The Cabin at the End of the World

by Paul Tremblay
270 pgs

Wen, who is about to turn eight years old, and her two adoptive fathers, Andre and Eric, are staying at a rented cabin near a lake in New Hampshire. It's a remote cabin, without cell reception and a mile or so from its nearest neighbor. The perfect place for an extended vacation, where they can be alone as a family.

As the book begins, Wen is out capturing grasshoppers and delicately placing them inside a mason jar with a ventilated lid, when a large and friendly man jogs up the dirt road to the cabin and introduces himself as Leonard. Wen knows she's not supposed to talk to strangers, but Leonard is so friendly--even helping her catch a few more grasshoppers for her collection--and since Andrew and Eric are just on the other side of the cabin, Wen quickly relaxes and enjoys talking to her new friend for a few minutes.

But soon, when three more people--two women and another man all carrying strange, home-made weapons and dressed oddly similar to Leonard--appear at the bottom of the road and begin walking up to the cabin, Leonard's behavior changes and he tells Wen he and his friends need to talk to her and her dads about something very important.

Wen and her two dads try to barricade themselves inside the cabin, but Leonard and his friends are soon able to break in. Once inside, in an eerily calm and reasonable manner, they explain to the family of three that the world is going to end very soon, and the only way to stop it, is for Andrew, Eric, and Wen to voluntarily make a gut-wrenching sacrifice.

The Cabin at the End of the World is the type of book that will stick to your brain long after you finish the last page. It's a psychological horror story that keeps you off balance and uncertain of what you think you, and to say much more than that only risks ruining the experience for the next person. So that will have to do. It will not be long before I pick up another of Tremblay's books. I'm guessing it'll be around this coming Halloween.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Shakespeare for Squirrels

by Christopher Moore
271 pgs  (Shakespeare series #3)

A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite Shakespeare play. So, I was excited when I learned that it was to be (or not to be) the next one to receive the "Christopher Moore" treatment. Moore began his homage to the Bard with Fool, in which he introduced Pocket, King Lear's diminutive and bawdy court jester, and unleashed him into the literary world. He followed it up with The Serpent of Venice, in which he sent Pocket to thirteenth-century Venice and had him deal with, among other things, a sea monster prowling the city's canals.

In Shakespeare for Squirrels, Pocket, along with his sidekick Drool and pet monkey Jeff, find themselves in Athens. Pocket hopes to become the Duke's fool, but instead manages to insult the Duke and has to flee for his life into the nearby forest, which is ruled by the fairy king Oberon, who happens to be in need of a new fool himself, since his last one, Robin Goodfellow (aka Puck) was found murdered. Oberon promises Pocket he can become his fool, and receive his protection from the Duke, if he can find out who killed Goodfellow.

The story that follows is a great example of why Christopher Moore is one of my favorite authors. First and foremost, his books are hilarious. They're crude, irreverent, and not the type I'm inclined to recommend to those with sensitive literary palates. But that's kind of why I like them so much. There's something to be said for a book that will regularly shock me into laughing out loud on occasion, and his always do. But Moore doesn't just tell a story in a fantastic way, he also tells fantastic stories, and Shakespeare for Squirrels is up there with his best.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Dark Age

by Pierce Brown
751 pgs  (Red Rising series #5)

Darrow, the former slave who led the revolution against the caste system that had enslaved him along with every other red, is back. And not just in the sense of this new installment in the Pierce Brown's series being released, but back to his merciless and vengeful ways.

It's been ten years since he led the revolution and founded the Republic. But now Darrow has been abandoned by it, even labeled a traitor and deemed an outlaw. Along with what remains of his army, Darrow, the once great Reaper, now finds himself waging a rogue war on the fields of Mercury. But he's no longer interested in the politics that restrained him in Iron Gold, and he's determined to continue what he started decades ago.

His wife Virgina still leads the fragile demokracy, their son Pax has been abducted by their enemies, and Darrow is willing to kill billions, if that's what it takes to get back what he's lost.

This is the fifth book in the series, the longest so far, and Pierce Brown appears to have found yet another gear to move forward in. The action and the pacing are relentless, which is a good thing, because that's where Brown shines the brightest. I'm enjoying the series more now than ever before, but don't know how much more I can take, You'd think this far in, some things would have been resolved by now, but that's not the case. The space opera that Brown is writing keeps getting more and more intriguing and complex.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆