Tension Terror

Backstory:

Craig decides to go to a cabin that his dad owned years ago to get away from it all so that he can write his novel in peace and quiet. He takes his family with him so that they can all be together and stay in the cabin. The road trip to the cabin though is rippled with all kinds of bad decisions on Craig's part and things seem to go wrong quickly for all of them.

By the time they get to the cabin - the place is a mess and needs to be cleaned as it looks like there have been squatters hanging out there, so Craig decides to make his family go stay with relatives while he takes care of cleaning up the cabin to make it livable. While they are gone Craig has things happen at the cabin with screams and bangs which makes Craig wonder what is happening and he has to figure out how to solve the problem.

That is about all I can give on a backstory without giving away spoilers, so if you want to know more you will need to read the book!

Thoughts:

Normally books by Matt Shaw have loads of extreme situations with blood and gore laced throughout the storyline, but this book has none of that - it is more of a psychological horror thriller laced with ghosts/hauntings. The main character, Craig drove me batty as he made all the wrong decisions in the story as things happened on the road trip before they even arrived at the cabin which drives up the tension and suspense.

This story is short too - topping out at only 90 pages, but there were quite a few twists and turns within the story with a major twist at the end which gave me a shock. There is a second book which I will be moving into today as this book sort of ended on a cliff hanger and I need to see what happens next. Giving this book four Cabin Fever stars! ( )

3.5 rounded up. Knocking off a little bit from a solid 4 star read because the end had a thing I didn't like much. It started off a bit slowly and the main character is a bit of a dick that is bad at making decisions, like, really bad. After a slow start Matt Shaw began doing Matt Shaw things and scaring the hell out of me. No gore in this one, but still scary. Will for sure be reading the 2nd book immediately to find out WTF I just read, because I have questions! ( )

This is one of the scariest titles I’ve read from Matt Shaw. I could feel that something big was going to happen, and it had me on edge throughout the whole story. I have never jumped from a book, until ‘The Cabin’, and I was hesitant to get out of bed after I finished. I only wish I had ‘The Cabin: Asylum’ ready and waiting for me when I finished. Read this with the lights down low, your feet under the covers, and – trust me – close the curtains!

When Craig was a child, he used to travel to the cabin with his father, a writer, to get away from everything for a bit. These are some of his favorite memories. Now, all grown up and an author himself, he thinks that some time at the cabin is just what he needs to finish his newest book. Unfortunately, his wife, Susan, thinks some time at the cabin with the kids sounds like a perfect family vacation. Not much quiet time for writing now. With his publisher already pushing him about his deadline, and his peaceful getaway turned into an outing, Craig is already on edge. The traffic, whining kids, and smart ass comments from his wife, are pushing him closer every minute – and they’re just barely on the road to Brattleboro. He passes the time telling his family stories his father told him as a child. Tales of the local asylum, insane patients, and suicides, all setting the tone for their arrival. What they find when they get there is not the quaint and peaceful retreat they were expecting. Vandalism, locals, and something sinister await them. And then, the night comes… ( )