Review Corner: The Cabin at the End of the World, by Paul Tremblay

I was introduced to Paul Tremblay's work by Stephen King, which is about the strongest recommendation a horror author can get. A Head Full of Ghosts was his first book that I read, and I found it incredibly disturbing, dealing as it does with a family falling apart and a very disturbed teenage who may or may not be possessed. Based on the title, I thought A Cabin at the End of the World might have a slightly less personal scope that would be easier to take.

I'm an idiot.

The Cabin at the End of the World follows husbands Eric and Andrew and their daughter Wen, who are vacationing in the titular cabin. One day four strangers bearing odd weapons show up looking for help to, quote, save the world, and things rapidly go downhill in apocalyptic fashion. Saying much more about the plot would spoil the book.

Tremblay's strengths lie in writing believable characters in bad situations, and setting up situations where you're never quite sure whether something supernatural is actually happening or not, but either option is horrifying. He manages both here with aplomb. Right until the end of the book, it's an open question whether the titular end of the world is actually happening or not, and while the evidence does start to tilt one way it's by no means definitive.

The characters also stand out, and while they fall into some horror movie idiocy it's well justified: Andrew is an atheist with a history of being violently assaulted by bigots, so he rejects everything the strangers say immediately. Eric is a Catholic and more inclined to listen, but he's concussed early on, which prevents him from effectively defusing the situation.

The strangers are also fairly well characterized, some more than others. It's clear none of them are happy with what they have to do, but they either can't or won't stop, and it's never clear which is the case. You'll feel bad for some of them, others not so much, and that's going to change quite a bit for you by the end of the book. And Wen is a believable and likable young child, as anyone who read A Head Full of Ghosts would expect, although as things go bad she gets a comparatively smaller role as a point of view character.

Thematically the story falls pretty heavily against God, if he's present at all, but it might also be a book about the tragic horror of severe mental illness, or the dangers of a family coming apart at the seams. Again, similar to A Head Full of Ghosts, but with the weights of the themes juggled around a bit.

If there is a weakness to the book it's that the cabin doesn't exude any particular menace as a setting - it's just a cabin. The isolation plays its part in events, but the book focuses much more on the growing tension between characters - admittedly, probably the best choice.

I'd recommend this to any horror fan looking for a good read with a lot of tension. Whether or not there's a supernatural element in events, the horror here is all too human.

Thanks for reading, and if you liked the review, be sure to check out my Author Page on Amazon!

-Lea