Paul Tremblay's The Cabin at the End of the World - Review

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A gripping thriller of psychological horror and apocalyptic dread.

Eric, Andrew and their daughter Wen are holidaying in a remote cabin in the New Hampshire wilderness.

Their idyllic lakeside retreat is soon ensnared by terror when a group of strangers arrives, prophesising cataclysmic events if the family don’t comply with their entreaties.

With the fate of their family in peril amidst the strangers' insistence that their fate is entwined with that of the entire world, the nightmare is only just beginning.

'The Cabin at the End of the World' is a psychological horror novel by Paul Tremblay, a riveting suspense thriller that begins on a glorious summer’s day, as we are introduced to a young girl, Wen, playing with grasshoppers outside the cabin in calm, picturesque isolation. A stranger appears, Leonard, caring and friendly on the surface; unease creeping in before everything begins to spiral into the unexpected. Primarily told from the perspectives of Wen, Eric and Andrew, with additional insights from the perspectives of the strangers as more of what led them to the cabin is revealed, we witness the unfolding horror for everyone trapped within the confines of this cabin far from civilisation.

Tremblay weaves a deeply psychological narrative, a riveting home invasion thriller that quickly escalates as the family are faced with an impossible choice. The mystery at the novel’s heart surrounds the mysterious strangers, perhaps members of a cult of evangelical radicals, repeating their rhetoric like a mantra, appearing convinced in their beliefs and calling for the family to make a sacrifice in a desperate attempt to save the world. But there are cracks, even the strangers themselves struggling to know what to believe as their mission unravels. The novel delves into themes of religion and spirituality, in particular related to the Christian prophesy of end times as foretold in the Book of Revelation.

Constantly questioning and philosophising, this is rich, character-driven story, brimming with tension and bursts of violence and brutality, delving into the characters’ beliefs, emotions and memories; a slow trickling of unease and paranoia, indoctrination and manipulation, an abuse of faith and fear as events spiral and tragedy becomes inescapable. So artfully done is the ever-present underlying question as to what the truth may be - whether this is indeed a microcosm of apocalyptic doom, or simply the crazed delusions of a group of criminals?

Engrossing and thought-provoking, ‘The Cabin at the End of the World’ is relentlessly gripping, slow-burning suspense.

The novel was adapted for the screen by M. Night Shyamalan as 'Knock at the Cabin' in 2023, becoming the first of Tremblay’s works to receive a screen version.



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