Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

6 reviews

pkc's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I went into this looking for spooks and tension. While I found an embarrassment of tense riches, I didn’t get spooks so much as existential philosophical horror. Brutal, bloody, barbaric and sad, this was maybe too much for me, purely because of the questions raised and feelings produced. I enjoyed it overall and the middle was so strong, but by the end I wanted it to finish. My misgivings are driven by my own tastes - otherwise, really enjoyable and I see why people love this so much!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Violence

jessy4550's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I liked the book, but I do wish the ending was a little longer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Child death, Self harm, Death, Gaslighting, and Gore

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Physical abuse, Suicide, Kidnapping, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

zeloco's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, Murder, Medical trauma, Gore, Vomit, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Physical abuse

Minor: Grief, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

_morgreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Cursing, Gun violence, Body horror, Child death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Violence, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Blood, Torture, and Vomit

kelseygeller's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Gore, Medical trauma, Murder, Blood, Physical abuse, and Gun violence

powerpuffgoat's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

1.5

Man, was this book frustrating to read! Great premise, terrible execution.

The book starts with a family of two dads and their adopted daughter having a relaxing weekend in a cabin. Suddenly, a group of strangers show up carrying strange weapons and talking about the end of the world. What a great hook, right? A home invasion with a side of apocalypse - yes please, I'll have a double serving.

Except that's as good as it got. The writing was simply confusing. The pace was awful, broken, nonsensical. The first chapter, narrated from the child's point of view, seemed to go on for ages. The second chapter was somehow worse. Dialog that was just the same three sentences, on repeat, infinitely.

As if that wasn't bad enough, narration is frequently interrupted by completely irrelevant flashbacks, and description of interior in excruciating detail. It was painful to read. Trying to get into the rhythm of the action, only to be suddenly told about the curtains, or the exact episode of Steven Universe that's on TV, what was that?

Now, the first violent scene was probably the highlight of the book, cruel as it sounds.

Spoiler

Another thing that confused me is why the author included the part about Redmond being someone else? It didn't actually affect the plot, and we never even got the confirmation if that was the case!

To top it off, the narration was so poorly done! Some chapters are written from a child's point of view, which jumped between complete naïveté and sudden bouts of philosophical musings. Some chapters were intended to be told from two characters point of view, and that just didn't work. Also, whose idea was it to start switching between third person and first person narration mid-sentence? Was there no editor? No beta readers? Who approved this?

The book ends abruptly, leaving the reader wondering what in the hell they just read. Honestly, I wish I never read it at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Medical trauma

Moderate: Homophobia