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Pine
- Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
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Summary
They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men.
Lauren and her father, Niall, live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she’s gone.
In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren’s mother a decade ago.
Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father’s turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it’s no longer clear whom she can trust.
In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the word, she unites the chill of the modern Gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times.
Critic reviews
"It's both eerie and thrilling at once, and had me under its spell until the end." (Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure)
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What listeners say about Pine
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Busy bee
- 27-02-20
Poetic prose and beautifully narrated
The prose is rhythmical. The quality of the writing is excellent but the story appears quite slow at the beginning, however, it's for a reason and sets up what does happen and is worth the wait. Creepy and moving in places. Highly recommended.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Sarah Asher
- 23-02-20
simply captivating! loved this book 💚
Loved this, straight forward, yet twisting and turning, reality to supernatural.
captures the idiosyncrasies of Highland village life.
beautiful tormented chatacters brought to life well by the narrator 💚
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5 people found this helpful
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- Ema
- 06-02-20
Not bad
Quite a good little story, quite enjoyable but wish there was more substance to the ending, there was a warm build up just felt it had potential to be better.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-03-20
Tense drama
Realistic Portrayal of life in Highland Village, bound up with a tense story of the supernatural and the disappearance of a young mother. I enjoyed the performance of the narrator.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 20-02-20
An engaging story
I loved the story and the way Toon tells it, it is not unfamiliar by that familiarity is part of it’s appeal. Engrossing and engaging, I listened to it quickly, desperate to hear more.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-02-20
good allround
don't expect much character growth or massive horror moments but if you're up for a story in an isolated setting with strong Wicca influence and genuinely creepy moments this is probably a good bet.
The plot isn't difficult to figure out so if you hate knowing what's gonna happen I wouldn't recommend. The narrator sounded a little too cheerful at some points and I feel the story would have had a darker tone without the voices she gave to the children (the main character is a child) and her positive inflexions but I think she did a good job and was a good pick for such a Scottish tale.
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3 people found this helpful
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- ClaireL
- 10-02-20
Good beginning & end, slow middle
I feel like you could only read the first & last couple of chapters to enjoy this book & save yourself the bother of the middle where nothing much happened.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jessica Bull
- 24-11-23
Absolutely stunning
Absolutely stunning book, read perfectly. I can’t believe there’s not a film. It’s sad, beautiful, haunting and chilling.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Catricia
- 18-11-23
Loved this book!
Beautifully written description of life in a Scottish village next to a forest, where everyone knows everyone else, with all the advantages and disadvantages that brings. The narrator was fantastic, managing to bring the characters completely to life. I didn’t want it to end!
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- CiscoBear
- 23-03-21
A book shouldn't be an experience of endurance
I read a number of reviews praising this book as being atmospheric and chilling. Unfortunately this was not my experience. I listened to this book for just over 90 minutes and several times throughout I felt like giving up, yet I perservered hoping it would get better and the plot would unfold. The story basically involves a young girl called Lauren who lives with her dad Niall in the Scottish highlands. He's a drunk and she seems to spend a lot of time out and about despite her young age. One night they come across a strange young woman wondering around so they take her home. The next morning this woman has vanished along with any memory of her but Lauren remembers her. Sounds exciting right? wrong! it plods along at such a slow space that watching paint dry would be more interesting. The characters are completely unlikable and detached. Far too many descriptions and not enough plot movement. The great Author Brandon Sanderson once said that if you're reading a book and are not hooked after reading the first page, then close the book and find another one.He's absolutely right but I endured it to my mistake.
The narrator goes a bit overboard with the Scottish accent. Think rab c nesbitt. It's rather tiresome and hurts my ears but it was probably the most interesting part of the whole experience so 2 stars just for that.
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