Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

36 reviews

viniciusdx12's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, and Death of parent

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is an incredibly confusing but beautiful book. I went into this expecting it to be about suicide, then thought it was about the end of a relationship, and then it went full circle and back to suicide. The experience of reading this feels like watching Black Mirror, very trippy and gut wrenching. 

The writing is absolutely beautiful, and for a horror/thriller, it has some amazing lines that really hit me in my personal feels. This book covers the difficulty of relationships, family dynamics, mental health and stalking all in one tiny little novel, and i truly think it’s one of the best modern literary fiction books i’ve read; this will definitely be considered a classic in the future! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

pchamblee's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is the first audiobook I’ve tried and made it all the way through, so I have to give major credit to Candace Thaxton and the rest of the narration team for pulling it off so well. Considering the psychological suspense factor, I’ll forever be curious what it would have been like to experience it the first time in print (possibly would have been even more mind-boggling)—but, I thoroughly enjoyed the delivery of the narration.

This is a very eerie and disturbing story. It’s obvious early on that there’s mystery involved and there will be a twist at the end, but I don’t think any reader can be fully prepared for what comes (despite all the hints woven in). Even though I typically go for comfort fiction with happily ever afters, I love a good psychological thriller story and this book does it really well. It’s unique in the way it balances a meandering intellectual commentary with a thoroughly terrifying cautionary tale.

I’ve heard the Netflix film adaptation isn’t 100% true to the book and many fans say it doesn’t do it justice, but once I get a chance I’m gonna watch it out of curiously and just because I liked this story so much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Self harm, and Blood

Minor: Gore, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I’m actually not sure we all read the same book. Y’all liked that lame ass ending? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Medical content and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

thebookpaiges's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Death of parent

princess_marie's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal death and Blood

Minor: Sexual content and Death of parent

britainmic's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

It had a bit of a slow start to me -which made me think I’d dislike this book-, but once it actually started to get a little creepy my interest piqued greatly and I wanted to read the book all the way through. The book greatly unnerved me and gave me that underlying sense of anxiety, which I guess is a good thing to do if you’re a horror book. It actually made me kind of scared at certain points, which -for me- is uncommon in horror books, even if I think they’re really good. It was the kind of feeling where I planned to watch something funny after I finished the book before I went to bed. I never knew where the book was headed. It was kind of confusing, but not in the sense of. I didn’t understand what was going on. I just had no idea where it would lead.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Mental illness, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

torigroves47's review against another edition

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.

maddie7217's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Death of parent

sargasso_c's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is the only novel ever that I have finished, and then reread from page one. Definitely worth the read and I look forward to reading more works by this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail