The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens

Chris plans a camping trip with his two daughters, 15 year old Kayla and 9 year old Emma, hoping it will help his family heal. His wife has just died and he has done some things in the past which has strained his relationship with his daughters. 

However, the camping trip is not at all what Chris expected. A strong storm comes in and Emma falls and hurts her leg. In their fight to survive they find a cabin in the woods, which gives them some hope. The woman in the cabin seems a little strange, can they trust her as they stay in her home? But the snow is blocking the roads and there is no phone service so they can’t leave.

What I Loved: The author did an incredible job with character development. You really get drawn in to the characters from the beginning. The author also covered a variety of emotional and deep topics in a thriller/horror story, which I appreciated. He wrote about how everyone experiences trauma and grief differently. A core theme was redemption and how we can forgive others for their mistakes. 

What I Didn’t Love: This novel was extremely heavy. I’ve never read a thriller book that made me cry and ripped my heart apart like this one did. It has a long list of trigger warnings, including torture, abduction, child abuse, etc. I think if this book wasn’t so well written and the story wasn’t so intriguing I would have stopped reading just because the content was so intense. 

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5

This book is for the one who: enjoys horror books, this book was more of a horror than a thriller in my opinion; enjoys a thriller with deeper themes such as forgiveness, grief, breaking family systems, and trauma

If you like this book, you may also like: 

• The Girl in Cabin 13 by A.J. Rivers

• The Final Scene by Steph Nelson