Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

42 reviews

shay_starlessxsea's review

challenging dark mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

Re-read. Really enjoyed the first half of the book, but lost momentum in the 2nd half. Felt like the author built up all of the tension and then didn't really know what to do with it so settled on the most 'horrific' thing they could think of for shock value. I did enjoy split viewpoints and unreliable narrators.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Homophobia, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Death, and Confinement

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

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

froggydanny's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Child death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal cruelty, and Medical content

faithful_jewel's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Gore

Spoiler

Child death

ashley_keefe_kay's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia and Child death

_morgreads's review

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

thesaltiestlibrarian's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

0.5

 The only scary thing about this book is how long it took me to get angry at it.

I finished it late last night and felt ambivalent at best. My thought before going to bed was, "That was dumb. Guess Paul Tremblay isn't for me." Then I woke up this morning, logged on to Goodreads once I got to work, and realized, no. That book wasn't just dumb. It was so absurd and inexpertly executed, it reads like a college freshman creative writing exercise. The idea carries menace, but the "because lmao" reasoning for WHY all of this is happening drove me up a wall.

WHY did the people in shirts decide they needed to meet and torment this family?

WHY is the apocalypse coming now?

WHY is this based so lightly on the book of Revelation and yet carries it off so poorly?

WHY is a sacrifice required?

WHY THIS FAMILY???

"But, Caitlin, don't you think you just can't appreciate the abstract and nebulous?"

Don't start with me. Jeff Vandermeer is one of my favorite weird fiction authors, and I can take hinting at something, dancing with the ghost of an idea, flirting with the frayed ends of theme as it glances me in the dark hallways of the story. If Paul Tremblay was anymore heavy-handed with his imagery, he could enter the Russian Slap Tournaments as a serious contender by proxy.

There's not always a clear reason why something happens in a horror novel. An explanation isn't entirely necessary. An explanation IS necessary when you keep having your antagonists dance around the idea that what they're doing will save the world, or when they keep hinting at there being a reason. "A sacrifice will save the world!" But why is it ending??? We didn't know a sacrifice was needed! "IT JUST IS."

That's like "Why is Hill House so scary!?!?!? BECAUSE. That's why!" And the house blows up.

Or "Why is Elk Head Woman coming after these folks? OooOooOOh cuz she's spoOOoOoooOooky!" And the story has nothing to do with intergenerational trauma and ending the cycle of violence.

And honestly, "horror" is such a stretch for this book, Leslie Hall wants to curl some body rolls around it. I don't care how nice the prose is. I don't care that the story starts out having a thread of menace hanging over everything. The execution was terrible, the repetition bogged down the pacing, and the threat was so unbelievable as to be silly.

I can live with putting pieces together as a reader. Spoon-feeding by authors shows not only a lack of experience, but a lack of trust in your audience. But the blanks here were so big, Tremblay essentially gave us an empty crossword puzzle and no clues, then decided that was clever. Maybe he just isn't an author for me. I have an ARC of one of his newer ones, so I'll give him one more try. But if it doesn't land, we'll know the experiment was a failure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, Violence, Murder, Confinement, and Child death

Minor: Homophobia and Religious bigotry

bethboo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Don't look at my Content Warnings because they have major spoilers.

I feel like I probably should have had a better grip on what this book was about before I began reading it. That's a mistake I seem to make pretty often. I went into this book expecting a horror book, based on the title and the original cover (which is an abstract red, classic scary book look). There were definitely horror elements based on the premise alone. 

A lively family visits a cabin in the middle of nowhere for a getaway, but four people armed with twisted tools force their way into their temporary abode and give them an ultimatum: Choose one of your family to sacrifice to stop the impending apocalypse or the world will end. 

It was creepy and violent and contradictory, which was fascinating. My main desire the entire read was whether or not this "apocalypse" was actually real in the world of this book. I wanted to know the answer so badly, I thought I was going to crawl out of my own skin. 
But, in warning, this book is tragic. Nothing good happens to this family, which should be a given, but I was caught off guard by how many tears I shed for this book. 
 

Spoiler

I really liked how everyone kept on repeating how they were just an everyday person but then the visions and the sameness. I knew from the second Andrew came back into the cabin with the gun that something bad was going to happen to Wen. I was fucking devastated. I cried when it happened and then Leonard's POV was so good with his confusion and regret. Eric losing it and Andrew trying to keep it together. Oh gods it hurt. 
The ending? Oh fuck the ending. I was SOBBING. I was listening to the book while doing my makeup and I had to redo my eyes. How they spoke to each other and held each other and loved each other despite everything, because of everything. Fuck, I'm tearing up right now. Shit, this book got me good. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Religious bigotry

kkalicky94's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gun violence, Body horror, Child death, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Blood, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence