The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
She met Frank in the library and soon came under his spell. She had a full-ride scholarship to Boston University with enrollment starting in a few weeks. She considered taking a gap year to be with Frank. After Franck murdered Aubrey, she left Pittsfield to enroll in BU. She returned seven years later after she saw a video online where Cristina Lewis died sitting across the table from Frank. From her experience with Aubrey, she knew she couldn’t accuse Frank without evidence.
Frank is a powerful, murdering, controlling monster. Frank represents men who control and abuse women. When the women accuse the men, they are not believed, and instead of investigating the men, society treats the women with psychotherapy and drugs. That was Maya’s experience. Frank takes women to his cabin in the woods, where they have detailed fond memories of the cabin, but also blackouts where they do not remember anything for hours.
Part of the response to Maya’s insistence that Frank murdered Aubrey is that her mother sends her to Dr. Barry, who prescribes Klonopin (Clonazepam), a benzodiazepine medication used to prevent and treat anxiety disorders, seizures, bipolar mania, and OCD. It is a long-acting tranquilizer. Maya becomes dependent on it and alcohol. Seven years later, another doctor prescribed mirtazapine, a prescription antidepressant used to treat major depressive disorder.
Author Ana Reyes is half Guatemalan. Her paternal grandparents and father, all of whom grew up in Guatemala, left the country while her father was 11 due to regional instability precipitated by American interference. The book includes a subplot about Maya’s father, who was murdered in Guatemala when Maya was young. Shortly after Aubrey was murdered, Maya and her mother, Brenda, visit her father’s village, where Maya retrieves her father’s unfinished novel. Maya wants to be a writer.
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