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 and 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.
Horror Book Review Blog: The Cabin at the End of the World
This novel is my introduction to author Paul Tremblay. I currently have his other book, A Head Full of Ghosts, on my bookshelf but have yet to open that one. But, I promise that I will be getting to that one soon.
Seven-Year old, Wen, is outside, enjoying nature and capturing grasshoppers while her parents, Eric and Andrew are in the backyard of the house in conversation. There were two things that caught my attention immediately. The first thing was the fact that Wen’s parents were two males and not a traditional male and female. It is, what I consider a unique move on Tremblay’s part, and admire his decision to take a spin on what is considered the “normal” nuclear family, which leads to the second thing that captured my attention was, why in the holy hell would they leave their adopted daughter alone on the other side of the house?! That was a big mistake and possibly the first chapter of Parenting 101: What Not To Do! But, I digress.
The story immediately throws us into the action and spares little time with “pleasantries”, introductions, and build-ups. No, we are immersed in the fold and the situation at hand. There was certainly an air of paranoia within The Cabin at the End of the World that lent a hand in the tension but, for the most part, I would say that the book read more like a home invasion narrative with questions of whether or not the apocalypse is, in fact, imminent sprinkled in, hence, the mystery and paranoia.
For me, the pacing was a little slow and did not seem to be going anywhere for quite some time which, I’ll admit, was causing me to lose interest early on. We were also introduced to a few story arcs that seemed to be done solely with the intention of a later reveal that would be important to the plot and the progression of the story. But, these arcs lead nowhere if only to fill up space and add to the paranoia and more questions which, in that case, worked. That being said, I did enjoy Tremblay’s writing but, for the most part, I was not really enthralled by the book.
From what I understand about the author is that he is known for his ambiguity, and it showed here. There is nothing wrong with this because I don’t like everything to be spelled out for me. I love to use my brain and let my thoughts contemplate and muster up a conclusion and an interpretation of my own. However, I felt that there were a few elements of the story included merely for the sole purpose of being purposely ambiguous in order to poise us with more questions while never providing us with any real solution thus making it moot. The book sort of reminded me of how one expected and anticipated the twist in an M. Night Shyamalan film thus taking away that mystery and aura to the point where when the twist is revealed you smirk and say, “Ah, there it is.” I enjoy vagueness where it is open to interpretation and readers, or viewers in the case of cinema, are left contemplating what may have happened. This always arouses engaging and rather enticing conversation where one can pick each other’s brains. But to throw things, or purposely neglect to do so for the simple purpose of stumping us and leaving us perplexed to live up to your reputation of being ambiguous is sort of, dare I say it, a cop-out. It’s almost as if Tremblay didn’t want to write an ending and left it up to us to either figure it out or fill in the blanks.
The question posed by Tremblay is a simple one – what would you do if you had to make a choice that endangers a loved one for the greater good? Towards the tail end of the book, I began to enjoy the story more, not because I was near the end of it but, rather because the stakes became more evident and imminent. To me, this is where the story excelled. This feeling is what I wanted to feel earlier in the narrative, not when the book was almost finished.
Not everything was answered in The Cabin at the End of the World – ambiguity at its finest. But not everything needs to be a mystery. The main plot in and of itself is a mystery. I know it seems like I have nothing but negative things to say about the book but, I really did enjoy the story, just not as much as I thought I would. I think I went in with a lot of expectations and came out a little underwhelmed as I was not a fan of the execution of the novel nor the resolution. Suffice it to say, I do have another Tremblay novel in my arsenal and will definitely be giving that one a read. I only hope that I enjoy it more. I’d say that there may be two camps when it comes to thoughts on The Cabin at the End of the World – those who love this book and those who hate it. Here, I am proposing a third camp, the one I lay my tent on and this camp belongs to those who thought the book was OK. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either so I can’t say that I can recommend this book.
UPDATE: I really enjoyed the film adaptation of this movie and I would recommend that for sure. I might even revisit this book to give it another shot.