I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel Paperback – March 21, 2017

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid is a true psychological thriller but according to reviews I have read, I believe it is remarkable only in the correct format. I listened to the audible.com presentation. Not to take anything away from the author, the narration by Candace Thaxton “makes” the story. There is also a very good secondary narrator, male, who briefly appears but it is an appearance which adds necessary final touches. Although I was completely impressed by the audible presentation, I wanted to read it. On sale at USD 1.99 on Amazon, it has over 400 reviews and they are all over the place. There is almost an even distribution between one-star and five-star reviews. Mathematicians, please don’t criticize, I know the distribution is not quite even; check it out to see what I mean. Download the free reading sample and listen to the free audible sample available on the Amazon website. I give this five Amazon stars but I listened to it, then read it. My rating is based on the listening experience. The unique experience for me is that I agree with all the reviewers of the Kindle version who awarded from one to five stars. This is a story for listening.I wrote a review on the audible.com site:It is impossible to review the content of this book because anything said would be a spoiler. There is an excellent piece of advice given in the story that is a key to understanding everything. It is only one sentence. To reveal that would be a spoiler. So, what CAN be said? This is truly a suspenseful psychological thriller with an almost unpredictable ending. For the few who might anticipate the ending, the motive, the "why," remains unpredictable. Ultimately, reader or listener agreement with the ending will determine if the ending was satisfactory. Many reviewers were critical of the ending. It is a great story by Iain Reid. Candace Thaxton brought this to life with excellent narration and voice quality. There is another narrator, male, last name not clear, who contributed vital information. His voice was also perfect for this story. There were several great technical parts to the audio but, much as with content, to list them would be spoilers. A great five-star performance on the part of all. I will look for more by these artists.I never look at other reviewer comments before I write my own and rarely look afterward. I read a lot about this story after I wrote my review because I was looking for the name of the second narrator. I couldn’t find the name clearly stated but I think credit should also be given to Jeremy (last name unclear). His contribution was valuable and well done.I have mixed opinions about audiobooks. They take up too much of my time. They mess up my daily routine. I am not a multi-tasker and my failure at this is more apparent when the story is good, like this one. It is an approximately five-hour listening experience and that was enough to mess up my schedule. I’ll have to think again before tackling a listening experience from very popular authors that last more than forty hours.A note about the narrator, Candace Thaxton. I found the narration great, appropriate for this story, and a narration that defines the story. There were negative reviews about the narrator and, again, I can agree. This is a narrator that has a style not for everyone. The delivery of this story was in a well-pronounced, clipped, sometimes terse style. I thought it added to the story. Candace Thaxton gave a superior performance.

I bought this book because I was told it would be scary. The back of the book promises: "You will be scared. But you won't know why." Well, I wasn't. This isn't really a horror story so much as it is a psychological thriller. But overall, I did enjoy it, though not consistently the whole way through.The story's a little slow to get started, focusing intently on a conversation between two characters as they drive to a farmhouse for dinner. This conversation covers a lot of philosophical ground, ranging from the genuinely interesting to the "pretentious undergraduate," but always seems to fit within the established framework between the characters. The reader eventually begins to wonder why we're reading these thoughts, though, and where this thing is going. Just as those feelings begin to percolate, the novel takes a turn to the strange. Not a large turn and not even a sudden one, but a slight and gradual shift in which the reader begins to detect that things feel "off" for some inarticulable reason.It's in that ground that the novel spends the majority of its time. The armchair philosophizing never quite goes away, but it does yield some ground to this growing sense of something "just not quite right" about the events being depicted. This place--if not quite the uncanny valley, then at least within the same neighborhood--is fertile ground for a novelist, and Reid exploits it well. I've always had a certain affinity for a book that keeps me reading if for no other reason than to figure out just what in the world is actually happening.Of course, that's not the only reason to keep reading. The characters might not be as fleshed out as they could be in a longer novel, but they do exhibit the fundamental humanity that keeps readers attached to their story. The writing is tight and overall of high quality (though I take issue with the author's liberal use of shifting tenses throughout the book, even if I do understand his purpose in doing so). And, as I've already mentioned, the brief philosophical interludes, though occasionally an annoying distraction from the story proper, more frequently provide a brief pause in the story for the reader to reflect on some interesting ideas.A novel that spends so much of its energy making the reader detect a nearly imperceptible "offness" has to rely on the force of its ending to justify the rest of the story. In this case, the author manages to pull it off, but only just. I did not predict the ending very far in advance, though I did have a feeling early on of the "kind" of ending it was likely to be (and that feeling proved correct in general terms, though the details eluded me). Was it a satisfying ending? Partly. Without spoilers, I will say that it did bring the story to a satisfactory conclusion, but I'll also say that I didn't find the "punch" of the ending nearly as interesting as the "weirdness" of the preceding pages. I can somewhat forgive that, though. The ending is probably the hardest part of a story, and that goes doubly for a story like this.Will this book become enshrined as one of my favorites? No. But it's a good quick read, likely to keep you interested until you finish in just a sitting or two, and worth a few hours of your time and a few dollars of your money. Despite a few flaws, I do recommend it.

I recently ventured into what might be the oddest reading experience I’ve ever had with “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” by Iain Reid. Initially intrigued by its adaptation into a Netflix movie, I dove into the book expecting one thing and ended up with something entirely different.At first glance, the title (and the beginning of the story itself) suggests a straightforward narrative about ending a relationship, and for a significant portion of the book, that’s the journey we’re on. The protagonist’s contemplation about her relationship and the ensuing road trip with her boyfriend kept me hooked. Reid’s writing style, tinged with sarcasm and a unique tone, made the read enjoyable and engaging—until it wasn’t.As the story progressed, “weird” took on a whole new meaning. The narrative took such a bizarre turn that I found myself questioning the reality Reid had constructed, leading to a jarring disconnect from the initial intrigue. This twist, while perhaps intended to shock and awe, left me more horrified than impressed.After finishing the book on a Friday night, curiosity led me to the movie adaptation the following day. If I thought the book was strange, the film amplified that tenfold, adding additional layers of visual weirdness.It pains me to give this book three stars because there’s a part of me that genuinely enjoyed the ride for a good 80% of it. However, it just got too weird for me.If you end up reading “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” just be prepared for a conclusion that might not sit well with everyone. As for me, while I appreciated the journey for the most part, I couldn’t fully embrace the destination…hence the three-star rating.