Pines

Really hard to rate this one. I grabbed this one because every single time a book recommendation thread comes up asking for books like Twin Peaks, Wayward Pines trilogy is inevitably the top comment.

And as a book trying to give Twin Peaks vibes? 1/5. The Twin Peaks comparison is completely superficial. Yes, they both involve a idyllic PNW mountain town whose charming wholesome exterior masks a pulsing heart of darkness. But that's just setting. If someone asks for movies like Jungle Book, are you gonna recommend Predator because they both take place in the jungle and have a big sneaky antagonist with fangs?

Thematically they're so wildly incompatible that I feel almost insulted. TP is a deeply humanist work that answers the question of violence, human cruelty, and cosmic darkness with compassion and understanding. Ethan Burke however, REVELS in violence. He fantasizes about it, dreams about it, performs it, and only abstains from it when he's afraid of being caught for it. Pines apes Twin Peaks style without understanding beyond its surface details. It's Twin Peaks written by Michael Bay.

The thing is though, on its own merits? This is a pretty good fucking book. A blistering page turner with a fun puzzlebox at its core that completely falls apart and faceplants the ending. I read this in two sittings. It is delicious schlocky entertainment.

Was vacillating between a 4 and a 5 for most of my reading, but the ending dropped it to like 3-4, but since I'm curious enough to have grabbed the sequel, I'm thinking 4.