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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In upstate New York, two men (Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper), and later, their sons (Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen) must deal with the unforeseen consequences of their actions. In the past (?) or maybe it’s the present (?) Maya borrows her Mom’s car and sneaks out to Frank’s cabin at night. But she finds the cabin in ruins and Frank camping there. Maya gets off drugs and begins to work on finishing her father’s book. Spoiler Discussion for The House in the Pines

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes: 9780593186732

Frank is probably lying, but I have a new theory. Maybe Maya’s father’s book is cursed and kills everyone who reads it? Or maybe Maya’s father is the ghost murderer, killing people who look like Maya? Dan’s friend, who is a clerk at the DA ( ah, now we know why Dan was a law student) smuggles a document out of his office for Maya that shows that Oren was brought in for questioning. Maya tells her mom that she’s afraid to tell Dan about her drug addiction. Maya’s mom is worried about her daughter going off the drugs, as she says benzo withdrawal makes people paranoid. In the past, Maya goes to look for Frank at his parent’s house. His father is vague about where Frank is and Maya asks if he is at the cabin. Frank brought her there and said she was the only one he ever brought there. He asked her to defer college and live with him in the cabin forever. In the present, Maya is with a new detective. She recorded Frank at the bar but no one (except Maya) can understand what he is saying.Frank admits he had to kill Aubrey because she figured out his game AFTER he gave her a book on hypnosis. He says he “gave Cristina what she wanted” which was to die on camera.

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes | Goodreads

Maya asks him if Christina ever talked about a cabin because she needs to go there to find out what happened to her, and possibly to Christina. This book is REALLY invested in this murder-by-hypnosis plot. SO much of the book is intended to convince us that YES, this could actually happen IF a person is susceptible. (And that people who read a lot are susceptible!) After the funeral, Maya’s grandfather gave her a book that her father was writing called “I Forgot I Was The Son of Kings.” Maya takes it home to Pittsfield and starts to translate it. Frank tells her he has been to Guatemala as well. Maya plays the bar recording for him and he finds Frank’s strangely rhythmic cadence “deeply sinister.”

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. As someone who is not a fan of paranormal mysteries and was really unhappy about the plot twist of this recent book into the paranormal, I hate to even say this, but if this book had to be a thriller, I think it would have worked better as a paranormal. It would have been scarier, and the author wouldn’t have had to work so hard at the end to convince us that murder-by-hypnosis could actually be a thing. The way the book was, it just came off to me as weird and confusing, not scary. Things That Didn’t Make Sense to Me About House in the Pines Apparently most people are NOT susceptible to hypnosis, but people with vivid imaginations (like artists and teenagers and, apparently, people who read a lot) are. In any case, Maya is especially freaked out by the video because her best friend Aubrey also dropped dead for no apparent reason the summer before Maya went to college.

The Place Beyond the Pines - Rotten Tomatoes The Place Beyond the Pines - Rotten Tomatoes

Again, Steven bringing the common sense. I feel like he is the only one who might understand all this. In the 1980s, Oren Bellamy was conducting a sketchy psychological research study. He was using hypnotherapy to take over patients’ entire involuntary nervous system. What? The new police lady also clearly agrees that Maya is not living in the same reality as the rest of us.Aubrey had been talking to Frank when she died for no apparent reason, and Maya is convinced the Frank killed her.

The House in the Pines: A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

Somehow I find it funny (in a good way) that Maya’s “for you” Youtube recommendations are the inciting incident of this book. Maya starts to pore over what she learned from Steven: Christina was going to move into Frank’s cabin, Frank has “clients,” Frank’s father was a professor.Maya’s aunt Lisa had a severe mental illness and self-medicated with vodka and drugs. She died in her 20s.