Name: Cabin at the End of the World
Rating: 3.274324324324324 (185 reviews)
ISBN: 9781785657825

Paul Tremblay

Cabin at the End of the World

vinny<3

She is shifty. Wen loves that word. It means hard to catch. It means even better than fast; it's a smart fast.

"Tell me. What kind of god is making all this happen?"

NATIONAL BESTSELLER! BEST BOOK OF 2018 (Library Journal, NPR, Buzzfeed) LOCUS RECOMMENDED READING LIST - 2018 JULY 2018 INDIE NEXT PICK! SUMMER 2018 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY PICK! “A tremendous book―thought-provoking and terrifying, with tension that winds up like a chain. The Cabin at the End of the World is Tremblay’s personal best. It’s that good.” — Stephen King “A clinic in suspense, a story that opens with high-wire tension and never lets up from there.” — Michael Koryta "I tore through it in record time. I just couldn’t wait to see where Tremblay was going to take me next.” — Victor LaValle The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense that recalls Stephen King’s Misery, Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood, and Jack Ketchum’s cult hit The Girl Next Door. Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road. One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what’s going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: "Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world." Thus begins 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. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay. “Read Paul Tremblay's new novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, and you might not sleep for a week. Longer. It will shape your nightmares for months – that's pretty much guaranteed.” — NPR “Gripping, horrifying, and mesmerizing.” — GQ “A tour-de-force of psychological and religious horror.” — BN.com “A blinding tale of survival and sacrifice.” — Kirkus Reviews “Tremblay has a real winner here.” — Tor.com

A Novel

The Cabin at the End of the World

baku

The Cabin at the End of the World begins with the quiet unease of a summer day. A child collecting grasshoppers. The soft, looming presence of a stranger. It’s a beginning that promises dread in slow motion, and for a while, Tremblay delivers exactly that: a horror that creeps in through the cracks, wearing the face of sincerity. What unfolds is not a breakneck thriller, but a prolonged standoff, part apocalyptic prophecy, part psychological siege. And unravel it does, though not always in the ways I hoped. The book’s premise is sharp and unsettling: a family held hostage by a group of intruders convinced that only a sacrifice will stop the end of the world. But as the pages unfold, the story doesn’t spiral outward; it circles itself. Conversations loop, arguments repeat, the tension flares and fades, then flares again. What should feel claustrophobic sometimes just feels padded. The weight of dread is there, but it drags rather than tightens. Tremblay is not without skill. His characters feel real, grounded in trauma and love. Andrew and Eric’s relationship is rendered with care, and Wen is an affecting presence, thoughtful, observant, brave in that innocent, unsentimental way children sometimes are. There are moments, too, of startling violence that puncture the quiet with real horror, and a creeping unease that lingers in the silences. The book asks questions about belief, fate, and the cost of survival, but refuses to answer any of them. And that’s where it falters for me. Ambiguity can be powerful. Here, it feels like a dodge. The ending is hazy, not in a purposeful, echoing way, but in a way that makes you wonder if the story ever really decided what it wanted to be. The apocalypse may be literal or imagined. The strangers may be visionaries or lunatics. And while I appreciated the refusal to spoon-feed meaning, I needed something more substantial to hold onto, some emotional resolution, some point of rest. Still, I admire what this novel tries to do. It’s ambitious in its restraint, intimate in its scale. It treats its queer characters not as tokens but as people with histories, scars, love, and fear. And some pages glint with a kind of cold, clear beauty: a flicker of memory, a grief that surfaces suddenly, a line of dialogue that lands like a bruise. You feel the ache of uncertainty, the awful quiet between choices. But when the final page turns, The Cabin at the End of the World leaves more echoes than impact. I wanted to be undone by it. Instead, I was mostly unsettled, a little frustrated, and still thinking of what it could have been had it chosen a shorter, sharper path. 3 out of 5 stars. A thoughtful, unsettling story that treads familiar ground with just enough dread to keep going, but not quite enough clarity or momentum to haunt.

Seo L

The novel is more engaging than the movie it inspired, though keeping track of the character names can be challenging due to their similarities.

Patrick Book

Allie Johnson

Alejandra 

But what happened with the seven named grasshoppers?

Very interesting concept, the twist was intriguing but I couldn’t really get into the writing. Also didn’t care for the ending.

Bowie 

jess larry

TOO MUCH BABBLING, STEPHEN KING LEVEL OF DESCRIPTIONS BUT 100X WORSE I CANT DO IT

The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake, with their closest neighbours more than two miles in either direction. As Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young and friendly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologises and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault”. Three more strangers arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.” So begins 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 intertwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay.

Taous Merakchi

Après réflexion je pense qu’en réalité j’aurais mis trois étoiles et non pas quatre, mais comme c’est Paul Tremblay et que je suis tombée amoureuse de lui et que j’aime vraiment beaucoup sa façon d’écrire j’ai pas pu me résoudre à mettre moins. Mais la vérité c’est que j’ai été super déçue, après avoir vraiment adoré A Head Full of Ghosts et Disappearance at Devil’s Rock j’ai trouvé celui-ci bien moins complet et j’ai, comme beaucoup on dirait, été assez déçue par la fin. Mais ça reste du Paul Tremblay, donc ça reste très bien.

Alexis Donahue

Weird, weird, weird. Too religious for me. 😶

Petaco

I blame myself. I read neither the blurb nor the reviews. Had I seen the rating... I don't trust anyone that have this a high review. Nothing happens and the build up to the end is super disappointing. I also felt like I got beat over the head with the fact that Wen had two dads. We get it already! The book reminds you every few paragraphs!! Just let them be in the book without constantly having to point it out. It's important for one part of the storyline but if you think that particular storyline has a point, it doesn't! It's just a way to circle back to the fact that Wen has two dads. So much time wasted!!

Oh my god, this was boring. For a long time nothing is really happening, buried in a ton of backstory. It’s a page turner, but not in a good way, me turning pages as quickly as possible to find out what’s behind this nonsense. And, of course, this hope was disappointed in the end. One extra star for a good Initial idea that made me read the whole book in hope of a brillant conclusion - which never came.

Patrick Baumann

can’t believe how bad M Night ruined this as a movie

ben wolfson

This book does not give clear answers in the end. It just kind of stops. I think that is purposeful and it worked well for me. I know many readers feel differently about those kind of endings, so just know that and it might not be what you like to read. The set up is that a family of three is vacationing in a very remote cabin. Purposely wanting to unplug and have a break from the world and constant social media. Suddenly, four strangers arrive and insist that the family let them into the cabin because they have something important to talk about with them. They claim that this family has been chosen to help save the world from an apocalypse that will kill everyone.

This hit me hard. It was more emotional and had more violence and gore than I expected. The three characters of the family were so well drawn and I cared a lot about them. The situation was scary and messed up, especially with things like Qanon and other dangerous conspiracy theories and cult stuff spreading so fast online. This is my first time reading Paul Tremblay, and I found his writing style enjoyable to me. I liked the way he explored the characters and themes. There are things to think about and I will remember this story. 

Cheryl Hedlund

This book does not give clear answers in the end. It just kind of stops. I think that is purposeful and it worked well for me. I know many readers feel differently about those kind of endings, so just know that and it might not be what you like to read. The set up is that a family of three is vacationing in a very remote cabin. Purposely wanting to unplug and have a break from the world and constant social media. Suddenly, four strangers arrive and insist that the family let them into the cabin because they have something important to talk about with them. They claim that this family has been chosen to help save the world from an apocalypse that will kill everyone.

This hit me hard. It was more emotional and had more violence and gore than I expected. The three characters of the family were so well drawn and I cared a lot about them. The situation was scary and messed up, especially with things like Qanon and other dangerous conspiracy theories and cult stuff spreading so fast online. This is my first time reading Paul Tremblay, and I found his writing style enjoyable to me. I liked the way he explored the characters and themes. There are things to think about and I will remember this story. 

Did not like the open ended ending. It was easy to read. 

Lex Forbes

Kaylee Fridstrom 

me encanta como llegas a dudar de absolutamente todo y tmb empatizar con todos los personajes (menos con redmond en mi caso). he tendido a ser mas team andrew pq creo q yo hubiera pensado igual q él en esas circunstancias pero si es vd q ha habido momentos en los q pensaba lo contrario y por eso esta tan chulo.

maría

3,75⭐

me encanta como llegas a dudar de absolutamente todo y tmb empatizar con todos los personajes (menos con redmond en mi caso). he tendido a ser mas team andrew pq creo q yo hubiera pensado igual q él en esas circunstancias pero si es vd q ha habido momentos en los q pensaba lo contrario y por eso esta tan chulo.

bitch what was that ending i thought i had like 40 pages left. anyways excited to see the groffanator serve in the movie!!!

The ending suck so bad. Overall I thought it was a great plot until the end. 

Seth

Molly Morgan

This book has haunted me since I read it. Home invasion horror I think is the thing that creeps me out the most. 


The plot is pretty hard to explain.. but know it's heart wrenching. The book itself is not paced well, and that is my biggest issue. I can't decide if it was *a good* book, but I don't regret giving it my time.

Added half a star because I can’t stop thinking about this book. The concept is strong, and it’s definitely eerie and unexpected, but I struggled a bit to enjoy the prose. Its also quite dark and contains some big triggers. 

erin alise 

Adrian Victor

One family. Four strangers. The end of the world. The premise felt right up my alley, but the execution didn’t quite work for me. Some of it may be personal preference (I’m not overly fond of child POV characters), while other elements just didn’t seem to coalesce. There are some definite highlights—the set-up is tense and creepy, Eric and Andrew are a loving gay couple with some really nice moments, and a passage towards the end makes excellent use of a more experimental style to reflect the chaos and despair of the moment—but the ambiguous nature of their “visitors” detracted from the story for me, especially in light of a late reveal that makes their motivations even more unclear. Tremblay also touches on several ideas that don’t feel fleshed-out enough to justify their placement in the text, such as Wen’s thoughts as a transracial adoptee. Although the ending fell flat for me, I liked the characters enough to continue reading to find out what happened to them.

This was my first Tremblay book, and I see enough potential to check out more of his works. works. Although this book was not for me, it may appeal to readers who like their home invasion fiction with an apocalyptic twist.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER! BEST BOOK OF 2018 (Library Journal, NPR, Buzzfeed) JULY 2018 INDIE NEXT PICK! SUMMER 2018 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY PICK! “A tremendous book―thought-provoking and terrifying, with tension that winds up like a chain. The Cabin at the End of the World is Tremblay’s personal best. It’s that good.” — Stephen King “A clinic in suspense, a story that opens with high-wire tension and never lets up from there.” — Michael Koryta "I tore through it in record time. I just couldn’t wait to see where Tremblay was going to take me next.” — Victor LaValle The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense that recalls Stephen King’s Misery, Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood, and Jack Ketchum’s cult hit The Girl Next Door. Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin in northern New Hampshire. Far removed from the bustle of city life, they are cut off from the urgent hum of cell phones and the internet. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles away in either direction. On a summer day, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen, but he is friendly, with a warm smile that wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen continue to talk and play, until three more strangers, two women and a man, all dressed like Leonard in jeans and button-down shirts, come down the road carrying strange, menacing objects. In a panic, Wen tells Leonard that she must go back inside the cabin. But before she goes, her new friend tells her, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong, but the three of you will have to make some tough decisions. I wish with all my broken heart you didn’t have to.” As Wen sprints away to warn her parents, Leonard calls out, “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.” “[A] tripwire-taut horror thriller.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “The Cabin at the End of the World...will shape your nightmares for months…there’s a very, very good chance you’ll never get it out of your head again.” —NPR

Taylor

i'm choosing to read this on a less-than-literal level since apocalypse stuff is generally pretty boring to me.

that being said, this book is an AMAZING meditation on mental illness, loss, and grief. everyone is so convinced that their interpretation of events is the only correct answer, and tremblay is a master at letting you believe each of them at different times. 

cabin is probably one of the best meditations on religion, faith, and doubt that i've read in any genre. paul tremblay is to horror literature what ari aster is to horror film - disrupting a predictable genre with characters, plots, and pacing that are SO refreshing after decades of straightforward bump-in-the-night/creature-feature/"it-was-all-just-a-dream!" horror. i literally can't wait to see what's next.

recommended listening: https://open.spotify.com/track/4FjAM8...

and translation: http://russmus.net/song/7250

Ryan LaFerney

The award winning novel, The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay spins a terrifying story by turning the standard home invasion horror plot on its head with an apocalyptic twist. Yet at the same time it is a chilling portrait of everyday evil. It's also a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense that recalls works like Stephen King’s Misery. 

The Cabin at the End of the World plays out at a break-neck pace, with its events taking place over the course of one frightening day. We’re introduced to a seven-year-old girl named Wen, adopted from China by a gay couple (Daddy Eric and Daddy Andrew). Wen is an inquisitive kid who takes the family’s vacation to off-the-grid New Hampshire seriously, studying grasshoppers and having fun being away from school. While she’s out collecting bugs, she’s approached by a large man named Leonard, who tells her that he wants to be her friend, and that he and his friends need to have a chat with the family. She flees to the house, and her parents try unsuccessfully to keep the four people — Leonard, Redmond, Sabrina, and Adriane — out.

Once the four invaders are inside, they tell the frightened family that they don’t want to hurt them, but they have an important mission: one member of the family must be voluntarily sacrificed. If they don’t, the apocalypse will come.

What makes this book truly chilling is that The Cabin at the End of the World never really spells out whether or not the supposed cultist group really are having supernatural visions, or if it’s just people doing horrifying things to others. We never learn the truth. The invaders claim to have come together after having visions of the cabin, meeting on an internet forum before uniting to carry out their God-given task. When their victims don’t believe them, Leonard shows television footage of a tsunami, saying that the disaster is proof that their story — implausible as it is — is true. The family is appalled at the idea of sacrificing one of its members, but the horror is accompanied by some doubt: what if something terrible does happen if they refuse?

We are left with many questions. Are the crazed home invaders who met on an Internet forum for like-minded conspiracy theorists just a sick cult that have been fed misinformation? Is some higher power really speaking to them? Is it all a stand-in for Trump and his followers? The answers to these questions, in the end, don't come, and don't matter. None of it matters. It's fight or flight. What matters, when the world is so damn insane around you, is trying to survive and trying to fight for the ones you love. What matters is walking "down the road even if it flooded by raging waters or blocked by fallen trees." 

This is highly relevant and disturbing story; one that is reflect of our current age- an age of bigotry, violence, untruth, and catalytic disasters. It's horrific and violent but it's message is one of survival in the name of love. I think in our apocalyptic times, this is the message we need.

The concept of this book is so cool, and I read it in anticipation of the upcoming film adaptation. It dragged on in some parts but overall I enjoyed the story and the characters.

Cabin at the End of the World

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