It has been a while since I wrote a book review and it is time for me to start writing them again.
The Cabin at the End of the World is a newly released horror novel written by an author who writes amazing stories, Paul Tremblay. Having read and loved A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil's Rock, I went into the book expecting to love it as well.
There were parts of this book that I loved, others not so much.
Here is the synopsis:
Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake, with their closest neighbours more than two miles in either direction.
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 and friendly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologises and tells Wen, "None of what's going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers 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."
So begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which that fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are intertwined.
My experience while reading
A lot of people who have read this book has given it a very high rating, either a 4 or 5 stars. As a horror nerd who loves to be entertained, this book kept me quite bored. Because I have seen this done so many times I was bored while reading majority of it. There were parts that weren't boring and the whole mystery behind everything is what kept me reading.
I found it hard to get into and easy to put the book down when I didn't want to read it. It didn't help that the chapter were so long. The Cabin and the End of the World is 315 pages long but there is only 7 chapters. I hate long chapters, I feel they can often drag the story on longer than it should.
Characters
This is a strong element!
To start of with we follow a unique family. This family, I found, is an accurate representation of a family with gay parents. Eric and Andrew, with their adopted Chinese daughter Wen, are who we follow. We are told many stories, that happen in the past, giving readers an accurate description of what it is like to be a gay family.
I want to talk more about these three characters but if I do then I would start to spoil some things.
I felt these characters were what made the story strong. Where the story lacked it was made up with the characters. Well done Tremblay for creating a great cast of characters.
Plot
The plot was something that messed with my rating. I just feel is was too generic.
I have seen and read a lot of horror that follows this exact plot. To finish reading The Cabin at the End of the World and find it was not unique is any way made me a little disappointed.
Tremblay writes amazing horror stories, as I have said before. It was probably my fault for expecting more of a unique plot but it could have been written different.
Writing
I hated the parts of the book where Tremblay would waffle on about something that might be necessary to the plot but isn't at the same time. These parts could have been shorter, or they could have been cut out all together.
Other than that I had nothing else that was wrong with the writing.
Conclusion
Overall I somewhat enjoyed the story.
I do have to warn those who might be planning on reading The Cabin at the End of the World that it is gory and there is quite a lot of violence and killing. If there is anyone out there who likes this just as much as I do then you will be fine.
I gave this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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