happen next.

Maya was a great main character and all along I knew something was happening to her, but I was surprised at what that was.

Loved this book, highly recommend!

This had the potential to be exciting but somehow it stemmed to fall flat. Without spoilers, I found the writing to be more a YA book and the making character to be as well. That being said, the content was not. Teenage drug use could be triggering for some.

This suspenseful thriller definitely kept me wondering…even down to its last pages. 65% of the way in, I wondered if we were going to get to the magical realism that had been teased and while we did, I left the book feeling like the story was unfinished. Maybe I was just hoping for more of a resolution for the bad guy, but the lack of it made me curious if we’re queuing up for a sequel.

Regardless, the story was exciting enough to finish in a short number of days even if the ending didn’t feel completely believable.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unreliable narrator meets dubious past. When the second woman dies in Frank’s presence, Maya becomes obsessed with proving his guilt. Battling a pill addiction, she travels to her childhood home to find answers. Told in the past/present, this was a thriller worth reading. I will be reading more from Ana Reyes in the future. Recommended.

It is very difficult for a book to capture my attention for the entire time that I read it but Reyes achieved that perfectly with this book. Her writing takes you through the life of a young woman who is trying to figure out how her ex boyfriend killed her best friend after seeing another woman die in his presence.

Reyes masters the art of haunting imagery through hazy memories and terrifying truths that will have you begging for more.

I am surprised to see the low rating. I enjoyed the writing style and got quickly into the story. I think I guessed the twist about 50% in, but still enjoyed how the story was unfolding. Finished less than 24 hours. Will gladly read another book by this author.

Thank you NetGalley for providing ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

I felt like the book dragged and there were too many loose ends that never got tied up. Who is Ruby? Did Frank kill her too? What happens to Frank? Is he arrested? Were Maya’s mom and Officer Diaz actually being hypnotized that night at the police station? Do Maya and Dan stay together? Does Dan pass the bad? Will there be a sequel since there are so many unanswered questions?

This novel features a female main character who is alcohol-dependent and in klonapin withdrawal. So no one believes her when she claims that her ex-boyfriend killed her best friend with words, and seven years later has committed a similar murder caught on video gone viral. In spite of its tropeyness, it still held my interest. I'd recommend it to people who like intense psychological thrillers with a side of gaslighting (aka paranoid thrillers).

[Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

Liked it, didn’t love it.when I was reading it but really appreciated it overall once I left it a week or so before commenting. It’s a Reece book pick, probably a best seller, probably an award winning film as the character of Frank is vivid, and oh so creepy. It has a horror vibe and a sort of Nightmare Alley feel. In the end, I thought it was a four star read and it aged well in my mind.

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes takes the unreliable female narrator genre to new levels. For a genre that’s been done again and again, this feels like a fresh take. This atmospheric psychological thriller filled me with dread, from beginning to end. For readers looking for a thriller with a shocking plot twist at the end, this may not be the book for you, but if you’re looking for an unique, intriguing, creepy story with well written and thought provoking characters, this is your book. Frank is absolutely fear inducing. I automatically pictured him looking like Vecna/Henry Creel from Stranger Things.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.