Quick Book Review --The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens

Cover Image courtesy of Joffe Books

The Girls in the Cabin is a solid entry in the psychological horror/thriller realm with plenty of triggerry topics to be aware of, if you need mention of that. I'm going to try my best to avoid spoilers here, while touching on those potential triggers.

The gist of the story is this: A father and his two daughters, Emma (8) and Kayla (teenager) go on a camping trip after the death of their mother to cancer. The trip is an attempt to get past the loss and to bond as a family, but this is a challenge because of deeper, more complicated reasons. The girls have lost trust in their dad. Some reasons are legitimately his fault. Others are just a part of the grieving process, of losing their mom who is portrayed as the anchor of the family. And of course, a camping trip, the wilds...the youngest has an accident in the midst of a freak storm, and the only hope of saving her comes when they find refuge at a woman's home in the middle of nowhere. This is story one -- a grieving family trying to move on and to forgive each other in order to become a family again.

Then there's story two -- Clara, the owner of the house. Clara had an abusive upbringing that flags many triggers--rape, child abuse, domestic abuse, and author Stephens does not shy away from the details. She is broken, but she's a survivor--and maybe the friends and remaining family that she has is the glue that has kept her together. One of them is a confidante named Sydney, another girl who met with Clara when they were kids at a cabin in the woods. They formed a special bond during their childhood years, and Sydney grew to become Clara's protector--mostly from the awful men in Clara's life.

Enter Chris and his broken family into Clara's life where she still longs for the perfect family that was never hers to be had. Also enter, jaded and overprotective Sydney, and you have what could have been the makings of a romantic comedy. But this story is far from a romantic comedy, and the terror that awaits these two families comes together with increasing , graphic detail.

It's a tense and terrifying read, which is what it should be. Well done.

This may seem a weird criticism though, but I don't really like the book's title. Most of the story takes place on a dilapidated farm in a rundown, two story home. I guess it's true that these girls came together at a cabin during their childhood, but the cabin itself is from a memory and kind of insignificant. Maybe that's a whiny criticism on my part, but it still bugs me. A little.

Mental health issues also play a big part in this story (a trigger for some). Portraying mental health issues in horror can get tricky. It can come across as offensive for some, and while this story veers dangerously into cringey mental health issues territory (no spoilers on how here...), I'm happy to say that I felt like the author handled those issues with a fair level of compassion and understanding.

A solid, thriller with a lot of cringe worthy, tortuous horror. Oh, and one more thing. It passes the Bechdel test. Easily. It's amazing how often the horror I read seems to reach that bar.

Thanks to author Caleb Stephens and publisher Joffe Books for the ARC review copy of the book.