In this review, I will attempt to humbly share a bit of my own thoughts and insights into The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel by Paul Tremblay. I say this because many great writers, some who are world renowned such as Stephen King, gave absolutely astonishing reviews that do this literary work far more justice than I could ever provide. I have seen several reviews here on Amazon by other customers and sadly their reviews were not nearly as positive, but I believe I know why! One reader in particular said that they were “hooked on the first 80% or so of the book, but it was as if the author was unsure how to write the ending.” I’m paraphrasing, by the way, but I can assure you that is most definitely not the case! If you “don’t get” the last few pages, I would urge you to read them again, but this time reading them far more carefully to prevent missing the point. I will admit that I missed the point myself, initially thinking that this book concluded with a “weak ending” and would arrive at a solid four stars for it. I read the last few pages over again and also read the author’s notes at the back of the book. Those notes are vital to understanding the work as they opened up a whole world of hidden secrets that would otherwise be very hard to spot. I picked up on a few, but for every one I would pick up on, another two would go completely over my head. I appreciated this deep, thought provoking and intellectual writing style as it’s crisp and different from the usual canned ‘alphabet soup’ and literary tropes that find its way into every book of similar genre. So, what if you read the book in it’s entirety and find that there’s a tremendous question left unanswered?! If I told you that the answer to that question didn’t matter, would you believe me? The author’s notes said just that, without trying to provide a spoiler here, I will only say that whether the message of the “others” is true or false is not nearly as important as the underlying choice that’s required of our main characters, the broken Eric and the far more cynical Andrew. For anyone who’s read the book and would enjoy knowing why I left Wen (their young daughter) out is simply because there was never the question if they would “choose” her. That option was clearly never on the table. Other than in the introduction, the entire book revolves around their choice, and that choice revolves around the greatest sacrifice of all — love — is your love so powerful that it’s literally more important than everything else in the known universe?! Experiencing true love and ‘taking the easy road’ seem more mutually exclusive the more you think about it! That’s what it all boils down to, the family dynamic, and their own world within an even bigger world. The questions that affect our family and those outside forces that shatter it should be far more important to us than it’s screwed up macroscopic counterpart. I should add that the literary devices used by the author were anything, but ordinary. A combination of first, second, or third person language was used throughout the book in order to better captivate the reader. It worked! By the end of the book, a “first person plural” was used to better facilitate the reader as if they were Eric and Andrew coming down to the moment that will change everything forever, but regardless of whether it would have any outside effect is not the concern, not in their ‘here and now.’ Their lives have been shaken upside down in some horrible and traumatic ways, however they just can’t escape “the question!” The world will always be screwed up. The world may be here tomorrow or it may not. We have zero control over those things, though it’s nice to pretend we do, the fact remains that only a handful of people control the fate of our entire world! At one point in the book, they made it a point to mention that nearly everything spewing out of cable news is “bad news!” I totally agree and have been saying for years that each news station puts its own spin on the “news” to make it an entertainment show, not a legitimate news show, hell, it’s been 40+ years since we’ve had any semblance of real news on the airwaves! The reality is that such “news” doesn’t really have much of an impact on our daily lives, however 99% of what does have a major effect is dictated by those closest to us! All we could, and should want, is for those closest to us to be safe, healthy, loved… That’s what should really matter instead of a chance possibility in some far off land as told by an overpaid TV broadcaster! We need to worry about our loved ones primarily as those are the people who life goes on with. The thing this story teaches us to remember is that horrible things may happen, but: “We will go on.” After pondering that, this book is undoubtedly a 5/5 star read that I would urge anybody on the fence to just pickup and read! One warning, once you start, it will be VERY difficult to put this book down. On many levels, it is, simply, that good!