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 that recalls Stephen King’s Misery, Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood, and Jack Ketchum’s cult hit The Girl Next Door.
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. Coming June 26, 2018
PRE-ORDER at HarperCollins, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles.
PRAISE!
“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
“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
“[A novel] about the clash of rational and irrational, hatred and violence, prophecies and religion gone mad, and perhaps hope. 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
“Paul Tremblay loads emotion and tension into every paragraph on every page of The Cabin at the End of the World. It is a dream come true, a heartfelt, emotionally charged journey into our worst nightmares.”–Caroline Kepnes
“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
“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
“Tremblay captures the intense emotional struggle. . . of Wen, Andrew, and Eric, while dread and terror permeate every sentence. This is a novel with the heart and tone of The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, but will also appeal to fans of Ruth Ware, Josh Malerman, and Joe Hill.”–Booklist (starred review)
★ Starred Review Library Journal 03/15/2018
“Married couple Eric and Andrew are at a remote cabin in New Hampshire celebrating their adopted daughter Wen’s eighth birthday when four strangers with homemade weapons start walking down the gravel driveway. Out catching grasshoppers, Wen is the first to see the giant man named Leonard, who asks her to fetch her parents. He calls out, “your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.” The quartet attempts to gain access to the cabin while the family inside barricades the entrances. Eventually, Leonard and his companions invade the premises and give Eric and Andrew an impossible choice to prevent the apocalypse. Meanwhile, the news on TV reveals that the world might indeed be ending. VERDICT A Bram Stoker Award winner for A Head Full of Ghosts, 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.” [See Pepub Alert, 12/11/17.]—Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI
★ Starred Review 04/16/2018
“The apocalypse begins with a home invasion in this tripwire-taut horror thriller…. Tremblay (Disappearance at Devil’s Rock) skillfully seeds his tale with uncertainties… he introduces enough doubt into the beliefs and behaviors of all the parties to keep them and the reader off-balance. His profoundly unsettling novel invites readers to ask themselves whether, when faced with the unbelievable, they would do the unthinkable to prevent it. (June)”–Publisher’s Weekly
“A striking work of psychological horror and unblinking terror from bloody fantasist Tremblay (Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, 2016, etc.)In this peek-between-your-fingers work of domestic horror, the Bram Stoker Award-winning author demonstrates a counterintuitive maturity in his writing even as he inflicts the cruelest possible scenarios on his unwitting victims. Here the author has stripped his narrative back to the most threadbare elements in a tale that is nearly impossible to review without unveiling some critical shocks. The moving parts are surprisingly mundane. There is a longtime couple, Eric and Andrew, who have taken a well-earned vacation in a remote cabin near a lake in rural New Hampshire. There is their kiddo, Wen, an adopted and much-loved Chinese girl who is portrayed in a rich, endearing, and authentic way throughout the story. There are four strangers from disparate parts of the country, two men and two women bearing medieval-looking makeshift weapons, who come to convey an unbearable proposition. Other than their common quest, there is nothing particularly extraordinary about these strangers—a bartender, a nurse, a line cook, and a roughneck who may or may not be who he claims. “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen,” says their leader. “But they have to. Tell them they have to. We are not here to hurt you. We need your help to save the world. Please.” In a grave choice that meets all the dramatic principles of Anton Chekhov, there is a gun. Tremblay masterfully switches perspectives during the book’s most dramatic moments, offering only hints at how the quartet’s strange mission originated but fully seizing upon this family’s personal shock and distress. As the story unfolds, Tremblay introduces bloody violence, a sweeping, agonizing consequence that may or may not be real, and a series of episodes that lead these troubled souls toward a disquieting and macabre conclusion.A blinding tale of survival and sacrifice that matches the power of belief with man’s potential for unbridled violence.”–Kirkus Reviews
Paul Tremblay (the online version!) 