Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

19 reviews

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

james1star's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.5

This started started out really intriguing and had a lot of potential but definitely fell flat as the book developed in my opinion. I won’t mention any of the real plot other then we follow eleven-year-old Wen as she’s outside a cabin in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire when the seemingly friendly Leonard approaches her. Before long he and three fellow ‘companions’ make their true intentions known causing Wen to retreat into the cabin to her dads (YES it’s a gay family!) Eric and Andrew. When ensues is (taken from the BorrowBox blurb because I can be arsed) ‘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.’ I kind of agree with this but also I just couldn’t connect with the story, understand what was happening, properly get the messages/possible allegories, etc. on the whole there were just too many things that just didn’t sit right with me in terms of the plot or what the book was trying to do/say and in the end had no real lasting impact. 

The saving grace was the tormented family of adoptee Wen and husbands Eric and Andrew. I really enjoyed seeing a gay family being included in a horror/thriller type book where I feel the genre does maybe lack as much representation (or at least I’ve not explored it all that much to witness it) so it was refreshing to see. Tremblay also doesn’t exactly make their queerness the focus or a pivotal plot point in the book, it’s just a thriller that just so happens to include two gay characters and I loved that - why I rounded up instead of down (on goodreads). 

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Amy Landon and honestly I wouldn’t recommend this. It’s clear enough but just wasn’t the most pleasant experience. I didn’t particularly like the way she read out parts said by males (which is a large chunk of the book) and on the whole was quite meh. Maybe I’d have preferred the book had I read it physically and took my time with it but alas I didn’t so yhh… not for me but others may enjoy it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, and Death

Minor: Murder, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Gore, Homophobia, Hate crime, and Cursing

_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

readerette's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

For the first half of the book, I was gripped: I wanted to know if the apocalypse was really coming, if the 'invaders' were deluded or not, if Eric and Andrew would believe them, and how the experience would change Wen.

The second half of the book felt to me more like an intellectual exercise/commentary on the mindset of extremists and people in extreme situations than a human story to really place the reader in the room with the characters.

Spoiler

Wen's death is the inflection point. It took away everything that made the story compelling, even though in my opinion, it didn't have to. It perhaps revealed the other characters as one-dimensional even when they hadn't started out that way. The ending landed with a bit of a thunk for me too; it seems the reason that they decide not to die is what Sabrina kept saying, that any god who demanded this kind of sacrifice wasn't worth obeying, even if the sacrifice would save the world. Which... Yeah, I agree in principle. But given all the context shared in the story, could I agree in practice?

I do wonder if part of the intent of the story is to reveal to you, the reader, your tendency to bow to the sort of info that Leonard and the others shared with Wen's family, so that you can reflect on whether you bow too readily or not readily enough.

Spoiler

In my opinion, you get just enough information to not really be sure one way or the other, so that you just have to go with your gut, like the characters do. Whether their gut makes sense is another story.

If you are a parent, particularly of a still-young child, this may not be a book for you unless you have a high tolerance for darkness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Gun violence, and Cursing

Minor: Vomit and Pandemic/Epidemic

abortress's review

sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

i wanted to read this kuz i just saw the movie, and while the story itself is pretty compelling, i absolutely hated the way it was written. you get uppercut out of action to focus on, for example, the minor details of the setting, which makes it hard to remember what everything looks like and is frustrating kuz you just wanna know what's going on. oh and there was a chapter that was written in both third and first POV, which was super annoying and kept jarring me out of the immersion. but there's a VERY different ending to the book than the movie, which was really interesting, if not... a little harsh? for lack of a better word. i dunno, over all, the story itself was fine, i just can't imagine reading anything by this author again lmao

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Blood, Murder, Death, Gore, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia and Child death

Minor: Kidnapping

physicalsecrets's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

kelsywild's review

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

trayslays's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Child death, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Cursing

abbyg007's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Cursing, Child death, Gun violence, Body horror, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Blood

Minor: Vomit and Homophobia

caffeinecrow's review

4.25

What the fuck Paul. What the fuck. 

I had to read this all in one sitting, I started at midnight and now it's five AM. I don't know how to feel. Might update this later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Hate crime, Murder, Child death, Gun violence, Confinement, Cursing, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Homophobia

Minor: Cancer