A review by torigroves47
I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

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: Animal death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

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.