Reviews

Pines by Blake Crouch

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sydneywolpert's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

mazdi's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

zea_d_writing's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

2.5⭐️

This was my first Blake Crouch novel and, honestly, it might be my last.
I’ve had several of his novels on my TBR list for a few years now and was really looking forward to books like Dark Matter due to all of the praise it’s received. I started with Pines because it was convenient and I knew it was one of his more popular books/series (even has a tv show based on it).

I enjoyed the first half to three quarters of the book. The writing was weirdly stilted at times, but otherwise I enjoyed the set up and pace of the story. The mystery was interesting and the escalation of events kept the momentum going. The main character was obviously not the most likable person (a detail that just continued to spiral downward throughout the story right up to the end) but that isn’t strictly a problem necessarily.

But once we we’re nearing the end and started getting answers to all those questions that were piling up in the first half…that’s when things started unraveling and I found myself liking the book less and less.

Suspension of disbelief is almost never a problem for me when reading. I don’t need things to be 100% realistic to find something enjoyable. I don’t need hard rules for magic or for my science fiction to have Andy Weir-levels of scientific realism for me to be able to enjoy a story.

That being said, given the foundations of this story, I found the science fiction aspects difficult to accept. Not because I need my science fiction to have Andy Weir-levels of scientific realism or anything. I really don’t. But if you’re going to tell me that this world is our real world and that there are no fantastical elements or alternate realities at play, then it needs to feel genuinely grounded in that reality. And this just…didn’t.

But I honestly think that if that had been my only complaint with this book, it would have gotten a much higher rating. But when you add in the really gross, blatant racism, the pro-American Dream talking points, and the “billionaire saves the human race and creates a Noah’s Ark” narrative…it just all left a bad taste in my mouth.
Do I think it’s possible that the next two books might address these issues and show that they were put in the first book and handled in this way intentionally? Yeah, maybe.

But this first book didn’t exactly convince me on its own to keep reading the rest of the series and I’m not going to do so just to see if it might get better and actually address the issues that cropped up in book 1.

dunnadam's review

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4.0

Good, very similar to the TV series which has just finished episode 5, around the same place this book ends. A few differences, most of the action here is seen through Ethan Burke with the wife, girlfriend and kid relegated to very minor characters. I liked Sheriff Burke's death better in the book and it came much later. Ready to read the next one, a nice run over mostly familiar territory.