Well Now That Was Interesting....

TITLE: The Cabin at the End of the World
AUTHOR:  Paul Tremblay
PUBLISHER: William Morrow
PUBLISHING DATE: June 26, 2018

FROM GOODREADS: The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense that recalls Stephen King’s Misery, Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood, and Jack Ketchum’s cult hit The Girl Next Door.

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.

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."

Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay.

MY THOUGHTS: "The Cabin at the End of the World" is my first read by this author and while I enjoyed it, I guess my expectations were a tad bit higher than what I received.  Wen and her fathers are vacationing in New Hampshire when 4 individuals show up saying that only she and her family can save the world from destruction.  The task is on a strict timetable and lets just say these 4 have a unique way of trying to convince the family to accept what they must do.

"The Cabin at the End of the World" takes place in just a few days and although there's quite a bit of action, it's not exactly action-packed.  Instead Tremblay relies on tension building an atmosphere.  It does help that Wen and her fathers are likable characters, but what we learn about them is primarily done through flashbacks.

I will also caution that this is not a book for people who are turned off by ambiguous endings.  The ending of this book is definitely not wrapped up in a nice, neat package.  Also, I was also sometimes bogged down by the paragraphs that lasted for 2 entire pages.  

In the end, I am glad I picked up this book.  I have been curious since I first learned about it and needed to see for myself what it was all about.  However, I'm not really sure this is a horror novel - it's more a novel about horrific people and situations - and that's okay.  I own "A Head Full of Ghosts" and feel like it's a book I'll like a lot more but if you like doomsday and dystopian tales, "The Cabin at the End of the World" might just work for you.

RATING: 3 PAWS