Iain Reid

Jake and his girlfriend are on a drive to visit his parents at their remote farm. After dinner at the family home, things begin to get worryingly strange. And when he leaves her stranded in a snowstorm at an abandoned high school later that night, what follows is a chilling exploration of psychological frailty and the limitations of reality. Iain Reid's intense, suspenseful debut novel will have readers' nerves jangling. A series of tiny clues sprinkled through the relentlessly paced narrative culminate in a haunting twist on the final page. Reminiscent of Michael Faber's Under the Skin, Stephen King's Misery and the novels of José Saramago, I'm Thinking of Ending Things is an astonishing and highly original literary thriller that grabs you from the start—and never lets go.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things

plantdad

Interaction, connection, is compulsory. It's something we all need. Solitude won't sustain itself forever, until it does.

Maybe that's how we know when a relationship is real. When someone else previously unconnected to us knows us in a way never thought or believed possible.

Robyn Claridge

Even considering the data that shows the majority of marriages don’t last, people still think marriage is the normal human state. Most people want to get married. Is there anything else that people do in such large numbers, with such a terrible success rate?

He was reading a magazine. There was a faint white film or residue under his bottom lip, concentrated in the corners of his mouth where the top and bottom lips meet. This happened most mornings, this white lip film. After he showered, it was usually gone.

A Novel

phuong linh

When we choose to bring the end closer, we create a new beginning.

What holds this together? What gives life significance? What gives it shape and depth? In the end it comes for us all. So why do we wait for it instead of making it happen? What am I waiting for?

Interaction, connection, is compulsory. It’s something we all need. Solitude won’t sustain itself forever, until it does. We can never be the best kisser alone.

What do we do when we’re always alone? When there’s no one else, ever? What does life mean then? Does it mean anything? What is a day then? A week? A year? A lifetime? What is a lifetime? It all means something else.

People talk about the ability to endure. To endure anything and everything, to keep going, to be strong. But you can do that only if you’re not alone. That’s always the infrastructure life’s built on. A closeness with others. Alone it all becomes a struggle of mere endurance.

The custodian’s room is ours. It’s where we’re meant to be. In the end, we can’t deny who we are, who we were, where we’ve been. Who we want to be doesn’t matter when there’s no way to get there.

The most important things are perpetually overlooked. Until something like this. Then they are impossible to ignore. What does that say?

I think there’s a perception that fear and terror and dread are fleeting. That they hit hard and fast when they do, but they don’t last. It’s not true. They don’t fade unless they’re replaced by some other feeling. Deep fear will stay and spread if it can. You can’t outrun or outsmart or subdue it. Untreated, it will only fester. Fear is a rash.

We can’t and don’t know what others are thinking. We can’t and don’t know what motivations people have for doing the things they do. Ever. Not entirely. This was my terrifying, youthful epiphany. We just never really know anyone. I don’t. Neither do you.

Something that disorients, that unsettles what’s taken for granted, something that disturbs and disrupts reality—that’s scary.

We can never really know someone else’s thoughts. And it’s thoughts that count. Thought is reality. Actions can be faked.

“To exist means nothing other than we despair . . . for we don’t exist, we get existed.”

We don’t just understand or recognize significance and validity through experience. We accept, reject, and discern through symbols. These are as important to our understanding of life, our understanding of existence and what has value, what’s worthwhile, as math and science.

What if suffering doesn’t end with death? How can we know? What if it doesn’t get better? What if death isn’t an escape? What if the maggots continue to feed and feed and feed and continue to be felt? This possibility scares me.

“And you also know things are real when they can be lost.”

I think that’s it. Maybe that’s how we know when a relationship is real. When someone else previously unconnected to us knows us in a way we never thought or believed possible.

“It seems like more people, if not depressed, are unhappy these days. Would you agree?” “I’m not sure I’d say that. It does seem like there’s more opportunity to reflect on sadness and feelings of inadequacy, and also a pressure to be happy all the time. Which is impossible.”

How much of you can fall off before something important is lost?

Getting to know someone is like putting a never-ending puzzle together. We fit the smallest pieces first and we get to know ourselves better in the process.

Are small, critical actions enough? Small gestures make us feel good—about ourselves, about others. Small things connect us. They feel like everything. A lot depends on them. It’s not unlike religion and God. We believe in certain constructs that help us understand life. Not only to understand it, but as a means of providing comfort. The idea that we are better off with one person for the rest of our lives is not an innate truth of existence. It’s a belief we want to be true.

I can’t say this to Jake and I don’t, but maybe it’s better to be alone. Why abandon the routine we each master? Why give up the opportunity for many diverse relationships in exchange for one? There’s plenty of good with coupling up, I get it, but is it better? When single, I tend to focus on how much the company of someone would improve my life, increase my happiness. But does it?

Nah because wtf was this. I truthfully have ZERO clue how this book ended. I’ve never been so confused. The entire time you get it but then the end leaves you with so many questions. It was still extremely well written 

Lauren Dale

one of my favourite books — sparked my love for mild psychological thrillers and plot twists 

the ending had me pondering for days ... don't watch the movie, it's incomparable

one of my favourite books — sparked my love for mild psychological thrillers and plot twists 

the ending had me pondering for days ... don't watch the movie, it's incomparable

Approaching a book after first enjoying a film adaptation is always risky...but thankfully, I enjoyed them both. They’re equally haunting, contemplative, and unsettling in their own ways.

Emiley Jones

Approaching a book after first enjoying a film adaptation is always risky...but thankfully, I enjoyed them both. They’re equally haunting, contemplative, and unsettling in their own ways.

I recommend the audiobook 🎧 

ohseababy

i came away from this book with the knowledge of what a "bait-and-switch" is.

Ryan Mateyk

POPSUGAR 2020: Past prompt (a book from 2016)

WOW.

danakim

Shaq H

3.5 stars (generous)
This took everything in me to finish, but the payoff was sort of worth it. Half-expected it to be more terrifying than bleak, but I guess the horror existed in the mundane, introspective dialogue that polluted the first half of the book. Regardless, I appreciate the concept and its novelty, and I have to admit, the twist made my jaw hammer through the ground. I'm quite disappointed that I didn't connect with this book the way I wanted to, it's just very difficult to forgive tedious reading in a novella like this, at least to me.

edit: turns out I cant stand postmodernist texts LOL

Cori

Emily Lucie

You will be scared. But you won t know why In this deeply suspenseful and irresistibly unnerving debut novel, a man and his girlfriend are on their way to a secluded farm. What follows is a twisted unraveling and an unforgettable ending that will haunt you long after the last page is turned. Jake and a woman known only as The Girlfriend are taking a long drive to meet his parents at their secluded farm. But when Jake takes a sudden detour, leaving The Girlfriend stranded at a deserted high school, the story transforms into a twisted combination of the darkest unease, psychological frailty, and a look into the limitations of solitude. With remarkable, masterful skill, Iain Reid builds a plot that steadily crescendos into a harrowing ending one that will have you at the edge of your seats and one that you will never see coming. 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 will pull you in from the very first page and will never let you go.

I'm thinking of ending things

A. D. Knapp

What a fun little mobius strip of a novel. Even before Reid starts to turn up the uncanny dial at Jake's parents house, you always feel a little off kilter like one of those gravity illusion tourist attractions in the American South. Looking forward to reading something else by this author.

Sarah Sammis

I swear I've read this story before — not this particular one but a short story that was SO VERY SIMILAR. And it's bugging me. It's right there on the tip of my tongue and I just can't quite put my finger on it.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2017/comm...

Where to start with this mind-fuck of a book?

The premise of the book is about Jake, who takes his girlfriend to meet his parents at their rural farm. Only his girlfriend is thinking about ending their relationship.

From start to finish, the book was incredible. But the book’s ending is where my highest praise comes for. My jaw was wide open when I finished it.

I can already tell this book is going to be running laps around my brain for months. The writing is incredible. If you like really descriptive, observational writing, this will be right up your street.

It made me feel uncomfortable in ways I didn’t know existed whilst reading. It made my skin CRAWL and my stomach drop in places, but my god this was a good read. It’s creepy, scary and completely unnerving - but if you can stick through it, the final few pages of the book are mind blowing!

Where to start with this mind-fuck of a book?

The premise of the book is about Jake, who takes his girlfriend to meet his parents at their rural farm. Only his girlfriend is thinking about ending their relationship.

From start to finish, the book was incredible. But the book’s ending is where my highest praise comes for. My jaw was wide open when I finished it.

I can already tell this book is going to be running laps around my brain for months. The writing is incredible. If you like really descriptive, observational writing, this will be right up your street.

It made me feel uncomfortable in ways I didn’t know existed whilst reading. It made my skin CRAWL and my stomach drop in places, but my god this was a good read. It’s creepy, scary and completely unnerving - but if you can stick through it, the final few pages of the book are mind blowing!



Michaela Hudson

I thought I'd calculated all the possibilities.... but boy was I bad at maths

Isabella 

3.5 

Listening to the audiobook while reading made this book so good. I think if I only read it alone, I wouldn't be too impressed. The audiobook gave it a more eerie feeling, and the book gave a thrilling experience. There's this part at the latter part of the story that creeped me out so much (mainly because of how it was made in the audiobook, i don't think i'll get creeped out if I was only reading). I had to stop reading for a while because I was genuinely terrified (I was reading this at around 2am, probably not a good idea). However, I am extremely disappointed with how it ended. There was so much potential for this novel, but it all crumbled down. This could have gotten an instant 5 star if only the ending was different. It genuinely had me sighing in disbelief. I don't necessarily think it's a bad ending, it definitely has a twist in it. It was really predictable and common, so I was really hoping for a different ending. The whole story was very bizarre, and the uneasy tension was high. I loved it, but the ending just didn't blow my mind like I hoped it would (considering all the build up).

Louise Briley 

I have to read this again twice more and then once backward to understand. Gripping.

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.

Ashley Stock

However you think this book is going to end, that's definitely /not/ it. 

And yet it makes absolute sense by the time you're done reading it; I'm super excited to reread this somewhere down the line with context behind everything.

esme villanueva

there were so many possibilities for this story, like i honestly believed it was gonna be good… and they chose that ending ???

chloe

i've been seeing reviews saying it's better on the second read, and without reading it a second time i can already see why that would be the case HOWEVER i don't want to reread a book that i just finished so. three stars for now because the suspense and anxiety were so palpable for me even when i wasn't entirely sure what was going on which was very neat!!!

riss

Ryan 

i am genuinely perplexed. i have never been this confused on an ending in my entire life. i enjoyed the writing style, the characters' internal thoughts and didactic conversations that blends well with their nature and personalities, but THE ENDING SO MAKING ME HURT MY BRAIN

I was a little hesitant to read this book because it was categorized as a horror, but I read it anyways and it’s my first 5 star book of 2024 :’) 

There were no scares throughout the book but it still manages to feel unnerving, mind-bending and just overall so hauntingly beautiful. 

I was a little hesitant to read this book because it was categorized as a horror, but I read it anyways and it’s my first 5 star book of 2024 :’) 

There were no scares throughout the book but it still manages to feel unnerving, mind-bending and just overall so hauntingly beautiful. 

azliana aziz

WHAT. A. RIDE

though by the end of it all i was disturbed and just... sad.

part commentary on human conditions part mindfuck thriller. 



also news came out that charlie kaufman/netflix will adapt this and I AM GAME.

Emma

what the fuck :? never reading psych horror/thriller again. but i enjoyed their conversations :) 

(view spoiler)[ minus points for walking into the creepy basement at your boyfriend's creepy parents' creepy home (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

mic shulman

easy to read in a few hours. feels like a creepypasta. it moves! really feels more like a 3.5 star book but jeff bezos personally decided i don't deserve half stars. i think its an illustration of how even the deepest of introverts long to be known by at least one other person to confirm the things they think they know about themselves. one person can't be the world's best kisser u know

I'm Thinking of Ending Things

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