Uninvited guests on vacation – review of the novel “Cottage at the End of the World”

The Vesper publishing house has already accustomed us to solid and extraordinary horror films, also published in solid covers. It is no different with the book The Cottage at the End of the World , written by Paul Tramblay.

marta kucharskaThe cocktail was touched

When Andrew and Eric decided to take their seven-year-old daughter to a hut on vacation, they did not even imagine how perverse the idea would turn out to be. Their vacation is interrupted by four mysterious men, who are prophesying the end of a world that only these three heroes can stop. They only have to sacrifice one of themselves.

Therefore, from the very first pages, you can see that Chata na Edge świata is an unusual horror movie. The author plays with a few seemingly well-known motives: a cabin in the woods, isolation, strangers and – of course! – apocalypse. All of them have already been rolled on by both novelists and filmmakers. Tremblay not only carefully selected them for himself, but also composed them in the right balanced proportions. The book also contains references to pop culture. A smile will surely appear on the face of everyone who has waited for Looney Tunes cartoons or came across Goonies in their childhood .

From the very beginning, the novel insidiously gives us a subcutaneous anxiety that remains to the last pages. So it is not a literal horror. A thriller with fantastic elements would probably be a more accurate term here.

… With a tablespoon of pepper

Even though Chata na Edge / Woofs End remains great in terms of composition and building tension, it is worth being prepared for one major drawback – uneven pace. The fast-paced action is often broken by lengthy, boring descriptions. It kind of reveals a few single, really amazing scenes that beg for a clever film adaptation.

It is also impossible to regret the feeling that although the novel is perfectly composed, there is still some potential not fully used. The impression that if we polished the narrative a bit here and there or rethink some solutions, we would get a perfect horror.

Paul Tremblay’s book will surely please many fans of classic horror films. Stories whose authors laboriously played with the viewer and his fears, instead of pouring out buckets of blood and guts. Cottage at the End is a cleverly made novel, and despite its shortcomings, it is a solid piece of entertainment.