Sometimes when you leave the trappings of civilization to get away from it all, it comes looking for you. That is the message --- and maybe not the one that author Paul Tremblay means to convey --- in the newly published THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD. Another might be that if 1) you are comfortable with handgun ownership, and 2) you have a secure portable lockbox, you don’t leave your piece hidden in your vehicle when you’re in your residence so that if you need it, you can’t get it. That said, it’s something people do, so it’s not like Tremblay jumps the shark when his protagonists are left so-near-yet-so-far defenseless when the weirdos come to call.

And indeed, that is precisely what occurs in this well-written, frightening and wonderfully ambiguous one-sit read, a tale where you don’t want to get particularly attached to any one character since there is ultimately mayhem aplenty. THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD opens with the introduction of a precocious seven-year-old named Wen, who, with her adoptive parents, is vacationing in a remote cabin at the top end of New Hampshire. Wen is gently capturing baby grasshoppers, and Eric and Andrew are doing what parents on vacation do when their idyllic repose is at first softly and then rudely interrupted.

"THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD is full of subtle turns, twists and curves of the type that you encounter when driving on a mountain road, and has as much potential to send you over the side as to get you where you are going."

The intruders are four strangers who almost apologetically invade the family space and gently but firmly restrain the trio while presenting the case that Wen’s parents must come to a decision as to who will be sacrificed. The reason for the sacrifice is that the world will end unless one member of the family voluntarily dies. The quartet --- two men and two women who are somewhat of a disparate bunch --- are quite insistent on this. They kind of have proof that something is occurring.

But Wen’s parents aren’t buying it, and the interlopers are somewhat vague as to why this loving family who is collectively minding their own business must make the sacrifice and not, say, the Springsteens in New Jersey or the Fondas in California. Of course, Eric and Andrew aren’t about to blithely take this incessant request lying down, and things get truly crazy as a result.

THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD is full of subtle turns, twists and curves of the type that you encounter when driving on a mountain road, and has as much potential to send you over the side as to get you where you are going. I was reminded of everything from William Styron’s SOPHIE’S CHOICE to Dennis Lehane’s SHUTTER ISLAND, but that is not to say that the book is a pastiche quickly cobbled together. This is a haunting and disturbing work on a number of levels that some will embrace, others will resist, and everyone who reads it will remember --- for better, worse and all points in between.