Pines by Blake Crouch (Wayward Pines #1)
Pines is the first book in the Wayward Pines trilogy by the author Blake Crouch. I had this book on my TBR list for a while, and the reason I’ve decided to pick it up now is that of the new TV series that has just started based on this very series featuring Matt Dillon (one of my favorite actors).
Before starting the book, I’ve read all the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon about it – and didn’t get any wiser. With other books, you usually realize the genre and at least have a vague idea what the story is about.
Not so much here. In fact not at all. All I knew was that Pines is a weird mind-bending book. So I started reading. And as soon as I’ve read the first book, I picked the second and then the third, forgetting in the meantime any other engagements I had for other authors that asked me to review their books. I just couldn’t let go of this series. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Wayward Pines is a tiny, remote town in Idaho, which is where secret agent Ethan Burke arrives to search for two of his partners who came here several weeks ago only to disappear without a trace.
Just minutes after arriving in the town, he gets involved in an accident which leaves him waking up in the hospital due to some apparently head trauma that he suffered in the process.
So far so good. But when he asks for his belongings and his cell phone, in order to contact the FBI office back home, he is told that the sheriff has his stuff and that he will get it back in due time.
Right from the beginning we get a weird feeling about this town – everyone seems friendly enough, life seems good – maybe too good to be true, and while reading the book I had a weird feeling that I’ve landed in a twisted version of the Stepford Wives, where the whole town was part of some strange deception.
The more Ethan tries to make sense of it all, the more he realizes that he seems to have memory lapses of time that he can’t account for. On top of it all nothing that the people in the town tell him makes any sense whatsoever.
And that is the most I will reveal from the book because trust me, any more spoilers and it will be ruined for you.
Only after reading the last page I’ve realized why people were so reluctant to leave spoilers – or even hints – of what is really going on in this town. And no, it had nothing to do with even the weirdest things I’ve conjured in my mind throughout the whole time.
The book is truly a mind-fuck (excuse the language, I don’t use this word very loosely) which gives you so many false clues that you’re thrown from one chapter to the other in so many different directions that you think you’ve barely escaped a tornado. Or did you now?
This is one heck of a story, and I understand why FOX got the urge to make a TV series out of it. Having seen the preview of the first episode not long ago, I have to say Matt Dillon makes a heck of an Ethan Burke, he plays the role of the confused FBI agent perfectly well.
Having read all three books (which I will review soon), everything falls now neatly into place and it all makes, finally, sense.
The big reveal will be made at the end of the first book and while my favorite book in the trilogy was the second, the first book is indeed the catalyst of it all. It has to be so mind-bending and confusing as it is because it all builds up to the major discovery that Ethan will do soon, with us following along every step of the way.
I’m in fact glad that I’ve read the book before the series started because now I can simply relax and watch the actors play their roles and just enjoy the show.
Read the book, it’s well worth it. And while you’re at it, make sure you have the second and third book aligned because you’ll find yourself grabbing them as soon as you’re done with Pines.
