The House in the Pines: A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller - a twisty thriller that will have you reading through the night

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Overall, this psychological thriller felt menacing and chilling at times. It also had suspense, interesting characters, and a thought-provoking story line. If you enjoy psychological thrillers with an unreliable narrator, then this may be the book for you. These questions have been tailored to this book’s specific reading experience, but if you want more ideas, we also have an article with 101 generic book club questions.

Ana Reyes' debut is chilling, atmospheric, and addictive—a perfect thriller. I didn't want it to end.” Thanks to the author, Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*Maya has struggled with the circumstances of Aubrey's death ever since. Due to this, she has understandably had trouble with sleeping and the pills sort of took the edge off, helped her to suppress the overwhelming anxiety. If guilty pleasures could come in book form...side by side with Ben and Jerry's, trashy TV, and belting out show tunes in the shower, this one could hold its own...in the BEST possible way! 😉 Seven years later Maya is living contentedly with her boyfriend although she has never gotten over Aubrey's sudden death. One day Maya comes across a UTube video of a girl dying in a diner and guess who is sitting across from her when it happens? Yes, it was Frank in the video. Now how's that for a coincidence. Maya makes it her mission to find out what happened to this girl because she knows now he did kill Aubrey but how can she prove it. the book) suffers from doing way too much at the same time […] I really struggled with following this narrative, and the drinking/pill popping trope is so overused at this point. However, I do think there’s a reader/audience for this book. The synopsis is calling it “utterly unique” and I can see that because as the story develops after the halfway mark, it is indeed very different than I expected. Readers will either love or hate the ending, which will make for great book club discussions.” Maya does her Miss Marple thing to try to find out what really happened to Aubrey, to find out how Frank killed her, and one more thing. During the few weeks in which she dated Frank, there were multiple episodes in which she lost hours of time. Did Frank drug her? There is peril aplenty, as we take Maya’s word that Frank is a killer, so all her activity might be putting her in mortal peril. If only the cops had taken her seriously, but you know the cops in such almost stories never do.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. Prior to becoming a mom myself, I would stay up late reading books here and there with no issue. Now I try not to read too late as I need that sleep to chase a toddler around, haha. However, I had to know how this story would end so I found myself breaking my rule and staying up to read to the end. So that’s a big endorsement there! Maya wants to be a writer like her father who'd died at a very young age in Guatemala so Maya only has the stories that her mother has told her about her father. At the age of seventeen Maya's best friend (Aubrey) was talking to Maya's ex-boyfriend (Frank) and just dropped over dead, literally. Maya has always believed Frank had something to do with Aubrey's death but she didn't know how he did it and after police investigations they just thought Maya was delusional with grief. Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.Isn’t it interesting two healthy young women dropped death after talking with the same guy? Is he death whisperer? Is he an evil magician?

Salon - "House in the Pines" thriller author on the "dark side of nostalgia" with a narrator no one believes

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Many thanks to NetGalley, Dutton, and Ana Reyes for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 1.3!** The mystery of what happened to Aubrey and also the other woman at the diner is very interesting. While Frank is present for both deaths, there’s no evidence of any foul play by him. And no drugs or anything like that showed up during the investigations. Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is dealing with 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. It's like she was forced to relive it. I appreciated that her character was willing to return home and face all her fears and it did get creepy.