I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I absolutely adore this book, yet don’t own a personal copy of it. Which is quite inconvenient since I think about it often and reference it often and pretty much compare any even similarly themed book to it often. It was referenced by Gillian Flynn in some interview that God only knows how I ended up stumbling upon, when she was asked what recent novel she couldn’t stop thinking about (or something to that point). I must have been coming off of a few disappointing purchases, so I got this one at the library to be safe. My mistake. This is one I need to own and read multiple times a year – which is totally doable since it’s a short and sweet little thing. UPDATE: I DO own this book now, and I HAVE read it a few times, and yes, it is STILL that good.

The storyline, while probably not for everyone and likely to leave many people annoyed and/or confused, blew me away. The blurb starts by stating that you will be scared, but you won’t know why. I have never read a more accurate description of the way I would feel when reading. I’ve been swept up in a setting or emotion and there are times when I can really “hear” a character’s voice, but this might have been the first time I was truly overcome with pure, unadulterated dread when reading. And, what do ya know, I couldn’t tell you precisely why. Something was just “off” or “wrong” enough throughout the whole novel that it made me question and fear everything that was happening. Every unnerving scene served a purpose and was done to perfection.

I was able to piece together what was going on (or not going on…) midway through, but that was not in any way a determent to the overall story. Who cares when something is this good? Would you be disappointed if you went to your favorite restaurant and assumed that the steak you ordered was going to be amazing? Nope. You only long for its arrival at your table that much more and are pleased when it's as fantastic as you expected. Which is exactly what happened. The perfectly cooked steak = ending of this book, by the way………….so yea. Just go eat it.



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