Reviews

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

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saphire_22's review against another edition

2.0

Jake and his unnamed girlfriend (I did not realise she was nameless before writing this review lol) of a few months are on a road trip to meet Jake's parents.With the girlfriend as the narrator,we get to experience everything through her eyes.

Spoiler

The girlfriend encounters several creepy situations throughout the story like a creepy caller, a carcass of a maggot-ridden pig in the family farmhouse of Jake's parents and weird paintings.Even Jake's parents were very cryptic. We also get to know about the girlfriend's encounters with creepy people like a tall man peering at her younger self through her window and a lady with bad intentions toward her mother and her. On the drive back, they stop at a DQ,order lemonades and then head back to the car. Then
Jake decides to go to a school building nearby to discard the empty cups. After doing so,he,for some reason starts making out with his girlfriend but stops after a while when he sees someone peering at them through the window of the school building. Feeling very infuriated due to the unwanted intrusion,he decides to confront the person in the school building despite his girlfriend's protests. Jake's girlfriend waits for some time in the car but gets antsy when Jake doesn't come back. She decides to go to look for Jake in the school building. There she encounters several creepy situations and goes through some sort of existential crisis. She's always wanted to end her relationship with Jake despite liking him as she is very conflicted about being in a relationship versus being alone. She regrets not ending things sooner. Then towards the end something crazy happens and we realise that everything that has happened so far is just a story in Jake's diary,he himself wrote. He did meet a pretty girl years ago but could not bring himself to offer his number to her. He just wonders what would have happened if they did end up together. Finally he kills himself.

Reason for the low rating:
I did not like the weirdly short sentences which ended abruptly.
Also,while reading the story I did feel unsettled and creeped out. But after completing the book, it felt that there were so many things and scenarios we were exposed to that really didn't have anything to do with the ending. They were there just for the sake of existing. The ending was unsatisfactory and did not meet my expectations which were very high due to the intense buildup to the ending. After reading the ending, everything which happened earlier in the story felt inconsequential.The 'deep conversations' between the main characters felt like they went on forever. I tried to make sense of them but maybe I'm not smart enough for them. Basically this story was about Jake getting an existential crisis which I really tried to understand but ended up not really caring about it. Also,Jake was starting to get on my nerves

Spoiler

even in the story he himself wrote lol

. He was just so controlling towards his girlfriend. Many decisions which the characters made in the story were just...dumb. So it's safe to say that this book didn't blow my mind like I expected it would. :(

lisayoung's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

lauraashleyparra's review against another edition

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5.0

I actually really liked this one!! I still need to watch a YouTube video for further explanation on the ending, but overall it was foreboding, unsettling, twisted, & gave me anxiety

readingwithchelseyb's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

4.0

Content Warnings

samsmith_swc's review

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mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I’m still not sure if I’m even right about what happened at the end of this book.

I knew there was going to be a twist. But the twist was not what I was expecting.

I don’t really know if I liked it or not 😵‍💫

kuripak's review against another edition

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3.0

no.

that is my initial review of this book. Now that im watching the Netflix adaptation, the book is supremely better. Watching it though helps with understanding the point Reid was trying to make with this whole “Surreal Thriller”. I went into reading this pretty blind. I saw it on netflx and thought of watching it multiple times. Im glad I read the book first as the movie skips over a lot of concepts I believe were crucial to understanding the story.

I was really invested throughout the book until the end when things started to get weird. Hell, the book literally jumpscared me (the part thats just 5 pages of the same sentence over and over again was just so unexpected, it freaked me out.). The ending didnt really feel satisfying at all and didnt make much sense. Its definitely something that will pick at your brain.

The book is made to be reread after youve finished it. I will not be doing this. Maybe sometime in the future but not any time soon.