A review by sergek94
Pines by Blake Crouch

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 

"Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve treated our world like it was a hotel room and we were rock stars. But we aren’t rock stars. In the scheme of evolutionary forces, we are a weak, fragile species. Our genome is corruptible, and we so abused this planet that we ultimately corrupted that precious DNA blueprint that makes us human.”

Secret service agent Ethan Burke is sent to a small town called Wayward Pines to find two agents who have gone missing. On his way there, the car he's in with his partner gets hit by a truck. His partner loses his life while Ethan survives, but he's in a state of amnesia and can't remember all the details of what happened. He finds himself sprawled on the ground by the river and eventually makes his way to Wayward Pines and tries to find more information on where he is and what exactly happened after the accident. The town is quaint and serene, and everything seems normal at first, but the more time he spends in that town, the more he realizes something isn't quite right. The people here are acting too calm, too unbothered, and anytime Ethan presses for more information, he receives vague answers or blank stares. What happened to Ethan, and why does he find himself trapped in this town?

I had this book on my to read list way before I knew that this author was the same person who wrote Dark Matter, so after really liking that book, I had mixed expectations regarding this one because the ratings weren't so high. Fortunately though, I ended up really enjoying this story and the very interesting and drastic twists that it took. It's best to go into this book without knowing too many details, since the whole premise is centered around the mystery of Wayward Pines and on what happened to Ethan, so I won't be mentioning these details in this review.What I really enjoyed here though was the sense of the unknown, and the very chilling atmosphere that was present throughout the book, even when the town residents were generally quite nice and amicable. It was written in such a way that the excess niceness began signaling that something is drastically off about this place, and I like the way the author handled that. With all the mystery going on, I also enjoyed the little interactions Ethan had with people, and despite how creepy this town was, it did feel like home, and a "warm" place I was curious to be in, which speaks to the author's ability to build an immersive setting. We had occasional point of views centered around Ethan's wife, who, left behind after Ethan left, is left with no trace of her husband. This perspective added more intrigue to the mystery, and gave us some outside perspective that served to make the events at Wayward Pines seem even more absurd and terrifying.

 “Nature doesn’t see things through the prism of good or bad. It rewards efficiency. That’s the beautiful simplicity of evolution. It matches design to environment.”

Blake Crouch is pretty good at writing mysterious thrillers and I'm glad I came across this book. I listened to this as an audiobook and it added to the fun and the immersion. This doesn't seem to be a very high-rated book by the author but if you are a fan of his work and the sci-fi/thriller melange, I would recommend you give this book a try. It starts off as mysterious and confusing, and picks up pace and turns exciting, and ends up being a surprisingly deep story that makes us question whether collectively good motivations can justify certain immoral actions.


 “You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. Earth has survived everything in its time. It will certainly survive us. To the earth...a million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can’t imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven’t got the humility to try. We’ve been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we’re gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us.”