Good Books!

The Cabin at the End of the World, by Paul Tremblay

Paul Tremblay’s psychological suspense novel, The Cabin At The End of The World, begins with a precocious little girl catching grasshoppers in the yard of a remote vacation lake cottage she and her two dads are renting for the week.  Unexpectedly, a friendly young man appears and, although the child is aware of “stranger danger,” the two engage in a conversation which starts out innocently enough, but gradually becomes increasingly bizarre as it goes along.  Soon, three other strangers show up at the cabin and by increments, terror ensues.  The family finds itself held hostage and questions about sacrifice, end-times, faith and truth are intermingled together in this engrossing read.  Beyond the graphic violence depicted, (and there is plenty of graphic violence), a more menacing undercurrent of events (that are featured nightly on television news);  climate change, global epidemics, terrorism, racism and homophobia leave one with an unease that defines great fiction…the thin line between what’s made up and what is reality.  The present political climate loomed large in my mind when reading this book…chillingly so!  Tremblay’s writing is alternately heartbreaking and terrifying and even, morosely, funny…. Recommended!