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The Pines Trilogy
The Streets
THE STREETS is the final part of Robert Dunbar's THE PINES TRILOGY:
In a desolate city, as ravaged and dangerous as a post-Apocalyptic wasteland, horrors prowl back alleys. Struggling to survive, a group of young people find themselves trapped in a decaying asylum ... where unspeakable evil lurks.
Do the streets offer escape? Or death?
In a desolate city, as ravaged and dangerous as a post-Apocalyptic wasteland, horrors prowl back alleys. Struggling to survive, a group of young people find themselves trapped in a decaying asylum ... where unspeakable evil lurks.
Do the streets offer escape? Or death?
334 pages, Paperback
First published August 14, 2015
5 people are currently reading
444 people want to read
About the author
Robert Dunbar
33 books734 followersRobert Dunbar is the author of the THE PINES TRILOGY, a series of supernatural thrillers – THE PINES and THE SHORE and THE STREETS. These novels have garnered extremely positive reviews, attracting a great many readers, and the author often blogs about his adventures in the genre world here at Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Dunbar has written for television and radio as well as for numerous newspapers and magazines. His plays and poetry have won awards, and his short fiction has been widely anthologized. You can find an interview with him here:
http://www.uninvitedbooks.com/page32....
Dunbar has been called "the catalyst for the new literary movement in horror" and "one of the saviors of contemporary dark fiction," which he loves… in no small degree because of how such comments provoke the troll community.
To learn more, drop by Robert Dunbar’s Literary Darkness discussion group.
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...
Dunbar has written for television and radio as well as for numerous newspapers and magazines. His plays and poetry have won awards, and his short fiction has been widely anthologized. You can find an interview with him here:
http://www.uninvitedbooks.com/page32....
Dunbar has been called "the catalyst for the new literary movement in horror" and "one of the saviors of contemporary dark fiction," which he loves… in no small degree because of how such comments provoke the troll community.
To learn more, drop by Robert Dunbar’s Literary Darkness discussion group.
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 15, 2016
Big fan of queer characters in books that aren’t just about coming out and don’t read like romance comics. Honest to God bi characters are hard to find to. Just like in life. Here its two boys and a girl in love and one of them is maybe a monster.
scary and smart and intense story. You really want these kids to escape from the mental hospital be alright and stay together and take care of each other. Even if the bodies do pile up a little. I can’t believe I’m just discovering this writer. On a mission to read all the rest of his stuff now.
scary and smart and intense story. You really want these kids to escape from the mental hospital be alright and stay together and take care of each other. Even if the bodies do pile up a little. I can’t believe I’m just discovering this writer. On a mission to read all the rest of his stuff now.
November 22, 2015
...Some 26 years after “The Pines” first hit the shelves...Dunbar completes his trilogy with the bleak, dread-inducing, yet remarkably life-affirming...novel “The Streets.”
My whole lengthy review is over at Nameless Digest
My whole lengthy review is over at Nameless Digest
December 20, 2015
I read the series back-to-back, which I highly recommend. While each book could stand alone, together, I was more fully immersed within Dunbar's disturbingly awesome universe. And while disturbing, hope and transformation reigned.
May 9, 2017
The Streets is a fascinating novel which is richly written by the talented Robert Dunbar. With prose capturing the beauty and horror weaves within the narrative to spin a yarn that is very unforgettable.
This is the third part of a trilogy and I have to admit that I have not read the previous two but this did not hammer my enjoyment of this. The characters are rich and are fighting in a world that is not too dissimilar to our own. Set in a post-apocalyptic near future, the displaced youth within the framework of the story speak to the audience and addresses the ills of modern society. Placing the emphasis of demoralised youth within the framework has given the story an allegory into the disenfranchise kids we see today.
The adults are shown to be opportunistic and are more than willing to sell innocence for a profit. They are not to be trusted and within this structure, Dunbar was able to really accomplish a multi-dimensional evil that is often lacking in other books of this ilk. He has enabled the villains of the piece to breath and although they are not apologetic in their evilness in the world, underneath they too are trying to survive but at a price to others.
The main narrative is rich and wonderfully displayed with the reader fully immersing themselves with The Pines and decayed urban landscape. Dunbar has a poetic beauty within his narrative that he knows how to use but not distract from the main plot or action within the piece. He avoids flowering a passage but enhances it with intelligent and mosaic phrasing to accomplish almost a work of art within his chronicled storytelling.
There is a cross genre pollination to the proceedings which is refreshing and vibrant. This Dark Fiction novel addresses the ills within society and enables the reader to reflect on the modern world for which we all currently reside in. Real characters inhabiting the page and holding a mirror up to us as we follow them on their horrendous journey of survival. This novel has the ingredients to become a critical and market success and should find a readership that will cherish this over and over again.
The Streets is a must read for people who love the written word and also for readers who enjoy a great plot. It has every component to make its mark on the world. This is a definite piece of artistic intricate with the beautiful sits along the horror. This an author at the top of their game and anyone who loves to read, should never give a chance up to read ‘The Streets’.
This is the third part of a trilogy and I have to admit that I have not read the previous two but this did not hammer my enjoyment of this. The characters are rich and are fighting in a world that is not too dissimilar to our own. Set in a post-apocalyptic near future, the displaced youth within the framework of the story speak to the audience and addresses the ills of modern society. Placing the emphasis of demoralised youth within the framework has given the story an allegory into the disenfranchise kids we see today.
The adults are shown to be opportunistic and are more than willing to sell innocence for a profit. They are not to be trusted and within this structure, Dunbar was able to really accomplish a multi-dimensional evil that is often lacking in other books of this ilk. He has enabled the villains of the piece to breath and although they are not apologetic in their evilness in the world, underneath they too are trying to survive but at a price to others.
The main narrative is rich and wonderfully displayed with the reader fully immersing themselves with The Pines and decayed urban landscape. Dunbar has a poetic beauty within his narrative that he knows how to use but not distract from the main plot or action within the piece. He avoids flowering a passage but enhances it with intelligent and mosaic phrasing to accomplish almost a work of art within his chronicled storytelling.
There is a cross genre pollination to the proceedings which is refreshing and vibrant. This Dark Fiction novel addresses the ills within society and enables the reader to reflect on the modern world for which we all currently reside in. Real characters inhabiting the page and holding a mirror up to us as we follow them on their horrendous journey of survival. This novel has the ingredients to become a critical and market success and should find a readership that will cherish this over and over again.
The Streets is a must read for people who love the written word and also for readers who enjoy a great plot. It has every component to make its mark on the world. This is a definite piece of artistic intricate with the beautiful sits along the horror. This an author at the top of their game and anyone who loves to read, should never give a chance up to read ‘The Streets’.
July 1, 2017
Like both The Pines and The Shore, The Streets is a densely populated and intricately plotted work of fiction, whose complexity is magnified by the Hemingway-like concision of Dunbar’s prose. Make no mistake; although it’s plot-driven fiction, this isn’t casual, passive reading material. Dunbar’s work is demanding, challenging, and tightly knotted. This is no hand-holding writer of throwaway entertainment; instead, Dunbar sometimes evokes the pleasurable difficulty of reading such heavyweights as Southern Gothic scribe William Faulkner.
Read my full review in Unnerving.
Read my full review in Unnerving.
April 17, 2017
Firstly - the formatting of the ebook is pretty terrible. Half of sentences are missing, some are cut in half by paragraphs, words are missing and strange gaps appear where they shouldn't be. Hopefully these issues will be rectified soon.
If you are looking for a cheery, easy bed time read then this is definitely not it! The tone of the book is rather dystopian and gritty. It's certainly not suitable for younger readers!
I wasn't aware that this is the last installment of a trilogy. Although prior knowledge of the other books probably adds more layers to the story and characters it can be read as a stand alone. The first two books do not seem to be available yet on the Kindle.
It took me a few chapters to 'get' the style of writing. It starts off with a huge bang and then slows down considerably. The way the author writes creates a pretty tense, claustrophobic atmosphere that doesn't let up at all throughout.
One character is both the centre of the story and absent for the majority of the time. There are various sub plots that all lead to the same ending. The author deals with these well and it's rarely confusing, especially when you get to know the characters a bit so you automatically know which plot line they are in. Unfortunately the formatting issues I brought up at the beginning of the review can cause confusion. That is not the authors fault, though, so my rating is not affected by those issues.
It is rather disturbing at times and deals with an awful lot of taboo and hard hitting subjects. Some people will probably find it too much but I felt that, although sometimes they are hammered home a little too often, the author deals with them on the right way.
Some of the characters are pretty much impossible to identify with but I feel that is kind of the point! I can't really say that any of the characters are completely sympathetic because they all have a darkness around them - sometimes due to their overt actions and others just because of their complicity in certain situations and events. Again, though, this seemed to be the authors intention.
Can I say that I enjoyed this novel? I'm not sure. It is very bleak, extremely uncomfortable at times and I found myself thinking about certain events that happened whilst doing everyday things. So enjoyment isn't the right word but it is very well written, intense and I am planning to try to get copies of the two earlier books. That in itself shows just how much the story got into my head and is proof of the authors skill
If you are looking for a cheery, easy bed time read then this is definitely not it! The tone of the book is rather dystopian and gritty. It's certainly not suitable for younger readers!
I wasn't aware that this is the last installment of a trilogy. Although prior knowledge of the other books probably adds more layers to the story and characters it can be read as a stand alone. The first two books do not seem to be available yet on the Kindle.
It took me a few chapters to 'get' the style of writing. It starts off with a huge bang and then slows down considerably. The way the author writes creates a pretty tense, claustrophobic atmosphere that doesn't let up at all throughout.
One character is both the centre of the story and absent for the majority of the time. There are various sub plots that all lead to the same ending. The author deals with these well and it's rarely confusing, especially when you get to know the characters a bit so you automatically know which plot line they are in. Unfortunately the formatting issues I brought up at the beginning of the review can cause confusion. That is not the authors fault, though, so my rating is not affected by those issues.
It is rather disturbing at times and deals with an awful lot of taboo and hard hitting subjects. Some people will probably find it too much but I felt that, although sometimes they are hammered home a little too often, the author deals with them on the right way.
Some of the characters are pretty much impossible to identify with but I feel that is kind of the point! I can't really say that any of the characters are completely sympathetic because they all have a darkness around them - sometimes due to their overt actions and others just because of their complicity in certain situations and events. Again, though, this seemed to be the authors intention.
Can I say that I enjoyed this novel? I'm not sure. It is very bleak, extremely uncomfortable at times and I found myself thinking about certain events that happened whilst doing everyday things. So enjoyment isn't the right word but it is very well written, intense and I am planning to try to get copies of the two earlier books. That in itself shows just how much the story got into my head and is proof of the authors skill
September 19, 2018
First, you should know that I have really enjoyed this series, so my review is not from a completely unbiased perspective. I was excited to read that last of the trilogy. What I did not expect was to be blown away by it. As in, I totally loved this one, by far the best of the trilogy. That's not to disparage the first two, but to state how much this one spoke to me. The setting. The characters. The depth of emotion and feeling and fear and evil. It pulls you into the mystery and keeps you turning the pages until the bitter end. Loved it.
February 6, 2019
This book had potential, but I could not get into it. Definitely not for younger readers. Some people may enjoy this book, it just wasn't for me.
March 11, 2018
Rating:
Pages: 334
If you haven't read the first two books of this trilogy, you will be very confused during this book. This book does bring in all the characters, Matthew, Athena, Steve, and Kit. Several years have passed, and Athena is trying to help the boys to the "next level" as they hit puberty.
The new characters in this book were just as compelling as the remaining people. Again, no wonder i have had insomnia lately, I was so nervous I stayed up way too late reading this book. This time around, there are some great villains! I found myself cheering when they were found out.
While this book is much more plot driven instead of watching people change, it made the suspense just out of control. I will not wreck any plots, but if you want a fun "monster" trilogy, I think these are great.
Location: Kindle
Pages: 334
If you haven't read the first two books of this trilogy, you will be very confused during this book. This book does bring in all the characters, Matthew, Athena, Steve, and Kit. Several years have passed, and Athena is trying to help the boys to the "next level" as they hit puberty.
The new characters in this book were just as compelling as the remaining people. Again, no wonder i have had insomnia lately, I was so nervous I stayed up way too late reading this book. This time around, there are some great villains! I found myself cheering when they were found out.
While this book is much more plot driven instead of watching people change, it made the suspense just out of control. I will not wreck any plots, but if you want a fun "monster" trilogy, I think these are great.
Location: Kindle
June 22, 2017
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
First of all, I highly recommend reading the 2 previous books in this trilogy, as I do not believe it to really be a stand-alone story. The continuity is important, as are the characters and how their life is devastated. The writing style is also a joy to read, intense and gritty. In a sea of dystopian fiction, this trilogy stands out. A group of young people on a journey of survival find their trust and beliefs of their old world to no longer matter.
First of all, I highly recommend reading the 2 previous books in this trilogy, as I do not believe it to really be a stand-alone story. The continuity is important, as are the characters and how their life is devastated. The writing style is also a joy to read, intense and gritty. In a sea of dystopian fiction, this trilogy stands out. A group of young people on a journey of survival find their trust and beliefs of their old world to no longer matter.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews