Book Review: The Cabin by Natasha Preston

The Cabin

By Natasha Preston

Genres: Thriller, Mystery,  Suspense, Young Adult

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To paraphrase a summary on Goodreads, only one person is guilty of murder, but none of them are innocent.

The Cabin is about five teenagers who get together for a weekend trip sometime following the death of two of the group’s closest friends in an automobile accident in which they were all involved. Thanks to the synopsis on the back of the book, it’s no secret that the meat of this story starts when two of the five at the cabin turn up dead. The police believe one of them is the killer and let the group know from the start that it’s only a matter of which one.

Unable to believe the killer can possibly be anyone she knows and desperate to clear their names, the plot unfolds in the first-person point of view of Makenzie as she tries to figure out who killed her friends. Along the way, she learns she does not know her friends as well as she thought she did. Every one of them, including herself, has secrets that could very well have been a motive for murder. She eventually has to accept that one of them is indeed a murderer. It is a book that keeps you guessing until the end.

My Rating: 

The Cabin reads like more of a mystery than a suspense or thriller. The strongest thing about the plot is that, as the story progresses, it reveals that each person at the cabin had a motive to kill Courtney or Josh. However, there isn't much action to add more suspense to the mystery. Instead, there is a detective on the case who seems more concerned with playing cat-and-mouse with the suspects while revealing as little as possible about his findings. As a result, Makenzie decides to enlist the help of Blake to do her own investigation. She learns various secrets from each of her friends, but still, there is little action because, thinking she is being a good friend, Makenzie is reluctant to share the potentially incriminating information with the detective about her friends.

There is also an insta-romance between Makenzie and Blake that is a distraction from the focus of the book. Blake is the brother of Josh, who is a person no one but Courtney likes. In addition, Blake is not a part of the circle of friends who went to the cabin. He was a last-minute addition, claiming he decided to come along to spend more time with his brother. At first, it seems most likely that Blake is the murderer, given that he is an outsider and the rest of the group grew up knowing one another fairly well. The romance between Makenzie and Blake reveals early on that he also has a motive to kill his brother, but other than that, it does not do a lot to move the mystery forward. In fact, it somewhat weakens the plot, thanks to the distraction from the action it provides.

In the end, the detective was of no use, and neither was Makenzie’s investigation. There’s a bit of a plot twist just before a major plot twist at the conclusion. That is where most of the action occurs. It’s a shame since there was ample opportunity to insert more action and to create more suspense in the main part of the story. Even the plot twist was not as much of a surprise as it could have been. As far as murder mysteries go, it’s a little cliché, but not enough that it is abundantly obvious who the killer is all along.

Though it is not the best book I have ever read, and I would not say that I love it, I would recommend the book for anyone looking for a decent book to relax with. It is geared toward young adults. Perhaps they would be more engrossed in the plotline as it is, distraction and all.

One last word of advice: if you do not like cliffhanger endings, do not read this book.

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