The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes (Little, Brown Book Group UK, Constable)

An idyllic cabin in the middle of the forest offers warmth, comfort, safety and a feeling of being loved. The summer Maya visited this cabin, her best friend Aubrey died unexpectedly and suddenly. Now, another woman from Maya's hometown has died in the same strange, unexplained way. Maya believes that she can save the next innocent girl, as she knows that the two deaths are connected to a man from her past.

The novel begins promisingly, but then turns into a one-way street, as the author gets too involved with describing Maya's addiction to pills, where we are aware that this addiction is connected to Aubrey's death, then she only touches on Maya's Guatemalan heritage, skips in the descriptions of the connection with Maya's mother, boyfriend and last but not least Frank. Unfortunately, the characters are too two-dimensional for full reading pleasure.

It would be better if the author went deeper into the development of the story of the influence of our own and other people's thoughts on our reality and how this influence can change a person's life or even lead to death.

2,5/5