A review by bookish_morgan
I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

dark mysterious tense fast-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

2.0

I found the first third to half of the book very intriguing. The writing style was very straightforward and fast-paced, which kept my attention and piqued my curiosity as the plot unfolded. The most disturbing part, in my opinion, was relatively early on in the book, when
the narrator recalled a memory from her childhood when she woke up in the middle of the night and saw a tall man standing outside her window, swaying and rubbing his hands together. His head wasn't visible, because he was taller than the window frame, but he waved like he could see her. It was such an effectively unnerving scene; I was thinking about it for the rest of the night! The mysterious calls she continually received to her phone were also spooky and made me so interested to see how they'd be explained/resolved.
As the novel continued, I felt like there was a lot of potential for disturbing and spooky moments, but I mostly felt confused and underwhelmed.

The ending felt convoluted and open-ended, and I didn't understand why a lot of events had taken place throughout the novel. There's a quote towards the end of the book that I felt reflected why this might be: "Most people I tell don't find this story scary. They seem bored, almost disappointed when I get to the end. My story is not like a movie, I'll say. It's not heart-stopping or intense or bloodcurdling or graphic or violent. No jump scares. To me, these qualities aren't usually scary. Something that disorients, that unsettles what's taken for granted, something that disturbs and disrupts reality - that's scary" (pg. 172). I agree that human behavior and the unexplainable eeriness of a seemingly harmless situation can be incredibly scary, because they're so subtle, yet so realistic. However, I felt like this wasn't conveyed well throughout the majority of the book. I would start to feel unsettled about something like
Jake's changes in attitude towards the narrator partway through the book, since they were reminiscent of aspects of a real toxic relationship,
but nothing would really come from it. It felt like the ending was dedicated to pondering philosophical questions and recalling dialogue from earlier in the book, rather than tying up loose ends. Overall, I just felt underwhelmed by the novel.
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