Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2018
288 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
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. 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.
"Starred Review. [Tremblay's] profoundly unsettling novel invites readers to ask themselves whether, when faced with the unbelievable, they would do the unthinkable to prevent it." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Tremblay captures the intense emotional struggle... of Wen, Andrew, and Eric, while dread and terror permeate every sentence." - Booklist
"Starred Review. Tremblay once again demonstrates his talent for terrifying readers. Offering a terrible situation with no good outcome, this is the author at his best. Highly recommended for Tremblay's fans and those who relish end-of-the-world scenarios." - Library Journal
"A blinding tale of survival and sacrifice that matches the power of belief with man's potential for unbridled violence." - Kirkus
"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
"The Cabin at the End of the World is a thriller that grapples with the timely and the timeless. I tore through it in record time. I just couldn't wait to see where Tremblay was going to take me next." - Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling
"The Cabin at the End of the World is a clinic in suspense, a story that opens with high-wire tension and never lets up from there. The blend of human horror and human heart is superb. Paul Tremblay is rapidly becoming one of my favorite suspense writers." - Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of How It Happened
"Think The Desperate Hours meets 10 Cloverfield Lane, but way, way stranger. With The Cabin at the End of the World, Paul Tremblay gives us a gloriously claustrophobic and gory tale of faith and paranoia. Signs and wonders and homemade battle-axes, oh my!" - Stewart O'Nan, author of The Speed Queen and A Prayer for the Dying
"The Cabin at the End of the World is a terrific, disturbing, desperate novel, one that profoundly reflects the current political climate of North America and our ambiguous times." - Mariana Enriquez, author of Things We Lost in the Fire
"Paul Tremblay is the real deal! The Cabin at the End of the World is a heart-pounding, edge of your seat thriller that will leave you with one simple question: what would you do?" - J.D. Barker, internationally bestselling author of Forsaken and The Fourth Monkey
This information about The Cabin at the End of the World was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book Awards and is the author of Disappearance at Devil's Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year's-best anthologies. He has a master's degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his wife and two children.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
