A striking, unnerving debut literary thriller from Canada. A man and his girlfriend are on a road trip, on their way to a secluded farm owned by her parents, where she hopes to clarify the nature of Jake's commitment, which she has begun to doubt. Stranded by an unexpected snowstorm, she finds herself in a deserted high school in the middle of nowhere with no apparent ways of escape. Edgy, atmospheric, tinged with mystery, at times reminiscent of Michel Faber's haunting Under the Skin, this is both a suspenseful puzzle and a claustrophobic examination of the nature of free will and relationships, at times a philosophical tale and at others a cloudy mystery shrouded by the uncertainties of emotions. Fascinating and quite unlike anything else around. Give it a go.
Jake and his girlfriend are on a drive to visit his parents at their remote farm. After dinner at the family home, things begin to get worryingly strange. And when he leaves her stranded in a snowstorm at an abandoned high school later that night, what follows is a chilling exploration of psychological frailty and the limitations of reality. Iain Reid's intense, suspenseful debut novel will have readers' nerves jangling. A series of tiny clues sprinkled through the relentlessly paced narrative culminate in a haunting twist on the final page. Reminiscent of Michael Faber's Under the Skin, Stephen King's Misery and the novels of Jose Saramago, I'm Thinking of Ending Things is an astonishing and highly original literary thriller that grabs you from the start - and never lets go.
