The Cabin

by Natasha Preston

A New York Times Bestseller!
There may only be one killer, but no one is innocent in this thriller from Natasha Preston, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE CELLAR!
A weekend partying at a remote cabin is just what Mackenzie needs. She can't wait to let loose with her friends. But a crazy night of fun leaves two of them dead—murdered.
With no signs of a forced entry or struggle, suspicion turns to the five survivors. Someone isn't telling the truth. And Mackenzie's first mistake? Assuming the killing is over...
Teen thrillers also by Natasha Preston:
The Cellar
Awake
You Will Be Mine
The Lost
The Twin

• ISBN10: 1492618551
• ISBN13: 9781492618553
• Publish Date: 6 September 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Sourcebooks Fire
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
The Cabin had a lot of potential, but it really didn't work for me. At all. There were times I wanted to put it down, but I also kind of wanted to see how the story would end.


The Cabin had a lot of the tropes that I don't enjoy when it comes to young adult novels. Like MacKenzie falling instantly in love with Blake, and her inner musings trying to justify that. Insta-love is very hard to get especially in the circumstances that were a part of this novel. A group of friends going to a cabin for a weekend in the summer between school and uni, and where one of the guys was more or less hated by everyone else. Fast forward to the next morning, and the hated guy and his girlfriend were found stabbed to death on the kitchen floor. And it was evident to the police that the murderer had to be one of the people who were still inside the cabin.

There were also some pretty glaring continuity mistakes in The Cabin, but I read an ARC, so this may very well have been fixed in the final version. The most important one was that at one point, MacKenzie talks about her 19th birthday being in five months, then, some chapters later, her parents want to ground her, and she says something to them about being almost 18. I also really didn't feel invested in the mystery at all, and I think that was partly because I couldn't stand being in MacKenzie's head! She was quite naïve, and the way she thought the detective on the case would actually share pieces of the investigation with her made me think she was a bit stupid as well.

Written in first person point of view, from MacKenzie's perspective, and in past tense, there just was no getting away from her thoughts and I couldn't connect with her character at all. Her doubts felt shallow to me, and I have to say The Cabin just wasn't for me.

 

[Joni Reads]

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

I give this book a solid 3. I found myself kinda of skimming through the middle. I really really wanted to get to the end and it felt a bit like it was dragging on and on. Whether it was an anticipation thing or a pacing thing I don 't know but it just didn't hold my attention as much as it could have.

Natasha Preston set out in this book to do something a little different. This is mainly a murder mystery novel. But she threw in teenage romance. Now, PLENTY of adult authors- Iris Johansen is a big one- who can balance murder mystery and romance but for this novel it just didn't feel realistic. Her BEST FRIEND had just been murdered and she was falling in love with a stranger who may have been a murderer. Just didn't feel authentic.

The main character, Mackenzie, was an alright character. Her kind of flippant attitude about the murders, refusing to cry about it cause she felt she HAD to solve them instead, etc, just really bothered me- again, for authenticity reasons. Like you are 18, you have had 3 friends and one frienenemy die in the past year and you are not having total meltdown? There is a difference between making your character a realistic type of strong and making your character an annoying type of strong where you wonder why they are keeping it together so well.

Onto the good things, Blake! I LOVED his character. He is the type of male character I love. Kind of the tall, dark, and handsome with an air of mystery. Who doesn't love the bad boy who is really meant to be a good boy? Yeah, it's a character type done over and over but if it ain't broke don't fix it. This type of character just works and I really needed him to keep me interested in this book.
The mystery was really good. I went into the end of the book thinking I knew who it was. They reveal the killer and I was surprised I was wrong until-dun, dun DUN,- they reveal a twist. Put it this way, I wound up being right but I wasn't even disappointed because the twist was great and unexpected.

Now, let's talk about that ending. It's left open for a sequel but I don't see one actually happened. I think it is meant to just be one of those books that wanted the dramatic ending. Unfortunately it didn't really work here. I felt like "Wow, you left us hanging the whole book basically and now you end it by leaving us hanging again?" I don't feel that a sequel is even the solution. The solution was to finish the book. To give it a proper ending. As much as I hated the ending I doubt I would read a sequel because the murder mystery was solved and the sequel would have to be a completely different type of drama that just doesn't interest me. I am dancing around this because I don't want to give spoilers. If you like cliff hangers then this is the ending for you!

To summarize. Good mystery surrounded by bits of unneeded fluff and an ending that left more to desire.

Worth the read but I would say to get from the library. I wouldn't buy this book.