Blair's Reviews > Pine

10-year-old Lauren lives with her dad, Niall, in a small Scottish town. Her mother Christine disappeared some years ago. Right from the start we are plunged into an intriguing, eerie mystery: a young woman keeps appearing around Strath Horne, sometimes merely glimpsed and sometimes having extended interactions with others, yet only Lauren seems able to remember her. She slips from the others' minds as soon as she is out of sight, even if they're mid-conversation.

Part of what made Pine so beguiling to me was the opening chapter. Lauren and her friend Billy are meeting up to go trick-or-treating or, as it's called here, guising. Lauren is wearing her mother's lipstick; she's just, vaguely, half-consciously, beginning to understand that there are things about Billy she finds attractive. Dressed in makeshift Halloween costumes, the two children traipse from house to house, visiting neighbours they've known all their lives, performing 'party tricks' (Billy tells a joke and Lauren sings 'Bat Out of Hell'). This first chapter establishes everything important about the story: the way Lauren sees the world, the relationship between her family and the community, a backdrop that interweaves small-town cosiness with the chill of the unknown.

Lauren is such a pitch-perfect character. Her preoccupations ring so true, the way she pores over Christine's book of magic but, when she's scared, just wants to listen to the Frozen soundtrack; the sense of looming metamorphosis about her admiration of older girls and newly precarious friendship with Billy. Teens and adults react to her in authentic ways as well – I'm thinking particularly of her tarot card readings for Diane and Ann-Marie, the way their responses strike both indulgent and careless notes, the sense they'll forget her predictions as soon as they leave the room. Toon is great at this in general – sketching the transience, the shifting nature, of exchanges (of words/thoughts/emotions) as they happen.

I haven't written much about the plot because it isn't what mattered to me most. It's definitely compelling, but I wouldn't have minded if it wasn't. I just wanted to soak up the mood and the small perfect details.

I loved Pine. I know this is a worn-out compliment, but I mean it: it is hard to believe that this is a debut novel. I was simply bowled over by the richness of its world – characters and setting both. The hush of the forest; the glow of a Himalayan salt lamp against pine-panelled walls; condensation trickling down the windows of a school bus, words scratched on the seats; a pale figure slipping between the trees. These are images and feelings that will stay with me.

I received an advance review copy of Pine from the publisher through NetGalley.

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