Wayward Pines | A Book Series Review

Welcome to Wayward Pines, the last town on Earth.

Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrived in Wayward Pines, Idaho, three weeks ago. In this town, people are told who to marry, where to live, where to work, and what to discuss. Their children are taught that David Pilcher, the town’s overseer, is god. No one is allowed to leave; even asking questions can get you killed.

In the first two installments of Blake Crouch’s “Wayward Pines” series, Agent Burke finds himself living a nightmare wrapped in a picturesque wrapper. Awakening in Wayward Pines, a town that is too perfect to be real, Ethan seeks to find the truth behind this seemingly modern Eden. Faced with the reality that the only way the denizens of Wayward Pines will ever be free is to open the gates to what lies beyond. Ethan must make a horrific choice, stay imprisioned or reveal the truth of what the world has really become. “The Last Town”, the conclusion to this highly dystopian series, reveals the consequences of revealing the truth and taking action.

At the close of the second novel, Wayward, Burke informed the other residents about the truth behind their idyllic community, and what really lies beyound the wall. David Pilcher, the town-founder and overseer, in a fit of rage and hubris, opened the gate sealing Wayward Pines off from the rest of the big, bad world.

With the threat of the monstrous abbies unleashed upon the town, the stakes have never been higher. Return readers know that Wayward Pines represents the last of humanity, an outpost, home to 461 lost souls, and the danger posed by the beastly abbies represent an extinction-level threat.

From the very first page of “The Last Town”, Crouch has built a realistic story that unlike the first two books is stuck squarely in the horror/thrller genre. Overall, I think that book three is the strongest of the series. It has a solid foundation built on the first two installments and continues to take the story to it’s conclusion. I think that is what makes me like Wayward Pines so much. Crouch does something different genre-wise with each installment (and even within each previous installment) while keeping the story moving along it’s track to the end of the line.

Pines was a paranoia-driven conspiracy thriller at it’s core, written in the vein of television series like The Prisoner, an homage to Twin Peaks for sure. Wayward was more of a murder mystery, framed within the context of the conspiracy that unraveled during the climax of Pines. “The Last Town”, meanwhile, is at its heart a fast-paced creature feature. Crouch revels in the horror of his narrative as the abbies overrun the town, devouring people in the streets and disemboweling the citizens of the town in their homes.

If the mystery of the outside world was at the center of the previous narratives, then here it is action, keeping the pages turning. Short chapters keep the pace quick, increase the tension to 11. The unrelenting nature of the opposition Burke faces, in both human and not so human form, make for a harrowing read.

“The Last Town” truly is a hard book to put down. The first two books were great reads, but book three is the clincher. The predicament the characters suffer their way through is severe with a real sense of urgency, readers will be demanding to know what comes next. Crouch has produced a book that and really is a fitting and satisfying conclusion to the Wayward Pines series. The Last Town had me hook line and sinker, it follows sound logic to find it’s end. I saw the end from about the halfway point, but still I couldn’t put it down. It’s a rarity that a book, let a lone a series, gets it’s hooks into me this deep.

I came away from this book feeling satisfied. Crouch did an excellent job of taking the story to it’s inevitable conclusion. Some will find the pace of the this novel and the series overall, a bit hard to keep up with. If you can handle the genre-bending and the many switches and non traditional plot turns you will enjoy it.

This installment is held more to one genre than the first two, but it has it’s moments of sci-fi. I’m impressed that Crouch was able to build a world full of believible and well developed characters and take it from inception to conclusion in less than 250,000 words (the first two installments were 80k each and the last is a mere 63k).

Having finished the series I can only wonder how well Fox will adhere to it for their series.

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

Rob Rowald | Contributor

CIO, Gadget Geek, Fitness Enthusiast, and Honorary HO – Rob can be found pontificating on Twitter @RobtheITGuy