I Wish I Had Ended It!

TITLE: I'm Thinking of Ending Things
AUTHOR: Iain Reid
PUBLISHER:  Gallery/Scout Books
PUBLISHING DATE: June 14, 2016

FROM GOODREADS: 

I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always. 

Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.” 

And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here. 

In this deeply suspenseful and irresistibly unnerving debut novel, a man and his girlfriend are on their way to a secluded farm. When the two take an unexpected detour, she is left stranded in a deserted high school, wondering if there is any escape at all. What follows is a twisted unraveling that will haunt you long after the last page is turned.

MY THOUGHTS: I've had my eyes on this book for several years so when I saw it at my library, I knew the time had come to finally pick it up.  So many people seem to love this book and I've heard more than a few people comment on how horrifying it is.  Well guess what?  My opinion totally differs and luckily it was a short book or I may not have finished it.  And yes, several times even I was thinking of ending things - reading it that is!

Jake and his unnamed girlfriend are on the way to have dinner with his parents.  It will be her fist time meeting them and she is thinking to herself on the way that she is thinking of ending the relationship.  Of course, this is despite the fact that she mentions several times all the things she likes about Jake and how attracted she is to him.  In addition, ever since the two of them met in a college bar on trivia night, she has been getting strange phone calls from someone she only refers to as "caller."  She can't figure out the calls and why she didn't just block the number I'll never understand. Oh yea, the calls show up from her own phone.  That's why.

So she meets his parents who are odd and slightly disturbed yet they seem to love her.  She sees some dead frozen sheep, hears a totally disgusting story about two pigs, chokes down a dinner she hates and then they set off for a return home in a snowstorm.  Now you guys know I love a great snowy setting but in this novel, it seems like a deliberate addition to only ramp up anxiety and tension and it didn't really work for me.

So I'm not going to give anything away.  Many reviews I've read now (after the fact) talk about the great twist at the end and how the ending really packs a punch.  Again, I didn't feel that way.  Of course, maybe I was just glad it ended.  I do think I fully understood the ending despite seeing several people mention that after you get to the end, you should read it again because it will make so much more sense and be that much more enjoyable.  What?  I barely made it through once.

Now I have to add, I have nothing against the writer and his book flowed quite well.  I think he probably has a wonderful imagination and would not hesitate to read something from him again in the future.  I don't feel like I could really recommend this book which isn't really needed because tons of people have read it already.  At least now I know what all the hype was about, I just don't feel the same.

RATING: 2 PAWS