Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

14 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

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

tome's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I don't often read things in one sitting anymore, but this book transfixed me unlike any other. The ambiguity, the viscerality, the perspective, all of it left me utterly engrossed. I'm gonna have to sit with this one for a bit. Also, as a note, some of the trigger warnings added are, to some extent, dependent on what conclusion you make of the ambiguity. I've added them just in case.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

jaedia's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

 I was utterly transfixed by this book. I'd put it off for so long because "house invasion thriller" isn't my favourite subgenre but Cabin has a twist to it that makes the story so fascinating, the characters are incredible, the way it's written is fantastic... and the way he plays with ambiguity, holy hell. Chef's kiss. I *still* don't know what happened and I'm GLAD about it!! There were a few lines I highlighted just because they had me going, "Wow... what a line." Sheesh. Well now I need to obtain more Tremblay books, I guess. I've certainly got Horror Movie, his 2024 release, on preorder already. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Pandemic/Epidemic

books_hay's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Vomit

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

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

Minor: Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

kat_rowlen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I have no idea what happened or why. The ending is ambiguous which I feel hurts the book, and leaves the reader wishing for a more concise ending. The chapters are entirely too long too which makes the book drag on, and the writing is fairly repetitive. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Suicide, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting

_morgreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

1.25

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Content Warnings

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

kelsywild's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, 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