I'm Thinking of Ending Things.
- Atticus
- Jan 31, 2019
- 3 min read
Desc. from Goodreads:
"You will be scared. But you won’t know why…
I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always.
Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.”
And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here.
In this deeply suspenseful and irresistibly unnerving debut novel, a man and his girlfriend are on their way to a secluded farm. When the two take an unexpected detour, she is left stranded in a deserted high school, wondering if there is any escape at all. What follows is a twisted unraveling that will haunt you long after the last page is turned.
In this smart, suspenseful, and intense literary thriller, debut novelist Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic Under the Skin, and Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is an edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping, and atmospheric, this novel pulls you in from the very first page…and never lets you go."
This book was the weirdest roller coaster I have ever gotten in line for. When I picked it up based on title alone, I made the assumption that it was about suicide. The description, above, caught my attention. "Twisted unraveling" is right, because what happened is still stuck in my mind.
Let me say that I have not been actually scared of a book since I read "The Haunting of Hill House" as a teenager. Sure, some things would get me here or there, but once this book got going I found myself with literal chills up my spine.
Of course, none of that happened until 84 pages in. There were some unnerving things, but nothing much else...at all. The story was told in switching scenes - the protag and her boyfriend, Jake, in the car to visit his parents, and scenes from their relationship up until then. It didn't take long for me to tire of Jake's pretentious pseudo-intellectual babble and the idea that I got from both characters that they ~*~*~weren't LIKE everybody else!!!1!!~*~*~ and that they held that close to their hearts.
As I read on, I realized that the protag - who is being stalked by a mysterious man known just as the Caller, leaving cryptic voicemails in the middle of the night -might have a mental health disorder of some kind. I'm no psychologist or mental health worker, by any means, but she definitely has a different way of thinking about things and processing her own thoughts or the actions of others that doesn't quite seem neurotypical. That was one of the only things that kept me going with this book - her interesting way of thinking about things.
That and wondering exactly when the book was going to turn into what I expected from the description. When this book finally got to the top of the roller coaster, it dropped right into a 90 degree angle leading into a Willy Wonka-style cave. Every misgiving I had about it was blasted away in a canon ball of off-putting parents, crawling skin, and a moment so scary that despite reading it in the middle of the day, surrounded by people, I had to put the book down.
That being said, I thought that the ending didn't provide enough...umph. I can totally see why it ended the way it did, but for me, personally, it wasn't satisfying. However, it's been a full night since I read it and the book had me so unnerved in the morning that I locked my bathroom door when I showered, which I never do. I've also ordered another book by the same author, so "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" definitely impacted this reader.
I just wish I could figure out how. (Or anything. So many tantalizing questions.)
All in all, it was worth the read and made me think. 3.5 out of five pickles!
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