REVIEW: Pine

“A draught creeps across her shoulder blades and, for a moment, she gets a strange feeling of a hand, reaching out of the darkness.”

Why Did I Read This Book?

My beautiful Bookstagram and book blogging friend, The Bibliomaniac, has set up her own book club and our November pick is Pine. This is one that I’ve seen floating around social media for quite some time now so I was thrilled when it was chosen as our book club read because now I MUST read it!

What Did I Think?

This book is described as a Gothic thriller which if you know me, is RIGHT up my street, so as you can imagine, I was ridiculously excited to start this. I have to say that there were some fantastic moments of horror throughout this book, mostly stemming from the description and appearance of the woman from the woods.

Pine is a story that is set in a desolate highland town and follows a father and daughter (Niall and Lauren) who are coming to terms with the death of the wife/mother. With more people in the neighbourhood knowing more than they let on, combined with the uncanny sightings of a strange woman and the disappearance of a young girl, Lauren, must learn who to trust and who not to.

Although this book ‘on paper’ should have been EXACTLY the type of book I love, I found the story a bit flat and struggled to stay interested in the story. It was perhaps because, in my opinion, the story couldn’t seem to make its mind up on what it wanted to be. Was it a murder mystery? Was it a thriller? Was it a ghost story? Was it a coming-of-age story? I’m not entirely sure.

Overall, it was quite a big disappointment for me because I feel like it should have been everything I wanted…but it wasn’t. I think the only saving grace was that it had some fabulous creepy scenes.

Pine

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Publisher: Penguin Random House
Published: 2020
# of Pages: 322
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Trigger Warnings: Death, murder, neglect, bullying
Links: Goodreads, Amazon, Blackwells

Advertisement