The Cabin at the End of the World – Paul Tremblay
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: On a family vacation at a remote cabin in the New Hampshire woods, seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are confronted by a group of strangers demanding they do the unimaginable in order to save humanity.
Expectation: A rehash of “The Cabin in the Woods” but with a modern family instead of horny college students.
Reality: A dark, “oh, it went there” story that touches on religious fervor and conspiratorial thinking.
Recommended For: Fans of gory, morally ambiguous thrillers that will make you think.
Why I Read It: Lots of folks on #Bookstagram were talking about it, and I enjoyed Paul Tremblay’s “A Head Full of Ghosts.”
My take:
It is unfortunate this book’s name, and plot, is similar to Joss Whedon’s 2011 horror-comedy, because I thought that movie never fully met its potential, and it was enough to make me want to pass on this story altogether.
Thankfully, there are no grotesque creatures dwelling in a basement lab or horny college students fighting for their lives in this “Cabin,” but there are doomsday conspiracists and morally ambiguous decisions that, given our collective experience of living through a pandemic, make Tremblay’s story more relevant today than it was upon release two years ago.
Last summer I read Tremblay’s “A Head Full of Ghosts,” and it surprised me in the best ways and led to a spirited discussion with my husband about what actually happened and who was at fault.
“Cabin” offers up similar scenarios, further cementing Trembley as the heir apparent to the gory-thrillers-that-will-make-you-think crown that Blake Crouch has seemed to discard in favor of more science fiction-focused stories.
For me, thrillers usually fall in the love it or loathe it camp with very few in the middle. Both of my Tremblay reads landed firmly in the center, offering up more likes than dislikes, but there were not enough surprising moments to put this top on my thriller recommendation list – a mantle still owned by Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” and “Dark Places.”
Three things I really liked:
Gay couple at the center: It’s nice to see a non-traditional family represented with few clichés — and be treated by all characters the same as any other nuclear family — in a mainstream thriller. Unlike Stephen King who likes to make his gay characters often meet gruesome deaths (even though he’s totally woke), Trembley gave Andrew and Eric emotional depth and portrayed a realistic relationship under extreme circumstances
The plot: [spoilers ahead] It is the ultimate “what would you do?” scenario. Would you willingly sacrifice a member of your family to stave off the end of the world? It’s completely bananas yet feels 100 percent realistic.
The ambiguous ending: In reading other reviews I’m in the minority here, but I appreciate that Tremblay didn’t answer the ultimate question — was the world ending? If you’re looking for a tidy wrap-up, you won’t find it here.
Two that didn’t quite work for me:
Tremblay doesn’t spend too much time exploring the “why” behind the attacker’s motives. They believe the world is ending, because they had similar dreams and found each other on a message board. Is that enough to make seemingly normal people go to the extreme? Considering we’re witnessing on a large scale how easily people are influenced by false or misleading information, it’s entirely possible, but Tremblay treats this — a foundational piece of the story — as an afterthought.
We don’t learn much about the four attackers. Near the end Tremblay does personalize Sabrina, and it helps add believability to the fissures developing in Andrew’s and Eric’s perception of what is happening. If there was more of this, “Cabin” could be a true psychological thriller, but in its absence, you can’t help but feel the family was targeted by an extremist group with some luck predicting world events.
Rating (story): 3/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Format: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: July 24 – July 29, 2020
Multi-tasking: Good to go.
