Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - The Cabin at the End of the World

Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

22 reviews

sipping_tea_with_ghosts's review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I don't come on here to sound like a contrarian, but its books like these that make me genuinely disregard any quote or blurb ever left on covers by other authors in the industry - especially horror or thriller books. This is the prime example of a provocative concept being stretched out far beyond its means - cruising by on its shocking question and hoping that you don't bother to look behind the curtain, leaving the theater in silent awe.
Worse than that however is witnessing a narrative that is trying to come off as insightful and well meaning, when it unintentionally confirms a very harmful view on the "non-traditional" family and doesn't do enough to dissuade a crazy person from believing they're being supported. If someone tells you this is an LGBTQ+ book, they're either dense or should no longer be your friend.

Outside of the troubling morals, purely accidental I'm sure - the story itself just isn't that compelling. Once you get over that moral quandary, a good 2/3rds of the runtime is:

"No, we won't sacrifice anyone!"
"But you have to!"
"No we won't!"

And there isn't enough tension building to keep the knife against your throat, loading off flashback exposition in the most egregious way - like it was a last minute addition...13 times. The ending is ambiguous in a way that might be interesting to think about later down the line, but that also means a lack of payoff for a question I already knew the answer for far before we got there.

I hope Paul's other works are more interesting and don't come off so much as a messy stumble in the dark, but even if there's an apocalypse going on outside our windows - just hire an editor for the good of mankind.

Content Warnings

soraydiant's review

Go to review page

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

katiereadsbooks23's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I really really enjoyed this book up until the last couple of paragraphs. I think it is such an interesting concept as in usually with home invasion thrillers we have people breaking in who have the main goal of harming or hurting the victims and this book is a great flip of that. Most of our home invaders are sympathetic and you get the feeling they wouldn’t be there if they didn’t have to be. The dynamics of the characters are very interesting and it is such an interesting book overall. I’m very excited for the movie!

Content Warnings

bealittlebrave's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

Content Warnings

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Content Warnings

doomluz's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was intense and sad. The ending was a little ambiguous, but I liked it. It works for the story and the message it ends on. I feel like the whole point was to show how ridiculous a god is that wouldn’t accept a child’s death as sacrifice enough. I’m glad that Andrew and Eric thought it would be worth sacrificing the rest of the world.

Content Warnings