The Cabin at the End of the World

I was so looking forward to this book. I got and read it in a single day. Yes, its readable, and yes I wanted to know what happened…but I actually hated it. I couldnt find anything to like or care about in the characters. I couldnt even put an image of the two dads in my head. Ultimately I didnt care one bit about anyone in the story. I got the sense that Tremblay was writing solely in hopes of making a movie from the story and it would make a decent thriller…at least then there would be some humanity to the characters and a way to connect with them. And dont get me started on the absolutely lame ending. Save your money.

This is the first of his that Ive read and although I liked his writing style and found the premise of the book fascinating, I (like many others) felt the tang of disappointment start to form about 2/3rds of the way through the book and then literally threw it on the floor after the final page. Had such great potential, but sadly fails to even remotely live up to itself.

And I mean that literally. It was great – right up until the end. If you want to call it an end. Im old school. Stories need a beginning, a middle and an end. I dont need a happy ending. Im OK with a miserable ending. But I need an ending. This book gave me a beginning and a middle that just stopped. And thats a damn shame because its a great premise and very well written – a real page turner with great characters. But there is no resolution. You know no more at the end than you did at the beginning and I really hate it when a great story just stops and leaves me sitting there frustrated, wishing I hadnt wasted my time. It feels like the author got bored and simply stopped writing.

Spoilers: The idea may have worked better as a short story or a screenplay. Lots of good elements and an original story. With seven major characters, the only one I empathized with was Wen. The writing was pretty clunky in some spots. Given how much was stuffed in the novel, it was oddly boring. It was the equivalent of watching a Purge movie – after the first few grisly encounters, it all blurred together. While I appreciate being set up for a sequel, this book just slam ended. Did the world end? Was one of the bad guys really the guy who attacked Andrew? What about the grasshoppers?

The concept of the book was intriguing and when we get right down to the details of the action it was riveting. Sadly all of this was drowned out by “fluff”. Unnecessary backstory in the middle of the action, details that did nothing to drive the story or develop the characters, and an ending that left a lot to be desired. There were many times that the author started to draw these beautiful connections to biblical or historical events and dropped them before finishing the tie in. I wanted to like this book, but I think the author might work better in conjunction with someone who can clear up his ideas and cut out the fluff.

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