30 DAYS BOOK CHALLENGE @isthatacorner
DAY 12: a book I love and hate at the same time – I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS by Iain Reid
This is a mystery/thriller about a woman who’s on a road trip with her boyfriend to visit his family who lives in a rural area. It’s written in first-person perspective with our female character as the unreliable narrator. There’s a snowstorm that gets worse and worse as the day goes on. The couple arrives at the boyfriend’s parents’ house, eats dinner together, and leaves the house late that same night because our female character grows uncomfortable with the whole thing. It’s all fine and good until the couple gets back on the road to return home. I can’t say anymore because it would be a spoiler. The reason why I love and hate this book at the same time all boiled down to the ending. The writing is so good and so successful in building up the anticipation and the creepy, tense atmosphere. I was confused and scared as I followed the woman on this journey, in the middle of a snow storm. I began to question her sanity, but in like a good and interesting way. But the freaking ending feels so mediocre and so cliche to me. It’s such a trope to end things like that, and maybe the author could make it work in the novel’s favor, somehow? As it is, I hate that the novel’s potential is wasted in the last COUPLE OF PAGES. Now, don’t let my personal opinion dissuade you from reading this. It’s still a solid read, especially if you haven’t read a lot of thriller/mystery before. A lot of peeps I know loved the ending, so I think I might be in the minority on this.