The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay 👻 Stranger Sights

Synopsis:

The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in The Cabin at the End of the World. 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.

Edition:

Hardcover

Trigger Warnings:

Hover for Trigger Warnings

Awards/Nominations:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Angie – Stranger Sights (@stranger_sights_official)

My Thoughts:

I’m not even really sure where to start with this book. I read it a few months ago, and have just been *trying* to figure out how to put my thoughts on The Cabin at the End of the World into words. And yet, I am probably just going to end up babbling. Apologies in advance.

This book is gorgeous. It’s absolutely heartbreakingly, horrifyingly beautiful. Those of you who know me probably know that the quickest way to get me uninterested in a book is to compare it to Stephen King’s work. And no, I’m not going to argue about his merits with you – I’m allowed to feel how I feel. But I chose to ignore that, and I am so glad I did. This must surely be among the best writing my lil eyes have ever peeped. The Cabin at the End of the World had me absolutely dreading what would happen next at every turn. But I was also completely unwilling and unable to look away. Tremblay’s writing is so laden with emotion that you actually feel every single horrific thing that happens right along with Eric, Andrew, and Wen.

“For an irrational moment, Eric fears their feet will be forever stuck to the floor, the blood as amber. They’ll be fossilized, frozen in time, and not be found for millions of years.”

Only one other time in recent memory have I felt so invested in a story that I felt I had to pause my reading because it was all just starting to feel too god damned real (you might remember this from my review of The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones). The way that Tremblay builds this perfectly believable world and then smashes it to bloody, painful pieces word by word is…well, it’s masterful. I was so emotionally invested in the outcome for this loving, wonderful family that I’m still feeling a little worked up writing about it. If you’ve never read anything by Paul Tremblay, I must insist that you fix that immediately. GO OUT AND ACQUIRE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING YOU CAN FIND. I know I will.

About the Author:

Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the author of Survivor Song, Growing Things, The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. His essays and short fiction have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year’s-best anthologies. He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his family. He is represented by Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management.

Rating:

The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of fiction. Full fucking stop.

The Cabin at the End of the World
By Paul Tremblay
William Morrow
Published: June 26, 2018
ISBN: 9780062679109
Hardcover, Paperback, E-book, Audio
272 Pages
Author's Website