| Title | : | The Cabin at the End of the World |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0062679104 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780062679109 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 |
| Publication | : | First published June 26, 2018 |
| Awards | : | Bram Stoker Award Best Novel (2018), Locus Award Horror Novel (2019), ITW Thriller Award Hardcover Novel (2019), Goodreads Choice Award Horror (2018), RUSA CODES Reading List Horror (2019) |
One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what’s going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: "Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world."
The Cabin at the End of the World Reviews
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HAPPY PRIDE MONTH AND ALSO FATHER'S DAY!!
oooh, goodreads choice awards semifinalist for best horror 2018! what will happen?
what. the. fuck. was. that?
here’s the thing, ever since paul tremblay wrote
A Head Full of Ghosts and slipped in a character named “karen brissette” whose voice sounded an awful lot like the inside of my own (ghostless) head, i’ve been pestering him with, “am i gonna be in the next book, huh?? huh?? huh?? am i??"
but i am so glad to not be in this one because YEESH.
i don’t even know how to review it.
it’s pretty telling that the synopsis on here and the back-cover copy of the ARC is basically, “here are many specific details about what happens in the very very beginning, including pull quotes, which is never done, followed by a vague mini-paragraph about the rest of the book. enjoy!”
because going any further into trying to describe the plot will a) make the reviewer sound insane and b) ruin the thrill of discovery for the reader.
i think the whole point of this book is to make the reader squirm. not with excess gore or violence or anything like that. but with anticipation.
it’s a held-breath kind of book, where you need to know how it’s going to resolve more than anything, but you must resist flipping ahead, cheater! it's page after page of stubborn standoff and escalating tension and raising of stakes and questioning what's real and what's not and how does something like this end for anyone involved?? it will get under your skin, i promise you that.
the plot isn’t the draw, because it’s less traditional plot than it is setting a scenario in motion and letting the characters bounce off its walls. the characters are part of the draw - the happily vacationing family at the center of the situation are eric and andrew and their seven-year-old daughter wen, whom they adopted from china as a baby, and they are as loving and enviable a family as you could possibly want if you were looking to illustrate the “terrible things happening to good people” angle. which is precisely the goal here.
in the calm before the storm, when andrew and eric are just being a goofy couple on the back porch - i remember reading that scene and thinking how well and naturally they were written; that their banter read like actual long-term couple banter with years of relationship history bubbling through subtextually, so it was even more effective once things started happening, because relatable characters being put in extraordinary circumstances naturally makes the reader question themselves - what would they do in eric and andrew’s place. me, i would freak the fuck out. period. like so:
this one plays it smart by never straying far from the realistic, in terms of character's responses. it sticks pretty close to the realm of ordinary parental bravery, not liam neeson-badassery, which - although wonderfully entertaining, is only an option for people with a very particular set of skills. eric and andrew do not have these skills. but they do their best.
wen is also a great character. i don’t usually love kid-characters, but she’s written to be appealing and smart and occasionally bossy, as seven-year-old girls are, and seeing her struggle to process what is even going on and how to react contributes some excellent drama.Maybe she should run like Daddy Andrew said, sprint through the room, dodge the turned-over furniture like a mouse through high grass, then onto the deck and outside and away. She can run fast. Her dads tell her that she is fast, so fast, all the time. And they tell her she is shifty. She knows their races are fixed for her to win, but Wen outlasting the catchers in their catch-me-if-you-can games until Eric and/or Andrew are bent over, hands on knees, gasping for air is legitimate. She is shifty. Wen loves this word. It means hard to catch. It means even better than fast; it’s a smart fast.
…
She knows she’d make it out of the cabin without getting caught if she was to run, but where would she run to? She doesn’t want to accidentally get lost on the dirt roads that fork and branch away leading to nowhere or to worse places than here, and what if she has to ditch the road for the thick woods surrounding the cabin for miles and miles? Her dads were explicit in saying she could not go into these woods by herself under any circumstances because they might never find her again.
and that right there is the draw - moreso than plot or characters is mood. the tension and the shivery feeling that never goes away the whole time you're reading this. what is the right choice when every choice is horrible? you can prepare for a lot of eventualities as a parent, from commonplace to very unlikely, but this one - no one's ever written a pamphlet to get you through this situation.
the comparison to
In a Dark, Dark Wood is a bit of a stretch. i mean, i guess they’re both kind of “bottle episodes,” so there’s a claustrophobic facet at play, except there’s little to no tension in ddw, and i couldn’t even locate a whiff of the horror or suspense it advertised. and i’m not trying to be a jerk about that book just because she’s never written me into one of her novels - it was okay, it was just a bit predictable and forgettable, while this one is nothing but unpredictable horror and suspense.
it's actually much much more like 10 Cloverfield Lane, which is not a book at all, but it definitely explores the same general themes and conflict, where a stranger has a story too outrageous to be true, but oh, man - what if it is? and trust, doubt, and self-preservation shift and rattle and sustain an intense ambiguity for both characters and reader/viewer for the whole damn ride.
can't say more, but this one's a nailbiter.
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i got lost on my way to instagram...
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this was in
my pagehabit horror box for june. which is sad since i have already read and reviewed it, but at least i got some fun notes from paul tremblay's brain and some adorable booky stickers and a gimble for when my arms need to be amputated!!
come to my blog! -
When the end is near will you know it? Will signs appear to show it? And what sort of end will it be? Ice or fire? Conflagration? Land consumed by an angry sea? And what if there’s uncertainty? What if this is not the result of that, but just the way things are, under no one’s control to cause or prevent? And if there is no control, what is the role of those who speak on behalf of an unseen power? Do they suffer from confusion, perhaps delusion? Can we take them at their word? What if they insist we go along with their intrusion, even though we’ve reached a very different conclusion? Lines are drawn when the mad demand our subjugation. What sort of god could allow such things and still insist on adoration?
Paul Tremblay - image from Litreactor.com
Wenling (Wen) will be eight years old in a few days. She and her two daddies, Eric and Andrew, are away from it all, up from Cambridge, at a cabin in northern New Hampshire, near the Canadian border.Her dads chose this place because there would be no Wi-fi or cell reception so they could unplug and it would be just the three of them hanging out, swimming, talking, playing cards or board games without any digital distractions.
Peace and quiet, no nearby neighbors, plenty of grasshoppers. Wen is outside collecting some in a jar, to study. She is even giving them names, and making sure to pick smaller ones that will not damage themselves on the jagged edges of the air holes she’s poked in the metal lid. Out of nowhere a very large man appears, Leonard. He might be taller than anyone she has ever met, and he’s as wide as a couple of tree trunks pushed together. He is soft spoken and seems kind, even helps her collect some specimens. But Leonard is (like the
Blues Brothers) on a mission from god. He has three other people with him.Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen, but they have to. Tell them they have to. We are not here to hurt you. We need your help to save the world. Please.
Well, in that case, sure, come on in…or not. Wen, alarmed, runs to tell her dads. The four insist on entering. The dads are determined to keep them out, and the siege is on.
Image from ZD Net
An apocalypse is coming and these four are both heralds and, potentially, agents of prevention. Were the voices they all heard some common mental illness, an alien intrusion, or truly a sign from you-know-who? That the world seems to be going to hell quickly in a dramatically large handbasket lends them some credence, but what they are asking is unthinkable.
Kristin Cui as Wen in the film Knock at the Cabin - image from Horror Obsessive
Tremblay has written detective novels, scores of short stories and a few horror books, all while keeping his day job, schoolteacher. Perhaps because of having to deal with adolescents at work and at home, he is fond of horror story tropes. In A Head Full of Ghosts he became one with the demonic possession tale. For a later work, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, he considered what sort of things would most terrify him personally. And the winner was missing child, every parent’s nightmare. This time he took on another favorite source of terror. ‘How would I do a home invasion novel I’d like to read?’ I guarantee you have not read one like this one before.
Image from JoeCruzMM.files.wordpress.com
The intent doesn’t matter much if you do not care about those in the home being invaded. No problem. Wen is edible, and her daddies are a very human couple, with affection and edges reasonably distributed. Details of their lives make you care for them more and more. And you will have cause for concern, as they are facing very real, very existential immediate peril.
Abby Quinn as Sabrina, Nikki Asuka-Bird as Adrienne, Dave Bautista as Leonard, and Rupert Grint as Redmond in the film Knock at the Cabin - image from IMDB
There are plenty of elements in common with the usual home invasion horrors. Wondering if your invaders are nuts, fearing for your life and the lives of your loved ones, trying to figure out ways to get the better of the baddies. What is different is that the home invaders do not seem to be evil people, despite the most definitely evil-looking scythe-like weaponry they tote. (When the going gets seriously tough, the seriously tough get going to FourHorsemenOutfitters.com, your goto provider for your end-times needs. Tribulation-free ordering guaranteed) Leonard, the leader, seems particularly reasonable, a gentle giant, nice even. They might be insane, but what if they are not? There are reasons offered to consider the latter possibility. The other three are definitely equipped with good sides too, but a bit less manifestly than their leader.
Study for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 19th century - by John Martin
image from the Indiana University Art Museum Provenance Project
Any fine meal is composed of a range of ingredients. Here we have the terror of the invaded, the unexpected facets of the invaders and a big, overarching scare. Is it real or not? But there are other items spicing up this read. There is consideration of faith, religion, and how far one will go in service of one’s beliefs. It is tough not to see the four horsemen imagery in the four invaders, but there are other, more subtle spices at play. A motif of sevens permeates. There are sundry references to other novels that offer some food for thought. Tim O’Brien’s Lake of the Woods is one. There are others. Do we believe what we see or see what we believe?
Image from Sleepyhollow.wikia.com
This book will keep you guessing. Is this the end of the world? Or maybe just a potential end for some. Tremblay offers an explanation, but can we accept it? The ambiguity provides a constant tension from the first encounter to the last page. There may not be a mysterious voice telling you to get your hands on this one as soon as you can, and read it as quickly as possible. But whether you hear one or not, this will be one of the best reads of the summer and you do not really know how much time you have left.
Review first posted – 3/16/18
Publication date – 6/26/18
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s
personal,
Twitter and
FB pages
He has a story collection coming out in 2019, and his next novel in 2020.
An excerpt - from Entertainment Weekly
I sure hope Tremblay doesn’t
take a shovel to my review. But if he does, I hope he tapes it.
Interviews
-----In this
video interview put out by his publisher, Morrow, Tremblay talks mostly about two earlier novels, but gets into how this one came about, offering insight into his approach – 27:50
-----Providence College – an audio interview at his alma mater -
From Fractions to Fiction - 42:15
-----Excerpts from a Locus Magazine interview – print -
Paul Tremblay: Aftermath
-----Audio interview –
Friday Morning Coffee – June 16, 2017 – with Daniel Ford – 21:01
-----Print interview at LitReactor.com -
10 Questions with Paul Tremblay - 6/2/15 – by Keith Rawson
Other
-----
Book Studio 16 is a Harper department that produces a video series in which someone whose opinion I value above all speaks about a handful of (usually) upcoming books. At -24.19 to -18:18, the queen of the show talks about The Cabin at the End of the World, but I suggest you watch the entire vid. (about 34 minutes) You might find even more books to add to your ever-growing TBR.
The Harper Book Queen included a bit on this book in her
TBR Tuesdays FB live broadcast from 7/31/18 - at 9:50
-----Trailer for
Knock at the Cabin, which is a really dumb renaming of the book - directed by M. Night Shyamalan - release date Feb 3, 2023 -
(2.5) The book started great but it quickly fell flat. It probably would have made a better short story.
Don't recommend the audiobook as some characters sounded quite robotic and it took me out of the story.
Overall it left me wanting to find more books with a similar premise since it didn't give me what I want.
Any recommendation of books where you don't know who's crazy/telling the truth? -
The Cabin at the End of the World has a fantastic premise at its core, and if this story had been a novella or a 90-minute movie, I likely would have enjoyed it a whole lot more. Instead, Tremblay stuffs and stretches a simple yet awesome idea into a full-length novel that's both padded and repetitive to a frustrating degree.
Without spoiling things, The Cabin at the End of the World is a home invasion novel with apocalyptic overtones. Andrew and Eric, and their adopted Chinese daughter, Wen, are trapped inside their cabin, surrounded by four individuals who may or may not be totally insane.
To kick things off, we're first introduced to Wen in a much too long opening chapter that sees her collecting grasshoppers before meeting the strange and large Leonard, the leader of the group of intruders. The second chapter involves a very protracted round of "Let us in" "No, we won't let you in!" round-robin between the intruders and Andrew and Eric. You discover pretty quickly that Tremblay only has a couple ideas with which to prop up The Cabin at the End of the World, and a whole lot of pages are spent with repetitive dialogue as the characters go back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth some more, arguing the same freaking points over and over and over and over and over in laborious fashion. These back and forths exhausting - not for the characters, oh no, not at all, but for the readers. These characters spend nearly three hundred pages arguing endlessly around a "You must do this!" "No, we will never do that!" premise. It's fucking tiring. That it's further padded with excruciating details about every freaking bit of furniture and blanket in the house helps not a whit.
Thankfully, these pointless circular exchanges are punctuated with some truly well drawn moments of violence and sequences of events that call into question the nature of this book's scenario as a whole. Unfortunately, Tremblay refuses to take a stand in regards to how much of his scenario is legitimate versus some of these characters simply being bugfuck crazy. You never know if the demands being placed upon Andrew and Eric have any sort of real meaning or not, and Tremblay argues both sides effectively but ultimately waffles on the credibility of the premise in order to be uber mysterioso. He wants his story to be both incredible and incredulous simultaneously, refusing to pick a side. Ultimately, this book comes off more like a Choose Your Own Adventure as told by a high school debate club, albeit one armed with some wicked home-made weaponry.
In terms of home invasion horrors, The Cabin at the End of the World has an excellent killer premise. In terms of execution, home invasion horror has been done far better in books like Jack Ketchum's Off Season and Brett McBean's The Invasion. Or you could just save a few days entirely, read something else, and pop in a Blu-ray copy of The Strangers.
[Note: I received an advance copy of this title from the publisher, William Morrow, via Edelweiss.] -
**3.5-WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ-stars rounded up**
Good grief. Seriously. What in HELL did I just read!? Existential crisis, anyone?
What is life? What is love? What are words? What did I just read? Did I just read this? Is there anybody out there? Are you there God, it's me, Meg?
Wen and her Daddies, Andrew and Eric, head off on a cozy family vacation to a little cabin in the woods of New Hampshire.
The goal is to unplug and focus on family. As it happens, they are the cutest little family ever to family.
I fell in love with them from the very first chapter and knew immediately that this book would crush my soul.
SPOILER ALERT: It did.
As Wen is outside catching grasshoppers, cataloging and naming them, as you do, a stranger appears.
Wen knows she is not supposed to talk to strangers, but this man seems nice and eventually gets her to let her guard down. It's not until his friends appear that Wen realizes something is horribly wrong.
What happens next is too messed up to even summarize for a review, but it kept me so invested.
I loved the format and really enjoyed how my mind was screaming, NOOOOOOOOOOOO, pretty much the entire time.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a tense, slightly brutal read.
If you are someone who likes everything to be tied up with a nice little bow at the end, however, this may not be the book for you.
Tremblay likes to make us think. Well played! -
um. whAT THE FUCK WAS THAT??!!!
WTF.
I’m just— what the actually....
*Glares intensifies at book sitting on the table*
“GAH YOU’RE SO POINTLESS!!!” I scream.
OK. Great premise. I can understand the obscurity and redundancy of it— the ‘Unknown’. Writing was decent. Very engaging. But the pacing. THE PACING. Oh god, THE FUCKING PACING. I’m done.
D O N E.
How—
What in the world was this mess. Too much repetition that tried hard to give these characters back stories but instead, fucking backfired in a way that made me exhausted just reading about it. So bad.
I can forgive the ending as well but I felt that one particular death was SO FUCKING POINTLESS IM SO ANGRY BBYYEE.
fuCKK.
Thank god i finished this after Christmas otherwise I would have been so stupidly annoyed my god. This book had such promise and a great build up going through but I just....can’t.
Overall disappointed. AF.
Could not relate to anyone who gave this five stars.
2 GENEROUS STARS
Twitter |
Bookstagram |
Youtube | -
3.5 STARS
"Your dads won't let us in, Wen. But they have to. Tell them they have to. We are not here to hurt you. We need your help to save the world. Please."
I love that, when you pick up a Paul Tremblay novel, you never know exactly what you're getting yourself into until you finish the book. Each one of his novels are widely different in plot, but also wholly similar in their unsettling and deliciously compulsive nature. Each of his fans have their own personal favorite; for me, that's A Head Full Of Ghosts. Regardless of which book you've taken to mostly, I think all who enjoy his books can agree that no one writes about the dark and gritty unseen moments of domestic life like he can. That said, I enjoyed The Cabin At The End Of The World, but it wasn't my favorite.
"Come inside, now. Please come in. You have to. Hurry. There are people here and they want to come in and they want to talk to you and some of them scare me."
The tension and building of suspense here is brilliant. I felt like a brittle bone; I was so rigid and engrossed while reading that if someone had come along and poked me with their pinky, I may have shattered. What is this book about you ask? I'd rather not say, partially because I'm still trying to process what exactly I just read. It's very hard to talk about any specifics here, because this is a very different book with a very different vibe and to spoil it would just be cruel. So instead of talking about the plot, I wanted to mention what caused me to connect with the characters, and a majority of it was the portrayal of Wen's two dads, Eric and Andrew. The author has done such a fantastic job of taking a homosexual couple and making them real and normal, as they should be. EDIT- as pointed out by a reader below, I was not intending to imply that gay couples are neither "real or normal". My intention was to state how grateful I am that the author included them as they should be here, real and normal! There is still a shortage of LGBT characters in the mystery, thriller, suspense genre and I was pleased to see them included here in the manner that they should be. Many apologies if that came across the wrong way. They bicker and have emotional moments and have to work through the terror of protecting their child just like all the rest of us, which was both beautiful and heart warming. I found this part to be necessary to offset all the dark spookie wookies going on here.
I did enjoy the plot, but I think I'm middle of the fence on how the ending worked for me. It'll just be up to personal preference of the reader, which you'll understand once you reach the end of this one yourself and have a chance to decide. This was a gripping read that was entertaining and perfect to pick up when you have a chance to read it all in one sitting. Recommended to Tremblay fans and also to those looking for something new to spice up their reading rut. I'll be anxiously awaiting his next work and can't wait to see where he takes us!
*I received a copy for review from the publisher. All opinions are my own. -
4.5 stars
When I first started reading this book, I thought if the horror films "The Strangers" and "The Cabin in the woods" had a baby - it would be this book! Of course, there are major differences (and plots) but still....
A getaway to a cabin sounds like a perfect time away for Wen and her two dads. They are going to relax, she wants to catch some grasshoppers and they plan to enjoy the lake. But one day a man approaches Wen while she is busy catching her grasshoppers and tells her "None of what’s going to happen is your fault". and "Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they must. We need your help to save the world."
So, what would you do? Four strangers show up on your doorstep, telling you to let them inside. They won’t hurt you, but you must let them in. Do you? Do you believe their stories about the apocalypse? Sounds crazy right? Who are these people? Why should you believe them? Would you let them in?
To say that I thought this book was fantastic is an understatement. I loved the family. Wen is adorable and inquisitive. She wants to study grasshoppers, so she can save them if they get sick. She loves her Dads and has a wonderful home life with them. Andrew and Eric love Wen. They are affectionate and extremely likable. Tremblay has the reader caring so much for their characters that of course, we don't want those four-people coming into their lives and into their cabin. Our feelings for them make this book more powerful. I was invested in what happened to them individually and as a family.
Tremblay sets the perfect mood for a home invasion book. The reader will care about this family. But wait! What about Leonard and his companions message? What is this save the world business? Why should the reader care about what the four-people invading this home have to say?
I would have given this book 5 stars had it not been for the ending. That is not to say that the ending is bad or goes off the rails, I just wanted more. I felt as if I was left hanging -but then again, I feel as if that is how the characters in the book felt. They were faced with uncertainty, so the reader was left with the same emotion.
I loved the tension in this book. I read most of it in one day. I had to keep turning the pages as I wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters I cared about. I also wanted to know if what the home invaders said was going to occur would occur. Were they telling the truth? Is this all real? So many questions!
What does one call this book? Horror with a heart is what I will go with. I thought this book was very well-written. It evokes emotion and has a sense of dread and tension throughout.
Highly recommend.
I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss and William Morrow books in exchange for an honest review.
See more of my reviews at
www.openbookposts.com -
"Too many people have smiles that don't mean what a smile is supposed to mean."
Eric and Andrew are staying in a remote cabin on a New Hampshire lake with their seven-year-old child, Wen, who is catching grasshoppers in the garden when a large man appears. He is friendly at first and is starting to win Wen over when he abruptly says, "None of what is going to happen is your fault." Three more strangers then appear in the driveway holding deadly weapons...
This has probably been my most disappointing read of the year - my rage is fuelled further by the fact that I wasted a precious October read on it! Writing a review like this is more difficult when the author is quite active on bookstagram etc, especially when they are a pretty cool guy, as Tremblay is, but I do believe it's of the utmost importance to always be honest in your reviews. This book was majorly hyped on bookstagram but unfortunately it really fell flat for me.
The first 50 pages or so were incredibly promising - I was HOOKED and needed to know what happened next. But then nothing really did... for the next 250 pages. I mean, sure, perhaps events did occur but I felt like the story itself didn't really move forward. It was basically 250 pages of a group of characters arguing with each other and no one really taking a minute to calm down and ask the intruders to explain everything from the very beginning to the present moment. OR if they did ask (I honestly can't remember, it's all a blur), the intruders couldn't answer such questions "yet". Can you imagine how infuriating that was. And then the ending itself... *explodes* I really hated it. It just emphasised that this book felt like a waste of time to me.
On the plus side, it was refreshing that the main family unit was made up of two dads and their adopted child, Wen. Maybe it's just the books I've been reading recently, but I don't often come across gay couples with children in my fiction and I really did appreciate that! Representation is important. It's just a shame I didn't give a flying toot about the actual characters... There was a huge scene that I know was meant to be really emotional and I didn't even bat an eyelid. And I'm a crier!! Oh, and some of the violence scenes were pretty brutal... which was good. But that's all I got!
The idea and concept is really quite interesting, but I feel like it just fell apart after the first 50 pages. Maybe this would have worked better as a novella or short story. Who knows. Just not for me, unfortunately! 2 stars. -
Aaaaaaah. Sigh. What are you doing, Paul?
While reading this book, I kept on hoping it would get better, but it didn't. It just went down into a spiral of uninteresting stuff. It just went down and down. And yes, *that* kind of ending, I mean, I hate it, it's my pet peeve. When a book has *that* kind of ending, I just want to
So, there's a family, two dads and one adopted daughter, spending a vacation in a cabin in the woods. A seemingly normal guy approaches the daughter, and even though she knows perfectly well she should't talk with strangers, she starts talking to him. He is all nice and stuff and then it goes darker and a bunch of other people arrive and he's like "you gotta let us in, but hey remember none of this is your fault. You are so beautiful" and a bunch of other increasingly creepy stuff. Sounds cool, uh? NO. I felt like the idea, the whole reason why those weird people are there, it's interesting, but the execution is just bland. also, I didn't care for the characters. And the useless flashbacks into their lives felt just like a way to make a book that takes place in literally a couple of days feel longer. And what's with the grasshoppers and the dads' job? It's not even mentioned again not even once during the rest of the book, it felt like a pretext for the first scene to happen. Not cool, bro.
I really cannot say much more about the reasons why I didn't like it apart from this: it feels like reading the script to a b-movie; and while this kind of format worked well for A head full of ghosts, it just didn't do the trick for this one. At least for me. I must say, I just couldn't wait for this book to end. Now I am so disappointed, I thought I had found a new author to love, but apparently I was wrong. But, maybe I am just angry for how much I disliked this book, maybe I should try another one of his. Aaaah. Sigh. Oh, well! Better luck next time!
-
THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD takes a look at an American family and asks what are you willing to do to protect them? But this book asks that question in an unique way- right before it rips your heart out and stomps all over it!
Eric and Andrew take their daughter Wen on vacation to a remote cabin located on a lake in the woods of New Hampshire. It's been deliberately chosen because it has no cell service, no internet, no nothing. They want to spend this time together, uninterrupted as a family. Unfortunately, their dream vacation came to a screeching halt when a large man named Leonard wandered into their front yard and started talking to Wen. Soon thereafter, three more people join him and together, they enter the cabin. Things go so downhill from there, it's hard to even talk about. What happens after that? You'll have to read this book to find out!
To give away any more about the plot would be spoilery, so I'm just going to talk about my thoughts and impressions and leave it at that. First, I love the way that Paul Tremblay writes families. He always provides honest insights and observations and as such, these parts of his writing are the ones that appeal to me the most. In this case, I loved 7 year old Wen SO MUCH, I just wanted to pick her up, give her a hug and go help her catch grasshoppers. Eric and Andrew were mysteries at first, but the one thing that soon became obvious about them was their love for Wen.
When things started to go sideways, I was captivated. I had so many questions but I expected and trusted the author to lead me through. Was I right to invest my trust? Yes and no. This is a very slight and "in general" type of spoiler, but just in case:
One other thing did bother me: after the group of strangers entered the cabin, the pacing slowed down a bit and there was a lot of talking without much actual explaining, if that makes any sense. Having chapters from different character's points of view helped me gain a little more insight as to what was going on in their heads, but I thought those portions were a little dragged out and for that, I deducted one star. (And to be honest, this issue is most likely mine, and mine alone.)
THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD is now my favorite among the works of Paul Tremblay. The writing here was powerful and my heart is still healing from the major break it suffered while I was reading this book, and as such: I highly recommend it!
*Thanks to Edelweiss and William Morrow for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.* -
This was.. boring?
Lots of potential and an interesting idea but sadly a really lame execution.
Flat characters, sometimes unnecessary detailed descriptions and.. yeah well, loads of boringness. -
“No matter how bleak or dire, end-of-the-world scenarios appeal to us because we take meaning from the end... there's also undeniable allure to witnessing the beginning of the end and perishing alone with everyone and everything else”.
Seven year old Wen is living her life, catching grasshoppers outside the vacation cabin she's staying in with her dad Eric and her dad Andrew. Suddenly a stranger approaches. He is the biggest man Wen has ever seen. But he’s young and friendly. He tells Wen his name is Leonard, they play together and Leonard helps Wen catch grasshoppers. Time passes and Wen looks up and notices three more strangers approaching. Carrying what look like weapons. Leonard abruptly turns to Wen, apologizes and tells her “None of what’s about to happen is your fault” “Your dad‘s won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world”.
This was my first Paul Tremblay novel, and I am not disappointed. The synopsis above is really just a delightful tease that gives away nothing about what you're about to get yourself into. So, I recommend going in blind with faith that things properly descend into the horrifying realm.
This book is sharp, and it cuts deep. It doesn't care that it left you bleeding and scarred. It splays open the truth for all to see, even the darker things that live in our minds that we try to keep hidden. This novel did something that I love in books, especially horror. It took one of those philosophical ideas that we talk and debate about, you know those made up scenarios that will never actually happen to us…. except in this book, one of those scenarios happens.
There is no happy ending here. You are left breathless and raw and with your heart pounding, and I loved it.
Highly Recommend Horror Fans -
Did you ever finish a book then realize you have absolutely no idea how to review it? Well, that is this book for me. I'm afraid of saying anything about the plot because of spoilers. I really think this is a book that is best to go into blind.
First and foremost Paul Tremblay gave us characters that you immediately care for. Eric, Andrew, and their adopted daughter Wen are such a breath of fresh air. They feel so real and their interactions with one another were so natural and fluid. That's how he get's you though! He makes you care and because you care you just keep flipping those pages hoping beyond hope for the safety of this family.
There is one scene in this book where I will admit that I cursed you Mr. Tremblay ....HOW COULD YOU DO THAT? *Weeps*
I think the ending of this book is going to get a lot of people talking. People are either going to love it or hate it. I found it to be tragically romantic if that is actually a thing.
One last thing....COVER LOVE! It's gorgeous!
I would like to thank Camille Collins @ Harper Collins for being kind enough to send me an ARC of this wonderful book. -
Wow, this book was an absolute highlight of horror and suspense. What a modern horror classic! The book starts with a gay couple, Andrew and Eric and their adopted Chinese Girl named Wen. They are on vacation at a far-off area, living in a remote cabin. All of a sudden Leonard and three others turn up. From then on the quiet days at the cabin turn into an apocalyptic nightmare. What do the four strangers want from them? What is their talking about the end of the world about? The reference to a pandemic bird flu is strikingly up to date! The characters are brilliantly crafted and throughout the whole book you're hanging on the edge of your seat with suspense. Is there a connection to the Biblical Four Horsemen? What happens to Wen? I can highly recommend to delve into that extremely intriguing novel. Up to the last page everything can happen, everything is possible. The ending isn't predictable. It's a mixture of kidnapping drama and cult members gone out of control. Is there more behind? Find out. This is a must read!
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“Before you go inside to your dads, you have to listen to me. This is important…You are a beautiful person, inside and out. One of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met, Wen. Your family is perfect and beautiful, too. Please know that. This isn’t about you. It’s about everyone…None of what’s going to happen is your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong, but the three of you will have to make some tough decisions. Terrible decisions, I’m afraid. I wish with all my broken heart you didn’t have to…Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. Tell them they have to. We are not here to hurt you. We need your help to save the world…”
- Paul Tremblay, The Cabin at the End of the World
In the realm of television, there is something called a “bottle episode.” The point of a bottle episode is financial. By using just a single location, with a minimum number of cast members, the producers get to save money.
The Cabin at the End of the World is a classic bottle episode, in novel form.
It is set at the titular cabin, which is actually in remote, northern New Hampshire, close enough to smell the Molson and maple syrup wafting over the Canadian border. All the action takes place within and around those four walls. The cast list is small: young Wen (almost eight), who has been adopted from China, and her two dads, Eric and Andrew. This modern nuclear family is joined by four strangers, who come walking into their yard with strange weapons and a stranger proposal.
That’s it for setting and summary.
The rest is 270-pages of mounting tension.
While the television bottle episode is a cheap (literally) gimmick, author Paul Tremblay utilizes the structure to create an unrelentingly claustrophobic piece of horror, with the stakes rising minute by excruciatingly-detailed minute.
There is something very familiar about The Cabin at the End of the World. Indeed, its premise is similar to that of the film 10 Cloverfield Lane, which came out a couple years before this was published. Nevertheless, Tremblay – an author with whom I am not familiar – does a really good job with this material.
It begins with the characters. Wen and her dads are well-drawn and keenly noticed. The subtle differences between Eric and Andrew, especially, is of vital importance to the narrative, and Tremblay displays a nice touch for having the story unfold from their choices and personalities, rather than shaping their choices to fit the dictates of the story. The result is a very naturally flowing story, in which even incredible moments feel like inevitable consequences.
The four strangers who come into their lives are also memorable, in their own ways. Writing from a shifting third-person perspective, Tremblay has to walk a fine line between giving us some of their backstory while withholding important bits of information to generate suspense. I think he succeeds admirably. Like a conductor, he is precise in modulating the pace. There are long dialogues and internal monologues that sort of lull you into a complacency about where things are going. Then, all of a sudden, there will be a burst of graphic violence or some shocking event that will jolt you upright. Tremblay plays with expectations, and then upends them with an unsparing and unsympathetic brutality.
The problem with The Cabin at the End of the World is the ending. I don’t want to spoil it any more than it spoils itself, so I will speak elliptically. Suffice to say, for a novel that seems to know exactly what it is doing and exactly where it is headed, the final pages feel like the loss of conviction. As an author, you sometimes have to make hard choices on how to conclude. Here, it felt like Tremblay punted.
With that said, your mileage with this will obviously vary. If strong endings are important to you, especially in this age of high-concept twisty thrillers like Gone Girl, then this will ultimately be a disappointing read. If the journey is enough to get you by, then you will probably enjoy this a lot.
I’m more of a journey man, myself. In The Cabin at the End of the World, Tremblay creates a fantastically-realized mini-universe, one that is grounded in reality but in which anything might happen. He also conjures a viscerally palpable mood of anxiety and fear. I typically don’t read a lot of horror for this very reason. When horror is at its best, it tends to make me hesitant to keep reading, because it affects my actual, real-world mood.
Thus, the highest praise I can give The Cabin at the End of the World is that even as I tore through it, I dreaded what I would find within. -
Review first appeared in the September/October 2018 issue of Scream Magazine!
UPDATE: July 2nd, 2019 Congratulations to Paul for winning the Locus Award and the Stoker Award for achievement in a novel.
https://www.tor.com/2019/06/29/announ...
http://horror.org/2018-bram-stoker-aw...
So this book, The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay is going to be my new ‘go-to’ recommendation for any reader that still thinks horror is only “blood & guts and scary stuff”. But hang in there with me a little bit while I explain why.
Being a ferocious fan of horror, I’m regularly faced with genre stereotypes. For example, a friend was looking at my personal collection and she says, “So much Stephen King.”
I said, “Well, he’s been my favorite author since I was like thirteen.”
She scrunches up her nose and says, “Ugh! Why? He only writes scary stuff right?”
I try not to take offense to these sort of ignorant statements (I say ignorant not to be insulting but truly because they just don’t know).
I can’t fault them for what they don’t know. But it’s the same sort of ignorance I find in bookstores EVERYWHERE, among people who should actually know better.
Horror authors are usually shelved in general fiction. If you’re lucky, a bookstore might stuff some mainstream horror in with SciFi and Fantasy. On the off chance there is a horror section, it’s usually a whole bookcase with King and Koontz because, well, they have a lot of books and they write in the same genre so...voila! A horror section!
But horror is so much more than King and Koontz and “bloody, scary stuff.”
Take Paul Tremblay’s books for instance. A Head Full of Ghosts, at face value, is a demon possession book? “Scary stuff” as contemporary fiction readers would say. But it’s so much more. It breaks down lots of horror stereotypes. Tremblay expertly tells his tale with young, female protagonist narratives and short, punchy chapter breaks. He also weaves in some pop culture influences that add an urgent relevancy that will still read fresh and modern in years to come.
I was so pleased that this sort of “out of the box” storytelling seems to be a lasting trend for Paul Tremblay. The Cabin at the End of the World lives right on the edge of a familiar plot trope, A small family are ‘unplugging’ in a remote location when their peace and quiet is interrupted by an unexpected visitor with a strange, threatening message.
But this description is really where all the familiarity ends.
Tremblay’s family in crisis is a beautiful snapshot of what a family in today’s America looks like. The subject matter, the horror that shows up at their door is the catalyst or the vehicle per se, for our harrowing story but its Paul’s lovingly crafted family and their relationships tested under duress that make this book so successful.
We, the reader are emotionally invested from the moment we catch grasshoppers in the weeds with seven year old Wen all the way through to the book’s final scene. And this is exactly what Paul Tremblay intends to do with his writing. He’s not just out to exploit your fears (although he does that too!) he’s really after that lump of flesh in your chest we try so hard to protect--your heart. Fans of Tremblay’s work will already know this after reading, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock. You already know these words are designed by a master to punch you in the guts and leave you hollowed out with a nasty book hangover.
So it’s my recommendation to fully embrace horror for what it really is: A full resignation of all your emotions. Paul Tremblay invites you to go all in with this one and it is pretty uncomfortable but worth every sigh and every tear.
Five stars/Skulls Sadie Hartmann aka Mother Horror on Instagram & Twitter -
So many emotions! There are frustrating stretches and sections of genius and pages that are confusing or seemingly overwritten. In the end, though, this is a book that will haunt me forever. With a story that powerful, awkwardness in the delivery isn't so important.
The most impressive achievement, I think, is what's not on the page. The story demands a pondering of our own baggage, what we're willing to believe under strain and, more generally, the psychological impact of bad news. One of the simplest interpretations may be that a diet of cable news, where it seems the world is ending at any given moment, can be a catalyst for all levels of insanity. Certainly that would have been on our minds in 2018, when this was first published, but I think it's become even more relevant since Covid.
Of course the book invites more complicated interpretations as well. I particularly admire the way Tremblay uses homophobia--internalized and externalized--as an undercurrent for descent into madness. Every character comes across believable, even the villains. This is astonishing (and terrifying) given the bizarre events in the cabin.
Religion, of course, plays a role. It's very delicately handled, however, and once again invites the reader to ponder their own beliefs. This isn't about any one specific religion, or one specific type of conspiracy theory, but is a story that interplays and exists within all of them by being intentionally vague. We all have diehard beliefs, whether they are religious or not. I think this book invites us to wonder if we're willing to actually die for those beliefs, or if it's possible to ever change them based on new information.
Furthermore, in a loose way, I think the book is comparable to Pet Sematary for its examination of grief's interplay with insanity.
I'm certainly interested in what M. Night Shyamalan will do with it as a movie. Will he add his own twists, perhaps? There's a stirring conversation already happening in the book, but I do think adding extra complexity could improve on the original. This is a rare situation where I actually expect the movie to be better than the book. Unless there's a surprise that they're all Amish or something.
UPDATE: So nevermind, the movie was definitely not as good as the book. Only because of the lame ending though. -
DARK. VERY DARK.
Can see why Stephen King endorsed this gripping and horrifying tale....Yikes!
The creepy, unsettling start - - A sweet, but cautious seven-year-old Wen knows very well she shouldn't talk to strangers, but this BIG guy is so nice and is helping her catch grasshoppers after all so everything is copacetic until his repeated requests for her help become frightening.
Run to the cabin she does to warn daddy Eric and daddy Andrew. The cabin doors are bolted....the man as BIG as a boulder and his scary entourage appear, and the relaxing week at the lake turns threatening and deadly.
The menacing visitors....with their ominous tools insist they must be allowed in....just to talk....to explain why they have come to this remote location....to them.
Time is of the essence to prevent the worst....the annihilation of humanity.
No doubt about it, THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD is a horrific tale, one of sacrifice and survival and for me so much better than A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS.
Add to your October reads... if you think you can handle a few hours of suspenseful horror and evil-doing.......time is running out.
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I do not normally read books with a 3.29 rating on Goodreads. One of the very best things about Goodreads (aside from all of you!) is the crowdsourcing of ratings. I normally skip a book with a rating this low, assuming that it must have some serious flaws. But ... I have a book challenge category to read “an underrated book, a hidden gem,” and I decided to give this one a try, hoping I’d love it and get to count it as an underrated book.
The book has an interesting ‘home invasion meets the apocalypse’ premise. Two dads and their adopted daughter are vacationing at a remote cabin when four strangers arrive, dressed in the colors of the riders of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, stating that a specific sacrifice (I won’t say exactly what) must be made in order to stop the end of the world. It’s a fast read, and there is a genuinely surprising twist about two-thirds of the way through the novel.
But there are a lot of flaws here. The story is a bit slow. The narrators are constantly changing, and a lot of things are told to the reader through the inner monologue rather than being shown through dialogue and interaction with other characters. If the plot is going to boil down to two characters trying to sway the other to their belief system, it would have been much better to have those characters having that discussion throughout the book, rather than mostly over the final pages.
Most importantly though, I’m not sure what I am supposed to take away from the story. Making one character impacted by a concussion, and leaving it unclear whether the home invaders have free will in their actions, undermines whether we’re supposed to believe what they believe, or pity them for their faulty reasoning/actions. Finally, while some open endings work really well, this one was pretty unsatisfying, and probably responsible for a large measure of the low ratings.
In the end, I think this book would have worked better as a movie. The narrative flaws would have been far less of an issue, and there are a lot of visuals in the story that would translate really well. Looks like I’ll have to keep searching for that underrated hidden gem. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. -
A little girl chasing and catching grasshoppers runs into a gentle giant who wants to be her friend, offering to help her catch more of the insects. That seems okay to her at first, but then he starts bugging her to let him inside the cabin to talk with her dads, assuring her that none of what is going to happen will be her fault.
I almost got a tension neck reading this with my shoulders all scrunched up like an old crone. I'm not kidding. I liked this author's A Head Full of Ghosts just okay, but Tremblay really ups the ante in a big way with this one, in my opinion. Dark, tense, and riveting. Loved the ending. -
This had an interesting, meaty premise that would have worked very well for a short story or novella. Unfortunately, the author stretched that premise so hard that it was more like the thinned skin of a balloon that really ought not to be filled with that much hot air.
This thing was a sloppy combo of The Stand, Waiting for Godot, and some home invasion books I've chosen not to read. Great concept - disappointing delivery. This one is on my Litmus Test shelf. Feel free to unfollow me - I won't blame ya! XO -
Wow! That was brilliant. I am overwhelmed. Paul Tremblay has left me trembling all over. The Cabin at the End of the World is a non-stop roller coaster ride of violent shocks that keep coming. Your worst fears are realized you are under the control of a malignant group of strangers who won't rest until you make a terrible decision--you must end the life of someone you love. You will do this (they say) for the greater good, to save the lives of billions of people. Is this real? What are you to believe? A triumph of horror down to the macabre weapons of these 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, The Cabin at the End of the World, is never banal, always triumphant, in its belief in the human spirit and of love.
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I don't think I've ever had so much anxiety while reading a book before. I read this book late at night and it gave me so much anxiety I literally jumped all the smallest sound off i the distance. This is a horror/thriller novel about this family who gets attacked in their home. It follows a gay couple Eric and Andrew and their daughter Wen. I loved reading about a LGBT characters in a thriller, because they are so underrepresented in thrillers, and it's amazing to see it being normalized like this. I absolutely adored Andrew and Eric and Wen in this book, which is what made this book so hard to read!
The writing in this book is really gorgeous, and really intense! It kept my heart racing the entire time and I couldn't figure out where it was going. I will say some parts with Leonard's dialogue got a little repetitive, which is why I knocked off a star. I also don't really know how I feel about the ending - it was very frustrating to read it but looking back on it I can appreciate it and realize how it only adds to the overall eeriness of the book, but I know some readers are going to absolutely hate this ending the way I did at first, which is another reason I knocked off a star.
But I fucking loved this. I love seeing an LGBT couple at the center of a horror/thriller novel, and I wish there were more books like this. I was honestly holding my breath the whole time, this shit was intense and creepy. This story honestly reminded me of the movie The Killing of a Sacred Deer so if you know anything about that movie you could understand how unsettling this book truly is. But I really loved it and I can't wait to read more books from this author! -
Lol what
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The Cabin At The End Of The World intrigued me because of how much it seems to have divided opinions. The mystery surrounding the plot really gripped me and made me almost want to race to the conclusion to find out exactly what was going on. I however don’t think the narrative will be for everybody. It is very dialogue heavy in a confined setting.
In terms of the plot, I think it is honestly best to go into this one as blind as possible. It revolves around a family of three - Eric and Andrew, who are fathers to a young, adopted daughter Wen.
One day Wen is in the front yard catching grasshoppers, where a stranger called Leonard approaches her. Wen is wary of him at first, because her Dads have told her not to talk to strangers. However, Leonard is soon able to sweet talk Wen into some sort of trust. Then he informs her that he is not alone, and he and a small group of people need to enter the cabin where she lives. They are insistent that this is the way things have to be and they need Eric, Andrew and Wen’s help to save the world, as the end of days is apparently nearing...
Tremblay does a good job of making Eric, Andrew and Wen a likeable family of characters that you care about as you tentatively flip the pages hoping that no harm will come to either of them.
The menacing aura surrounding the group of strangers that have entered their property builds the suspense, as you wonder why they are there and what it all means.
The talk of the H719 virus (a bird flu) originating in China really hit home because of our current world situation.
The Cabin keeps you on your toes until the very last page, and it doesn’t have a predictable ending.
Overall I give this 3.5 Stars, rounded up to 4. -
Well, friends, I hate to say it, but Paul Tremblay is a one hit wonder.
I loved A Head Full of Ghosts. It was a fantastic new ghost story that felt fresh and gothic all at the same time. It was well-written, suspenseful, creepy...
His next book was a huge letdown for me. Suddenly, with Devil’s Rock, Tremblay thinks he is Charles Dickens and writes in a completely different tone. Nothing about that book really worked for me at all.
And now, here we are with a cabin somewhere off at the end of the world or whatever. The plot seemed really interesting, and I think it could have been executed much better in more capable hands. However, Tremblay took a great idea and just... just didn’t really do much with it.
The story was just sort of... bland. The characters weren’t very well developed at all. There were only a few of them, but I had a hard time picturing them in my mind. I’m not really sure what they looked like. The dialogue was also really weak and robotic. I had the same issue with the last book, but most of the dialogue read like a very rough draft of a screenplay.
Hey, maybe that’s the plan! Maybe none of the “book” stuff is important here because he’s selling an idea, a very rough, poorly executed idea, and he hopes to make it into a movie. Just a quick sell to Hollywood to make the next Purge meets The Strangers meets the world is also ending maybe who cares. I think that’s it. It’s not about the book and the reading experience. Let’s make a movie out of this bad boy and make some money! Wake up, you need to make money!
And what’s the deal with the grasshoppers? -
This is a horror novel and explores what happens to a family when strangers forcefully visit the remote cabin where they are vacationing.
As you read the novel, you will go on a gripping journey with the family that has been invaded and will be asking yourself many questions, who are these strangers? What do they want? Should you believe what they say?
The novel is engaging and I found myself caring about the characters and their fates. The plot moved at a moderate pace and the author did a great job slowly building suspense.
I would've liked to have known more about the strangers' backgrounds. Also, something happened which was hard for me to process and can't go into details because of spoilers.
Overall, I liked this book and think many readers of horror will enjoy it. -
The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay is a tale of horror that doesn’t involve things like ghosts or demons but uses tension and suspense to keep a reader on the edge just waiting to see what will happen. With the threat of an apocalypse and intense need to protect family the fear and anticipation was oozing from the pages.
The story begins with seven year old Wen out in front of the cabin that she is staying in with her two dads, Eric and Andrew, just doing what kids should do playing outdoors and trying to catch some grasshoppers. What a lovely scene, right? Well it doesn’t last long because along comes a stranger named Leonard who begins to chat with young Wen and then before you know it he’s joined by three others with weapons.
Wen does what any frightened child should and runs to find her parents who in turn do their best to protect her from this group of strangers. Eric and Andrew do their best to protect each other and their daughter from the mysterious strangers who are claiming the end of the world is coming and the fate of every lies in their hands. What can one do in the middle of nowhere when feeling threatened?
This story is one that just flies by and leaves you on the edge wondering just what is going to happen and what is real bringing the paranoia off the pages. I loved that the author touched on a different type of family and still showed just how much love was between them. There were also some pretty shocking twists to the story I wouldn’t have expected and if not for a rather abrupt end I may have rated higher, still a good story overall though.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via Edelweiss.
For more review please visit
https://carriesbookreviews.com/ -
Este libro es un thriller trepidante con unas primeras 80 páginas que te dejan sin aliento y que después, aunque baja bastante la intensidad, la tensión es constante. Es una historia totalmente imprevisible, el autor escribe sin piedad y puede ocurrir cualquier cosa en cualquier momento. El final del libro es polémico. Es uno de esos finales que polarizan bastante a los lectores de esta novela, y lo entiendo. A mi sí me ha gustado y me ha emocionado.
