The Hollywood Outsider – Film and Television Podcast | Reviews An award-winning film and television podcast for the fan in all of us
From the very beginning, the acknowledgement page in fact, Blake Crouch alludes to the less than traditional plot and twists in “Pines”. The smart reader would be wise to heed the unspoken warning – suspect the unexpected and the usual suspects – before they even turn the first page.
Inspired by his fascination with “Twin Peaks” and “The X-Files”, “Pines” is Crouch’s first novel of the “Wayward” trilogy. In his own words, Crouch tells us, this is his attempt to tell a deeply disturbing but fulfilling tale of a forgotten town full of quirky characters and incredible situations. It was a revival of earlier attempts to continue the “Twin Peaks” series (He actually wrote a third season for the show). The mysterious and often ridiculous feeling of David Lynch’s television series took root and grew like a weed, within a teenage boy’s receptive imagination. Be forewarned: it’s impossible to adequately review this book without spoilers but I’ll try to keep them to a bare minimum.
On the surface, “Pines” is the story of Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke who is sent to Wayward Pines, a remote and stereotypical small town paradise in the middle of the Idahoan mountains, to investigate the disappearance of two fellow agents. The pair was on the trail of an enigmatic billionaire whose ‘interesting’ financial transactions had piqued the interest of the feds. Burke’s introduction to Wayward Pines, is a traumatic entrance to say the least, it involves a Mack truck, a dead partner and ‘brain damage’ that plays a recurring role throughout the first half of the book as headaches, confusion, and temporary amnesia.
During the course of his investigation Burke encounters several interesting ‘townies’ including the violence loving good ol’ boy sheriff, a “nurse” who does little in the way of nursing and is one big bundle of clichés, his former partner/lover who has inexplicably aged nearly a decade, and a cavalcade of other folks that are disturbingly familiar yet completely alien to him. It doesn’t take Burke long to realize that there’s something so very wrong with Wayward Pines – speakers hidden in the shrubs broadcasting cricket chirps, dead bodies in ramshackle houses, unstaffed hospitals, conversations that never go deeper than a puddle, and a solitary road that leads nowhere.
Every time Burke manages to eke out progress in his investigation, he’s thwarted by a conveniently timed bought of headache/seizures, which leads to unconsciousness and amnesia.
While the headaches and such do detract from the overall flow of the story, they do not detract from the overall quality. Crouch has really fleshed out the characters. Burke is a complex and flawed man (veteran, father, husband with a history of adultery) and all of the supporting characters are unique, if not likeable, despite being fairly stereotypical on the surface. They’re quirky, fairly well fleshed-out, and some even hold a few surprises in tow. The ‘brain damage’ is essential to the plot – which gets as twisted as anything you’ll ever read.
Pines starts off posing as a crime thriller, with many overt nods to “Twin Peaks” including damned good coffee. The thing is that it shifts a third of the way through to a dark and twisted take on a dystopian society led by a collective hive mind, yet ultimately controlled by an unseen god figure. In a very “Twilight Zone”-style, Burke is forced to survive an onslaught of bloodthirsty townsfolk, very reminiscent of “The Purge”. Crouch pulls no punches, he describes every violent sequence in excruciating detail and we see Burke, who has remained logical and fairly level-headed, evolve into a heavy handed merciless machine with survival his only goal.
The rapid juxtaposition of a town full of kooky but otherwise peaceful residents, and in which everyone is a sadistic murderer reveling in blood sport tinged with eroticism, may be a bit much for some people, but it really does play a role in the overall storyline that carries “Pines” into its third genre: good ole sci-fi.
The story does tread into several different trope realms, including a very James Bond bit of exposition between Burke and the overseer of Wayward Pines. It’s during this part of the book that Crouch spoon-feeds the reader, going over the main premise of the book and many plot points. He does however use this to link together several loose ends from the beginning, and gives readers a complete picture of why things were happening as they did. If there is a real flaw in the book it happens here. Through a weak turn of events, Burke settles for reality without even once challenging it, and knuckles under to this antagonist without any of his previously endearing resistance.
I came away from this book feeling abused. It’s a rough and tumble ride, covering a wealth of ground in a mere 80,000 words. Crouch took advantage of my fondness of Twin Peaks with “Pines”, using it to pummel me, switching genres and gears in the process, but ultimately bringing it full circle. I don’t mind genre bending or even breaking, it may be a bit jarring or off putting to some readers but if you stick with it it makes for an enjoyable stumble into a wonderfully terrible dystopia. There were many beautifully turned phrases and excellent world building. Readers that can stick with it are taken on a wild ride through a dark and twisted mind and transported through time to a landscape that is both terrible and beautiful simultaneously. Crouch has taken what some could call three separate story types and successfully stitched them into a weird and wonderfully terrible world where things are not hat they seem and nothing is as safe as you think.
Continue to the second book in the series – “Wayward”
The Wayward Pines book series informs the exciting new FOX Summer Series. “Wayward Pines” stars Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, and Toby Jones and airs Thursday nights on FOX. Read our review of the TV Series HERE
