The Cabin at the End of the World
I fell in love with Wen almost immediately as she ran across the front lawn, chasing grasshoppers. As this 8-year-old caught the smallest ones, she would place them in her jar, naming each one as she planned on studying them later. As a tall stranger walked up on the lawn, she hesitated on what to do, as she knew about stranger danger. This man proceeded to talk to her and Wen felt that he didn’t appear to be dangerous. Collecting grasshoppers with her, Wen again felt that he was too friendly to be a bad guy and she continued talking to him. I don’t think it would have mattered when Wen notified her dads about the stranger, as they already had their agenda planned out.
I enjoyed the beginning of this novel, I liked how the stranger and his accomplices showed up on the property unannounced and began their assault. They had no explanation for their initial raid, they went with the hammering and the pounding of their voices to shake up the family. Yielding handmade weapons, the foursome promised them that they were not there to hurt them, they were only there to make sure that the family saved mankind from disaster.
How a family of three could save mankind intrigued me and how these four strangers carrying weapons, could convince them to save the world was beyond me. When they told the family the whole story of why they were there, I knew it was now a question of time. Who would really walk away from this situation? I knew not everyone would make it out alive.
As events heated up, I found the sentence structure confusing at times. I found myself not enjoying this section of the novel as I had to slow down my pace as I read. It was a shame as I was enjoying the novel thus far. This section of the novel was where there was a lot of the action in the book, but I found some sentences that were extremely long and it was how the author was describing what was taking place, that felt off to me.
I thought the premise of the novel was good and I’m glad that I read it. I wasn’t too happy with the ending, but I don’t know what ending I was hoping for. I thought this ending seemed cheesy for how tense and dramatic the novel was. 3.5 stars
