Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

8 reviews

itzbrianna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The Cabin at the End of the World is a tense and complex tale of how choice, grief, and our beliefs can affect our lives. Tremblay does a fantastic job setting up the story and showing the differences of the world he’s building through a child’s eyes vs an adults. He is a master word smith with beautiful sentences woven to create poetic and meaningful stories for his characters. 

There are several things Tremblay does well aside from his way with words. He is skilled at forcing the reader to reflect on the choices being presented to the characters causing them to analyze their own beliefs and choices they make or would make in a similar situation. He also does a great job of weaving in religion without it being preachy and instead focuses the questions on each character’s actions instead. 

I enjoyed most of this story and loved how reflective it was from beginning to end. There were some things Tremblay could’ve done better though. The story is slow, which isn’t a problem in this case, but in certain parts the story is too slow with unnecessary descriptors that took me out of the story. There is a lot from this book that could’ve been cut to make the impact on us (the reader) stronger. Also the switch in POVs was sometimes jarring, but I get what the author was trying to do with that. It just could’ve been done better. 

There is an event that happens which is a turning point in the story. After this moment, the novel starts to drag only finally picking back up when it’s almost the end. I think having the characters be two gay men with an adopted daughter was a perfect choice. And the differences between Andrew and Eric are apparent throughout the story. The most impactful part for me was the last few pages. I literally wept at the end, snot and hiccuping and everything. 

I would recommend this book as it has beautiful imagery and is fun to analyze with friends or with a book club. The overarching plot is entertaining and I personally think the payoff is worth it. But I guess it just depends on how you’re interpreting the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Misogyny and Medical trauma

marissa_nancy_nicole's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

spaghettii's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

I guess it wasn't my genre.

I'm okay with open endings, especially if there's more of a psychological horror aspect. I feel like Eric's belief that it was all real was very sudden and not well built up to. I'm not sure if I'd prefer to think that it was real or not. I can appreciate an open ending, but sometimes they just feel like an excuse for loose ends.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

physicalsecrets's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

nuh_thaan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Instead of dipping my toe in the waters of horror, I feel like I just jumped in! This was so entertaining and captivating to me. Like, imagine yourself in that scenario. You have one choice to make? Will you make it? Can you make it?

I cannot believe the death of Wen! Her innocence was so pure and she didn't even get to have her birthday party! An ambiguous ending makes me love and hate it at the same time. Do Andrew and Eric continue on? Can they? There's so many questions and I know I will be thinking about this book and definitely revisit it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Excrement, and Vomit

Minor: Homophobia

madwoman16's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

edge of your seat, read in one sitting kind of gripping

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Hate crime and Homophobia

emilymbrown's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

need better endings from paul tremblay. he loves killing off children.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

pintobean's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit