Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Cabin at the End of the World

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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froggydanny's review against another edition

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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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kat_rowlen's review

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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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_morgreads's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

1.25

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thesaltiestlibrarian's review against another edition

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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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