Madison Meeks – Media Director

mvm7037@psu.edu

Photo Credit: Amazon

 The Cabin, written by New York Times Bestselling Author Natasha Preston, follows the main character, Mackenzie, and her classmates as they try to figure out who killed two of their classmates at the cabin. 

The book begins with seven high school graduates who are taking a trip to a secluded cabin in the woods. The main character, Mackenzie, is skeptical about going to the cabin since the cabin is owned by the family of her best friend Courtney’s boyfriend, Josh. Mackenzie, who hates Josh from a previous incident, which is not explained till later, decides to go because she assumes that everything will be fine. An assumption that she is wrong about. The rest of her friends, Kyle, Aaron, and Megan, do not like Josh either but also still decide to go. When driving to the cabin, it is revealed that Josh’s older brother Blake is also tagging along to the cabin. Throughout the night at the cabin, it seems that everything is going fine, and the group parties at the cabin. The morning after the party at the cabin, they find that two members of the group have been brutally murdered in the kitchen.

Following the discovery of the murder, the police show up at the cabin and question the rest of the group about what they knew. They are then returned to their hometown for more questioning. Mackenzie assumes that the killing is over and is insistent that someone must have come into the cabin, which is another assumption that she is wrong about. Mackenzie and her friends go about their lives while the detectives are trying to figure out who killed the two members of the group. Throughout the story, Mackenzie starts to fall in love with Blake, Josh’s older brother. The rest of the group seems convinced that Blake was the one who killed their two classmates at the cabin. 

 After her friends reveal that they think that Blake did the crime, Mackenzie teams up with Blake to find out who had killed her friends. Mackenzie and Blake believe that they can crack the case before the detectives can. The two of them act like detectives to figure out if any of Mackenzie’s friends could have been the killer and the motive of why the killer had done it. Throughout the novel, each person is shown to have different reasons to have committed the crime. Throughout the book, the reason behind why Mackenzie and the rest of her friends hated Josh is explained. The flashbacks into the reason why Josh was hated by the group is shocking and twisted. In the end, the reveal of who the killer was very predictable, but the ending of the book was shocking and an ending that no one could predict.

The Cabin by Natasha Preston is recommended for anyone who likes true crime, mystery, twists and turns, and shocking endings.