Reviews

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

andipants124's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I’m struggling to review this one. I liked Foe better by this same author. The beginning of this book was really fast paced and he manages to portray a super creepy atmosphere. I wanted to race toward the twist that I guessed was coming. It was well written but reading it was unsettling and uncomfortable. And I won’t spoil it but I found the ending annoying and unsatisfying. 

morganlaurie's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

lizzyhops's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

carlysquires's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

courtenaywrites's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I really don’t know why this was marketed as a thriller? This is more of a literary fiction. Part of the reason it took me so long to get to was that I thought it was some commercial thriller! 

lina_petrina's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

virtualbunniireads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.75

mstammyreads's review against another edition

Boring. 

jross97's review against another edition

5.0

This was one of the most disturbing books I have read but I loved every page! Thought provoking and well written. During reading I felt genuinely uncomfortable and fearful which I rarely experience while reading. 5/5 for me!

drewcy5a's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I’m thinking of ending things is not about her life but about her boyfriend and the life or future that they willed to create together. 

Jk. I lied. Story is not about the girlfriend at all. Every time the girl mentioned that she was thinking of ending things, it was Jake thinking about ending his life

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

OKAY. I was so confused by the last chapter till i read “jake was the troubled one.” Jake is that one song, mastermind, by Taylor Swift.

Or. Was this whole story just a dream of Jake’s? Of what would have happened if Jake had keep talking to the narrator?

i’m still confused about who the guy that kept calling the narrator was. was that jake? or an unrelated person.

To whom can we experience love with if there is no one? 

-------
 

OK so after reading others' interpretations online, I'm here to come back and answer my own questions. 

Is Jake the troubled one? Yes. Jake was the brother that is spoken about.

 

 

Jake is the mastermind? Was the whole story just a dream? The whole purpose of the book is to clue in Jake’s complete figment of imagination. This story was Jake's dream of what could have happened if he had given his number to the girl at the bar. In his fantasy, he slipped his number into her purse, and they contacted each other, and began dating. In reality, he did not give it to her. He never actually saw her again.

 

 

Jake was the janitor all along. Hence the use of “we” it is interpreted that Jake was the janitor, the girlfriend, the workers at the Dairy Queen, his parents. Everyone was a figment of his own imagination.

 

 

Who was the caller? The caller was a way to clue in the reader that the woman speaking, the narrator, was just a figment of Jake's imagination. There were several instances in which the narrator said that the caller knew things about her and her thoughts that no one else but her would know. Since we now know that Jake was imagining being all of these characters, we know why the janitor knew all these things about “her.”

 

 

Besides the fact that we literally get told that he stabbed himself, it can be inferred that the ending is Jake killing himself. The whole book is a what-if scenario in the mind of a depressed suicidal man. Many people discussing the ending of this story hinted at Jake having a multiple personality disorder. This was apparent when he would talk about the caller as if he were the girlfriend and claim that the caller knew things about him that no one else knew.

 

Okay wow. This Book.