Pines - The Library of the Uncommons

Hardcover, 500 pages

English language

Published Dec. 18, 2017 by Center Point Pub.

ISBN:: 978-1-68324-263-5
OCLC Number:: 1001863262

(2 reviews)

"Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels ... off. As the days pass, Ethan's investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can't he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn't anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the …

"Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels ... off. As the days pass, Ethan's investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can't he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn't anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the world he thought he knew, from the man he thought he was, until he must face a horrifying fact - he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive" -- Author's website.

5 editions

mopedad reviewed Pines: a novel by Blake Crouch

Looking forward to the rest of the trilogy

3 stars

Content warning Thematic spoilers

I enjoyed the first half more than the latter. It was very much scratching that “locals obfuscating possible malice through ignorance” itch that is common in noir and mystery (think Twin Peaks, The Wicker Man, U-Turn, etc.).

It quickly trades it for undisguised terror mixed with a lot of elements that remind me of Lost (time shenanigans, a literal monster in the woods, etc.). Unlike Lost, almost every mystery is answered at the end, but then we’re left with the unfortunate strain of dystopia fiction where the dangers of the world justify fascism and man-made terror, all the while preserving Americana. No thanks.

I’m interested in the sequels because the world was built up fantastically, but it’ll be interesting which themes from the first will remain with so much already revealed.

TL Wright

rated it

May 11, 2021