While all of this sounds very interesting, it was actually incredibly frustrating to read. When he does regain more of his memories, he starts to see that people in the town are all acting strange: no one wants to speak to him, they give him faulty or outright false information, he can’t find his badge, his wallet or ID, he can’t reach anyone outside the town and when he tries to escape, he sees that the road curves back into the town and there is no way out.

At first, he has no idea who he is, how he got to the town, or why he’s injured all he knows is that he has a paralyzing fear from the hospital and just remembers the name Mack. It’s a dystopian setting that looks straight out of the Stepford Wives a small town in Idaho, the idyllic representation of small town Americana, surrounded by nature, with people who all have their place in town and are content with it.Īgent Burke comes into town, looking for two missing secret agents: what he finds instead is a nightmare dressed like a daydream (yes, I hate myself too). The best way to describe this book is Twin Peaks, mixed with Lost and the Village. I still had major issues with the plot of the novel, as well as Crouch’s writing, but I preferred following Agent Burke, than whatever the professor’s name was in Dark Matter. I am happy to say that I liked this significantly more not enough to continue the series, but enough to where I was reading out of intrigue, not hatred. I have also seen an episode of the show and it looked good (after reading the book, I won’t be watching it), so I wanted to at least read the first book in the series.

So I was apprehensive going into this series, especially knowing that it was specifically his writing style and characters that I didn’t like the issue is, Crouch has such interesting and unique premises for his stories, and this one was no different. I’ve read one other book by Crouch, Dark Matter and I really didn’t like it. After a few incidents, he regains his memory, but realizes that nothing is as it seems in the idyllic small town, and either everyone is in on a conspiracy or he really is losing his mind.

It follows Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke, who wakes up in the small town of Wayward Pines in Idaho, with no memory of who he is, how he got there or even his name. Pines is the first book in the adult mystery/ sci-fi series Wayward Pines written by Blake Crouch.

Wayward pines goodreads