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A review by learaloveslit
We Spread by Iain Reid
4.0
EDIT: So, the longer I sit with this, the more I appreciate what the story did. I feel like it’s a solid 4 star. Even though it wasn’t horrific for me, I can understand the struggle and fear related to aging and losing your cognitive state. Well done, I really think this was a great exploration of this.
Okay, so I read this entire book in one day, and I want to try and dissect my thoughts here. I may sound incoherent at times, so stay with me. I think I’m landing on a 3.5 star.
Penny is an elderly woman who, after a fall in her apartment, is taken to a cozy assisted living facility, Six Cedars, in the middle of the wilderness to live out the rest of her time. Apparently, Penny and her lifelong partner picked this facility out and pre-arranged for this to happen, but Penny doesn’t remember this. She still feels independent and doesn’t see the need for this change.
However, she cautiously embraces her new surroundings and finds that the owner, Shelley, the nurse aid, Jack and her peers all get along. Until she starts to feel like she’s being lied to. Everyone acts the same. They all eat the same foods. They follow the same schedule. And why does Shelley run a care facility when her interest is in science? She asks questions but no one gives her an answer. Everything seems normal to everyone else, but Penny can’t help thinking something sinister is happening at Six Cedars.
So, my thoughts:
This book tackles the fear of aging beautifully. Penny goes through the entire cycle. She struggles with her memories. She doesn’t trust anyone, including herself. Are things happening as they seem? Or is she losing her grasp on time? How long has she been in this facility? We struggle with how to answer these questions along with Penny. As the reader, we also really don’t know anything and are just as confused as Penny when things don’t add up.
My real issue with the plot is I’m not sure what exactly IS happening at Six Cedars. At first, I thought Shelley was using the residents to experiment on with her organic chemistry / biology knowledge. There are references to fungi growing on the bodies of the residents but we have no idea why by the end. I thought maybe Shelley was either keeping them alive, even past their expiration date, to study them. I also thought that, for a moment, Shelley was draining the life out of the residents to keep herself alive, while also keeping the residents alive so she could ensure her own immortality with a pool of giving (and captive) donors. But, who knows? I’m not sure that’s what happened.
All we know (sort of) by the end, is that Penny got her chance to float. Did she jump from a cliff and kill herself? Did she get lost in a distant memory and die while in a dream-like state? Who knows again. Iain Reid really likes leaving his plot up to interpretation. I enjoyed that in I’m Thinking of Ending Things. But in that book, I felt like I had enough of an answer to determine what happened in the story. With We Spread, I don’t feel like I had enough information about what was actually happening to form any theories or answer any questions.
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably thinking that’s the point. Our main character is clearly losing her memory so her storytelling is probably not able to be trusted. And we are getting information from someone who doesn’t really remember or understand what is happening to her, so she probably can’t give us answers.
I understand the fear of aging or losing your cognition to old age and not being able to trust your own brain. Maybe this fear hasn’t hit me quite yet. I also appreciate the commentary on how we treat the elderly community, especially once they are unable to care for themselves and have to be placed in a care facility and how that can affect the identity of an elderly person.
This book didn’t have the affect I wanted it to have. It’s still a wonderful book and I’m glad I read it! Maybe I would’ve liked it better had we actually learned that something sinister was happening at Six Cedars.
Okay, so I read this entire book in one day, and I want to try and dissect my thoughts here. I may sound incoherent at times, so stay with me. I think I’m landing on a 3.5 star.
Penny is an elderly woman who, after a fall in her apartment, is taken to a cozy assisted living facility, Six Cedars, in the middle of the wilderness to live out the rest of her time. Apparently, Penny and her lifelong partner picked this facility out and pre-arranged for this to happen, but Penny doesn’t remember this. She still feels independent and doesn’t see the need for this change.
However, she cautiously embraces her new surroundings and finds that the owner, Shelley, the nurse aid, Jack and her peers all get along. Until she starts to feel like she’s being lied to. Everyone acts the same. They all eat the same foods. They follow the same schedule. And why does Shelley run a care facility when her interest is in science? She asks questions but no one gives her an answer. Everything seems normal to everyone else, but Penny can’t help thinking something sinister is happening at Six Cedars.
So, my thoughts:
This book tackles the fear of aging beautifully. Penny goes through the entire cycle. She struggles with her memories. She doesn’t trust anyone, including herself. Are things happening as they seem? Or is she losing her grasp on time? How long has she been in this facility? We struggle with how to answer these questions along with Penny. As the reader, we also really don’t know anything and are just as confused as Penny when things don’t add up.
My real issue with the plot is I’m not sure what exactly IS happening at Six Cedars. At first, I thought Shelley was using the residents to experiment on with her organic chemistry / biology knowledge. There are references to fungi growing on the bodies of the residents but we have no idea why by the end. I thought maybe Shelley was either keeping them alive, even past their expiration date, to study them. I also thought that, for a moment, Shelley was draining the life out of the residents to keep herself alive, while also keeping the residents alive so she could ensure her own immortality with a pool of giving (and captive) donors. But, who knows? I’m not sure that’s what happened.
All we know (sort of) by the end, is that Penny got her chance to float. Did she jump from a cliff and kill herself? Did she get lost in a distant memory and die while in a dream-like state? Who knows again. Iain Reid really likes leaving his plot up to interpretation. I enjoyed that in I’m Thinking of Ending Things. But in that book, I felt like I had enough of an answer to determine what happened in the story. With We Spread, I don’t feel like I had enough information about what was actually happening to form any theories or answer any questions.
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably thinking that’s the point. Our main character is clearly losing her memory so her storytelling is probably not able to be trusted. And we are getting information from someone who doesn’t really remember or understand what is happening to her, so she probably can’t give us answers.
I understand the fear of aging or losing your cognition to old age and not being able to trust your own brain. Maybe this fear hasn’t hit me quite yet. I also appreciate the commentary on how we treat the elderly community, especially once they are unable to care for themselves and have to be placed in a care facility and how that can affect the identity of an elderly person.
This book didn’t have the affect I wanted it to have. It’s still a wonderful book and I’m glad I read it! Maybe I would’ve liked it better had we actually learned that something sinister was happening at Six Cedars.