[Review] I'm Thinking of Ending Things

[alaterdate]

I didn't set out to read I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid today. In fact, I had forgotten the library loaned it to me digitally until I checked my account while logging into their wifi. I spent all 4 hours I was there, on my laptop reading it. It sucked me in and the page count was pretty small at around 146 pages so I couldn't stop myself from finishing it in one sitting. Btw it's another rec from delphi's End of Year: Ten Best Reads of 2019! That's 2 for 2 of the ones I was interested in!

I recommend not reading any blurb about it because they're kind of misleading. It hypes up an aspect that comes way late in the book and therefore will tarnish your reading with false expectations. Basically, it's about a woman who is thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend, but she still goes on a trip with him to have dinner at his parent's house before she decides.

This is one of those books that you read and then desperately need other people to read so that you can discuss it in depth. There's just so much packed into these pages considering how short the book is. Going into this I didn't know anything about it, but the title and a small snippet of text I saw in Delphi's post. I thought it was lit fic lmao! It kind of starts out that way too, tame enough that my brain was picking out writing craft associated things. Then it started sounding a bit preachy about the philosophical topics, but they were interesting so I continued. Then shit got odd and I finally realized it wasn't lit fic. This was horror wasn't it? Something disturbing under the veneer of normalcy. And it builds bit by bit without you even realizing what's happening, but you know something is happening. Then when you've gotten to the last page, every little divot becomes pronounced. You saw it coming, but you ignored it. You doubted it. Just like she ignored that she already knew how her relationship was going to end and went on that trip anyway. And I think that's all I need to say.

Comments

[delphi]

I'm so glad you read it and that you found it an interesting experience! I had no idea I'd given the impression it was lit fic, but on reflection, I was likewise trying to avoid spoilers and so didn't say much about it at all.

I went on a similar journey of peering at the technical elements, wondering how successful some of the PoV and structural choices really were, then raising a tolerant eyebrow at the philosophical digressions, and then finally deciding that no, I wasn't imagining things, something strange was going on. Not to get too spoilery for anyone else reading this comment, but I was interested to see how my impressions of large portions the narration differed from those of several reviewers, who had opinions on what a woman would and wouldn't think about.

[alaterdate]

My favorite thing was being tripped up on certain parts then just brushing it off and only realizing later that it was intentional. My friend is listening to the audiobook right now and I wonder how her experience will be with the book in that format compared to reading the text.

I'd love to read those reviews if you have links. And if you want to talk more spoilery we can PM (I don't think cut text works in replies???).

[delphi]

Oh, I'm interested in what the audiobook experience would be like - and I actually just found out there's a movie in the works! Under normal circumstances, I'd be skeptical, but apparently it's Charlie Kaufman directing, so the results should at least be ambitiously interesting.

Unfortunately, I read this long enough ago that the reviews I was thinking of are gone from my browser history, but I'll drop a quick mention via PM of what I was thinking about. (I believe you're right - spoiler cuts via a "-1" div tabindex only work in the comments of certain journal styles.)