Reviews tagging 'Death'

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

94 reviews

chris_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Stalking

Moderate: Confinement and Death

Minor: Blood

torigroves47's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I can’t believe how fast I got through this book. I read it last year, I think, but I didn’t remember much, and I just rewatched the movie so I thought I should read it again.
It’s a lot, and it’s left me feeling a lot of emotions, but it’s also somehow comforting to read.

To paraphrase Chelsea Rebecca’s take (from the Dead Meat Podcast), I find it surprisingly life-affirming. Even though Jake/the janitor made the choice he did, he still was a nice person and had people who cared about him and noticed he was gone. Everyone has their own rich personal world, and even if you don’t see it, someone cares about you and would notice your absence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal death, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Death of parent

As you can probably tell from the title, this book is about

suicide. There’s a lot of suicidal ideation, Nd the main character ends up committing suicide at the end.

There’s also a story that Jake tells on his family’s farm about a pig that keeps staying in one corner, but when his dad finally moves it,

has maggots all over its stomach. It’s “being eaten from the inside out,” so they have to put it down.

The situation is a metaphor, but it doesn’t make the imagery less upsetting.

autumnwhite's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Sexual content, Self harm, Murder, Cursing, Alcohol, Violence, Suicide, and Mental illness

katofalltrades's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I hated the ending/twist, it made no sense.

It read as explaining everything away with “mental health issues!”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, and Death

mental health issues are the culprit

tangerines_35's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Suicide

sargasso_c's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is the only novel ever that I have finished, and then reread from page one. Definitely worth the read and I look forward to reading more works by this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Death of parent, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

bookgirlsummer's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Animal death, and Death

aparker89's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

What on earth? That was a twist I wasn't expecting! So we'll written. So much anticipation- the ending was perfect!
This is one of those stories that seems a little conflated UNTIL the VERY END! And the end is SO worth it! The perfect amount of realistic horror, terror, fear and nothing too out of the ordinary. Unsettling to say the least! Fantastic read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, Cursing, and Death

Minor: Torture, Suicide, and Self harm

readwithsophsx's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, and Death

angrynerd's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

Labeled as a novel, I would put this work more in the ‘novella’ category. The plot compels readers to tackle it quickly and an avid reader with a stretch of time on their hands could finish this in a sitting or two. However, if it weren’t for it’s shorter length I may have abandoned it before the end. The writing style is very staccato and  at the start I was unsure if I was being led by an unreliable narrator or if the author didn’t properly narrate from woman's perspective. The answer was yes to both and in the end it actually worked, but I wasn’t left with the feeling it was done purposefully. Women are not a monolith, but it never felt natural. The author does well constantly supplying a feeling of unease. The second to last chapter contains four pages of a single question asked over and over. However, there are several plot devices, at least one of which I considered important, that are just never explained. I thought reaching the end would give me the ‘Aha!’ that explained the things I was annoyed about or at the very least make them less annoying, but in the end it just wasn’t what the reviews promised. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts