The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

I saw the trailer Knock at the Cabin and was immediately interested when I learned the book was written by Paul Tremblay. Tremblay wrote a short story are part of Amazon's Forward collection, The Last Conversation. I honestly loved all the stories in the collection, but his especially stuck with me.

I'll admit that it is very unlikely that I'll watch the movie. But, there's a chance I will--I mean, I love a good M. Night Shayamalan plot twist and the material he had to work with here is stellar. Without spoiling the movie, I will say the book is significantly sadder. Be warned.

In both criticism and praise, I have to say that the ending is both frustrating and superbly well done. Do not expect a happy ending if you decide to read it--I have a love hate feeling for books that do this. As an allegory, it functions well. Leonard and his cohorts are representative of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I often found myself doubting whether Leonard was genuine in his belief, especially when we can rewind cable news so easily. I'm honestly still doubtful--I mean, it could all play out as coincidence, but for the planes plural dropping out of the sky. Added to this is my feelings during/after an ongoing global pandemic where our own authorities have oscillated on the severity of Covid. I guess my thoughts tend to gravitate towards the possibilities of the end of the world and all the questions I'd have, which is to be expected given that I read full-length horror novels in grade school. 

I have seen a fair bit of criticism that the plot is a bit drawn out--it really didn't feel that way to me. The books comes in at 272 pages, which feels pretty short to me. I feel that the drawn out nature of the plot actually heightened my sense of foreboding and added to my enjoyment. It really felt, at times, like I was watching some horror movie in the dark, wondering what would happen next. Overall, I enjoyed it. I can see how the repetitiveness could hinder someone's enjoyment. Again, I feel like this was something that worked well in this case because we got to see the events unfolding through the eyes of Win, her fathers, and their attackers.