Thursday, March 2, 2017

Iain Reid, I'm Thinking of Ending Things ****

I'm Thinking of Ending Things is a deliciously creepy book. Reid's prose is flat but he sure knows how to set an uncomfortable scene. 

An unnamed woman is driving through the countryside with her boyfriend, going to meet his parents. She is thinking of ending things, and her thought processes are off-kilter enough that you have to wonder what things she is thinking of ending. Should she tell Jake about the Caller who keeps leaving her cryptic phone messages that Caller ID says are from her own phone? I worried about poor Jake and what might happen to him.

Once they get to Jake's parents house, though, you have to start worrying for the girlfriend. Jake shows her dead lambs in the barn, the parents act strangely, as does Jake, and she finds primitive paintings in the dank basement. The story started out a little creepy, but kept upping the ante.

Inevitably, though, the resolution is not as satisfying as the journey.

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