My only criticisms are that Dunbar at times descends into Clive-Barker-style gross-out violence, and that he unfairly portrays the "Pineys" as depraved mental defectives. This book should definitely not be viewed as a travel guide! As entertainment, however, it is great fun.


Run for your life!!!   January 7, 2007
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

If you like your scare-fare fast and heart-pounding, take a detour into THE PINES, where the legendary monster, the Jersey Devil, hunts for prey in the dark and mysterious Pine Barrens of New Jersey. For some reason, campers are drawn to blighted netherworld of the Pineys--as the region is called by the locals--and their camping trips don't always end pleasantly. Grisly deaths occur regularly in the weird woodlands, deaths that the backwater Piney dwellers ascribe to the beast, the Jersey Devil. Young Matthew, a strange little boy, and his mother Althena live out in those woods, and when Althena's good-for-nothing boyfriend--who also happens to be a police sheriff--is murdered, Althena joins with her boyfriend's partner to help solve the case. The killer might be wild dogs, it might be a serial killer. Or it might be something else. This is a finely wrought and engaging horror thriller that takes the reader into the Pine Barrens for a roller coaster horror experience that is structured around a legendary beast that many people--including the author--believe truly exists. When you've finished reading this novel, TombRats, I'll bet you'll be a believer, too!


A Legend Brought to Life   August 25, 2007
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

"Here, rancid air hangs heavily in a void, its texture thick, liquid, clinging, in a night full of the hot smells of decay." With these words, Robert Dunbar's novel The Pines transports readers to a place of terror, a forbidden realm somewhere deep within the New Jersey Pine Barrens, a nether world bordered by familiar landscape, yet harsh and alien as an unknown planet.

The Pine Barrens encompass approximately one-hundred million acres, twenty percent of the entire state. The soil, once part of the ocean floor, is too poor to support normal vegetation. The trees are tortured and grotesque, and the inhabitants, possibly descendants of Revolutionary War deserters and criminals, are as twisted and warped as the pines.

The story surrounds Athena Lee Monroe and her young son, Matthew, who live in the ramshackle old house left them by Athena's late husband. Matthew is a troubled child, emotionally disturbed and slightly retarded, yet with an uncanny ability to predict the future. He communicates with a secret friend, an entity his mother believes is only a projection of his own unstable imagination.

Athena feels an unnatural coldness toward her strange son. She leaves him in the care of his simple-minded aunt Pam while she is away on her job with the local ambulance service, and Pam becomes a sort of substitute mother, forming a bond with the boy his mother cannot do.

When a rash of killings sweep the area, wild dogs are blamed for the slaughter, yet Athena suspects otherwise. When her no good lover, the local sheriff, falls victim, Athena and the deputy set out to find the real culprit. They embark on an investigation that becomes increasingly more bizarre and terrifying at every turn.

The story is skillfully plotted, engaging the reader from the beginning and drawing upon the primal fear every human has of the unknown. Suspense builds to an almost unbearable peak as The Pines propels the reader toward its breathtaking conclusion.

Originally published as a mass-market paperback by Dorchester Publishing (Leisure Books) over a decade ago, the new edition includes the complete unabridged text.

Robert Dunbar, whose fiction and articles have appeared in over one-hundred publications, is a playwright as well as novelist and has written and produced work for both television and radio.

With The Pines, he charts a new course in contemporary horror, bringing to life a monster from the myths of American folklore. The Pines is a terrifying excursion into a nightmare world I found impossible to forget. Highly recommended.



Average horror   November 3, 2008
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

A common image of New Jersey--especially by those outside the state--is a place filled with decaying urban centers, with the state nickname--the Garden State--almost an ironic joke. The truth is that there is plenty of rural space in New Jersey. One such place is the Pine Barrens, which also has been the setting for a number of horror stories. It's a region with its own backwoods population known as Pineys, stereotyped as a New Jersey version of hillbillies. The Barrens also has its own legendary monster, known as the Leeds Devil or Jersey Devil (the source of the hockey team's name).

The Pine Barrens and the Devil are the center of Robert Dunbar's The Pines. The plot focuses on a creature preying on the locals and the efforts to stop it. Although there are many characters--probably too many--the protagonist is Athena, a young widow with a son whose mental handicaps make him more of a burden than an object of affection. This son, however, has some sort of psychic link with the creature in the forest.

Athena is not a Piney, but her late husband was and now she's stuck in the area, surviving off diminishing savings and working for an unlicensed ambulance company that caters to the Piney crowd. As more and more Pineys fall victim to the mysterious creature, Athena is kept busy enough, and even more so as those close to her fall victim to it.

There is nothing bad about the Pines--it is written well-enough and plot-wise is fine--but it suffers from a worse crime than lack of quality: it is boring. Based on other reviews, I know my opinion is in the minority, but I found The Pines to be a bit of a slog to get through. For that reason, I can't really recommend this novel; on the other hand, it has enough quality that I wouldn't discourage reading it either. Approach The Pines with caution: it may not be as appealing as it first appears.