Hello from the future.

I only read this because of the upcoming movie. I’m not a horror reader/watcher – I think I only read a few shorter horror works in the past.

I agree with Dan’s opinions.
When I read the first chapter I had to take a break because I was afraid for the little girl – the ratcheting of tension was excellent. Beyond that, nothing. I never felt the group were threatening, because all of them said they don’t want to harm the family, and consistently kept to their word. All of the pain inflicted on the family came from their own (perhaps understandable) actions.

I also never felt that the apocalypse was ambiguous – I didn’t believe it one bit. A main character had to get a concussion in order to buy their argument.

With these two “scary” things out of the way, there were no conflict or moral dilemmas for the characters and reader to grapple with. I didn’t have much will to continue reading. The group never changed their argument, and kept doing the same thing – killing each other. (I think that was meant to stave off the apocalypse bit by bit while the family decides…?)

I still wonder if I might be missing something, since all of the author’s other horror author friends seem to have genuinely loved it. I do want to try other works by him (and other horror novels).

One thing I loved, and perhaps is an extra in my edition, is annotations by the author. They include a sketches for how the initial idea, and points out some easter eggs that I missed (the yellow table lamp as harbinger of death, the first sentence echoing Lord of the Flies’).

After reading the book, but before listening to your review, I watched the trailer. I didn’t think the movie can improve on the book enough to make me “want” to see it (I probably will anyway), but it does show one thing you asked for – it shows the family interacting with each other in the car trip. I worry about a trademark Shyamalan twist, and upset that the marketing materials don’t mention the book or author.