Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Tremblay (Disappearance at Devil's Rock, 2016) is back with another thought-provoking, page-turning horror novel. Wen is almost eight years old, on vacation with her two dads, Andrew and Eric, on an isolated lake in New Hampshire. While catching grasshoppers on the front lawn, she encounters Leonard, a large man in a white button-down shirt, who asks for help convincing her dads to let him and his friends into their home. They have come to this secluded place with their menacing and crude weapons to stop the world from ending, and Wen and her dads are the key to humanity's survival. What follows is an extremely intense, anxiety-inducing thriller that puts the family in mortal danger while forcing them to tackle a universal dilemma is one life worth that of seven billion others? Alternating between unreliable narrators, Tremblay captures the intense emotional struggle, especially in flashbacks into the lives of the odds-defying family 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 (2006), but will also appeal to fans of Ruth Ware, Josh Malerman, and Joe Hill.--Spratford, Becky Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The apocalypse begins with a home invasion in this tripwire-taut horror thriller. Eric and Andrew are vacationing with their seven-year-old daughter, Wen, at remote Gaudet Lake in New Hampshire when their cabin is invaded by a quartet of weapons-wielding strangers, each of whom has been driven there by a shared vision: that the world will end unless one member of this family sacrifices another. That sets the stage for an excruciatingly tense standoff between them and their prisoners as they try to outmaneuver one other. Tremblay (Disappearance at Devil's Rock) skillfully seeds his tale with uncertainties, including news reports of portentous world catastrophes, that suggest the invaders' vision is genuine, and 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) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Wen knows not to speak with strangers yet chats with Leonard, who gives her a flower. Wen and her fathers Eric and Andrew are staying in a cabin two miles from the nearest neighbor, so how did Leonard find Wen? An idyllic vacation turns terrifying when the family find themselves at the center of a home invasion and are given an impossible choice that will save the world from the apocalypse. The unbearable suspense will keep readers glued to the page. VERDICT Tremblay has a gift for tapping into readers' deepest fears to stir up psychological terror. (LJ 3/14/18) © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
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 strangersa 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. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
