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Literature / Re: Yearly Reading Targets 2022
« Last post by The P on September 28, 2022, 12:00:42 pm »The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay (23)
I liked this one well enough. It was highly praised by a friend of mine, and they're making a movie sometime next year. I figured I'd read it to see how much M. Night ends up making it worse. About 50 pages in, I was worried the book was just going to end up being a 300 page elaborate Trolley Problem. It ends up being more than that, but really drops the ball on some other more interesting concepts it gets close to but then ignores. Maybe that was chosen with a view to keeping it short and quick. What I really think is the author came up with a "wouldn't this be cool/crazy/intense!" scenario and just churned out a story without taking the time to think through some implications.
It was enjoyable to read, plenty of tense moments like any thriller. And there is some good character work; although every pov, of which there were 7 or so, pretty much spoke with the same voice, so I never really felt like I was seeing through different peoples' eyes. It's mostly written in present tense, which is fine I guess. Flashbacks are in past tense. I always feel there needs to be a good reason to choose a present tense narration, and often times it seems it's chosen just to be "different." There was an excessive amount of unnecessary positional descriptions, like the author wanted to write a screenplay or stage directions at points. I don't need to know the detailed layout of the cabin and positioning of everyone in a scene.
That's a lot of criticism for something I ultimately liked. I read it in about a day. And it should make a better movie, but.... we've seen what M. Night is capable of.
I liked this one well enough. It was highly praised by a friend of mine, and they're making a movie sometime next year. I figured I'd read it to see how much M. Night ends up making it worse. About 50 pages in, I was worried the book was just going to end up being a 300 page elaborate Trolley Problem. It ends up being more than that, but really drops the ball on some other more interesting concepts it gets close to but then ignores. Maybe that was chosen with a view to keeping it short and quick. What I really think is the author came up with a "wouldn't this be cool/crazy/intense!" scenario and just churned out a story without taking the time to think through some implications.
It was enjoyable to read, plenty of tense moments like any thriller. And there is some good character work; although every pov, of which there were 7 or so, pretty much spoke with the same voice, so I never really felt like I was seeing through different peoples' eyes. It's mostly written in present tense, which is fine I guess. Flashbacks are in past tense. I always feel there needs to be a good reason to choose a present tense narration, and often times it seems it's chosen just to be "different." There was an excessive amount of unnecessary positional descriptions, like the author wanted to write a screenplay or stage directions at points. I don't need to know the detailed layout of the cabin and positioning of everyone in a scene.
That's a lot of criticism for something I ultimately liked. I read it in about a day. And it should make a better movie, but.... we've seen what M. Night is capable of.