Did I mention tension? I cannot think of a book I’ve read in recent years more tense than Cabin. There is an inevitability to the tale that heightens the tension. Cabin, for example, is a violent, gory novel, though the violence is as far from the splatter aesthetic as one can get ( Devil’s Rock and Ghosts feature almost no violence at all.) The violence in Cabin is intimate, disturbing because of the real sense that no one on either side of the fence wants any violence to happen. Grant and Dennis Etchison, who excelled at this type of tale and it’s possible to see their influence in Tremblay’s approach but the results are far different. During the horror boom of the 70s/80s, there were a number of writers, such as Charles L. Tremblay has talked in interviews about his appreciation for quiet, subtle horror tales. Tremblay himself embraces the term and is active in horror literature culture, including serving as a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards. I said above he doesn’t need genre qualifiers, and that is true-but it also not a mischaracterization to call all three books horror. Instead this very ambiguity, of which nearly every character in the tales are aware, charges the story and drives the tension up higher by making it easy for the reader to identify with the character viewpoint at any given stretch in the story (all three books are told from multiple viewpoints.) Exploring this extremely thin line between what we define as reality and what we do not is something the horror tale is uniquely suited to do, and few do it as well as Tremblay. In a less-skilled writer’s hand, this approach can easily come off as muddled and indecisive. A reader can interpret the stories either way and find ample evidence to support their viewpoint.
It is never made clear in the novels as to whether the supernatural is present. They tell three distinct stories but are linked by their approach: ambiguity about the supernatural.
I tend to think of his last three novels- Cabin, Disappearance at Devil's Rock and A Head Full of Ghosts-as a triptych. A masterful storyteller, he may very well be at the peak of his powers. In other ways he’s absolutely modern, one of the few writers I’ve read to incorporate current technology and culture into his work in an unforced, naturalistic way. In some ways he’s a throwback, using tight, unshowy prose to deliver stories in realistic settings with relatable characters. It cemented my belief that Tremblay is one of the best fiction writers today, full stop. Several days ago I finished Paul Tremblay’s most recent novel, The Cabin at the End of the World.
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