Book Review: The Cabin in the Woods

Book: The Cabin in the Woods Novelization by Tim Lebbon

Edition: Paperback

Description:

YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE STORY

Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods.
Bad things happen.
If you think you know the story, think again.




Rating: 4 stars

Review:

The Cabin in the Woods novelization follows as five college friends: Dana, Jules, Curt, Holden and Marty were taking a weekend trip to stay in the cabin of Curt's cousin. While they were excited for a weekend to relax and unwind, they were unaware an outside force or shadowy organization was ensuring this would be a very terrifying weekend.

From the time the group arrived at a strange and creepy old gas station looking for directions to the moment they arrived at the cabin, nothing felt right and Marty was the only one who seemed to pick up on the strangeness. Meanwhile, Dana, Jules, Curt and Holden's personalities started to change and they were exhibiting behavior that was so unusual for them. Not to mention the cabin they were staying in was really creepy especially the basement, it was filled with a lot of weird things. They didn't realize that the shadowy organization was eagerly waiting to see what items the group might pick because unfortunately it would determine how they would die.

Everything went from strange to absolutely terrifying when they were attacked by bloodthirsty zombies. No matter how they tried to escape, nothing seemed to work and that was due to the shadowy organization making sure that one way or another they would soon meet their fate. What I like about this story is that things were not working out like the shadowy organization intended. It almost seemed like there was something working against them.

As interesting as The Cabin in the Woods novelization is, the movie is still the better of the two. That's mainly because the author included some unappealing points of view for some of the characters giving a lot insight that I could have done without. And where the movie had a good campy balance of humor and horror, I feel like the author really leaned into the horror aspect. The author did a good job writing the horror and action scenes but you could really tell that the humor was missing or it missed the mark. I thought the writing was good even though at times the author was switching between American English and British/UK English with some of the words. This was a good and fast paced read, I just wish more of the humor was present throughout the story.