Ana Reyes

Ana Reyes is a writer in Los Angeles with an MFA from Louisiana State University. Her work has appeared in Bodega, Pear Noir, The New Delta Review and elsewhere. The House in the Pines is her first novel.

The House in The Pines

A captivating psychological suspense debut about a young woman still haunted by her teenage best friend's death who learns of an eerily similar death and must find her way back to a cabin in the New England woods, armed only with hazy memories, to finally find out the truth that has eluded her.

Maya was a high school senior when her best friend Aubrey mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man, Frank, they'd been hanging around with all summer. Seven years later, Maya is just managing to move on; she lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is finally kicking the secret Klonopin habit that's allowed her to cope with what happened all those years ago.
 
But her past comes back to haunt her when she discovers a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over in a diner sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged back into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her small Berkshires hometown to finally figure out the truth about what happened. 
 
With guidance from the half-written book by the father in Guatemala she never knew, Maya's quest for answers forces her to relive that fateful summer—the influence Frank once had on her and the jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey—finally leading her back to Frank's cabin in the woods.
 
The House in the Pines is an utterly unique and surprising thriller about the subtlety of memory and manipulation, confronting the past, and the powerful and lasting bonds of family and friendship.