The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens – BLOG TOUR

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

AN UNPUTDOWNABLE PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER WITH A STUNNING FINAL TWIST.

They find a cabin in the woods and think they're finally safe. But little do they know, the nightmare is just beginning.

This camping trip is Chris's last chance to keep his family together. His wife is gone and, after what he did, his daughters aren't speaking to him. But things go wrong as soon as they get to the mountains.

Kayla is still so pissed at him, and Emma runs off into the woods. By the time they find her, she's broken her leg and there's a bad storm rolling in. They need shelter, fast.

They think they've found sanctuary when they come across an old farmstead. The woman inside welcomes them in out of the howling blizzard and straps up Emma's leg.

But the phone lines are down. The roads are blocked. And the woman in the cabin is not what she seems . . .

Will Chris and his daughters survive the night?

Set in the stunning wilderness of the Colorado Flat Tops, this addictive thriller packed with shocking twists will make you question everything you think you know about family.

The Girls in the Cabin is every parent’s worst fear. Cancel everything because this is one of the hard hitters of the summer. The definition of a page turner.

After a chilling opening, meeting Clara Carver was like a double-edged sword. You knew there was something quite off about her, but you couldn’t help but feel the darkest recesses of her pain. The undercurrent was dark and dangerous, and I felt queasy with the implications. That feeling never once left me and I walked straight in, blind to the repercussions, dazed when they hit me like a bullet ricocheting past me at all angles.

The Girls in the Cabin was heavily addictive. A cabin is supposed to be a place of sanctuary, a place away from the dangers of the forest. So, when Chris and his two daughters finally find a place to rest after his youngest daughter, Emma breaks her leg, they’re all terrified to discover that the cabin is nothing more than a gateway to hell.

When I say that I felt like I was under water for the majority of this novel, take me at my word. I thought I knew where I was headed, until it became impossible to see, and just when I thought I had enough oxygen to last, my breath was stolen from me with the impossible twists and turns that Caleb Stephens laid.

Chris has a difficult relationship with his eldest daughter, Kayla. After discovering him quite literally with his trousers down and cheating on their mother with some college graduate, she was hair splittingly mad. She wanted him to fess up. She wanted him to look their mother in the eye and admit what he’d done. He did no such thing, and then their mother got terribly sick, cancer. It was the worst time in all their lives and whilst their mother was adamant, she was going to be beat it, the cancer ultimately was stronger. The grief and the resentment was too much, and Chris and Kayla’s relationship fell to pieces.

Chris had the brilliant idea to go on a hike that their mother had always wanted to take them on. He would do anything to repair their relationship and hopefully get Emma talking again (she’s been nonverbal since their mothers passing.) This is a great idea and all until a freakish early snowstorm hits, Emma breaks her leg and they have nowhere to shelter that is until he finds the cabin.

The plot knocked me for six. I only just felt like I was able to tread water. The events that took place in the cabin were quite frankly jaw dropping. I started this book quite late into the night and I found myself looking for a set of matchsticks so that I could keep my eyes open longer when sleep did eventually take me. I wasn’t sure who I should be trusting. Could I trust the viewpoint of any of them, and did I want to? I was completely in the dark and it all made for a crescendo of an ending.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Caleb Stephens is a dark fiction author writing from somewhere deep in the
Colorado mountains. His short stories have appeared in multiple publications and
podcasts, including The NoSleep Podcast, Chilling Tales for Dark Nights,
MetaStellar, The Dread Machine, Tales to Terrify, and more. His dark fiction
collection If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror is available through Salt Heart
Press and includes the short story “The Wallpaper Man”, which was adapted to film
by Falconer Film & Media.
You can join his mailing list (and receive a free story!) and learn more at
www.calebstephensauthor.com.

Caleb Stephens