Complex, Intense, Profound Story — WE SPREAD by Iain Reid
The author of the “evocative, spine-tingling, and razor-sharp” (Bustle) I’m Thinking of Ending Things that inspired the Netflix original movie and the “short, shocking” (The Guardian) Foe returns with a new work of suspense following an elderly woman trapped in a mysterious facility.
Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.”
Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?
At once compassionate and uncanny, told in spare, hypnotic prose, Iain Reid’s “exquisite novel of psychological suspense” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.
Released: September 2022
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
My ThoughtsIaian Reid isn’t old! That astounds me because We Spread is one of the most profoundly insightful books I’ve ever read about the nature of aging. But the author is only in his early 40s. So how is this possible?
Clearly he’s some sort of mutant. On to the book.
I loved it. Everything about it. All of it. Every single word.
I listened to this on audio, and the narrator embodied the character of Penny as if they were one and the same. She embraced the whole vibe so well that I felt like I was in the story with her.
So what’s the story about? Aging. Loneliness. Anxiety. Fear. The loss of independence.
And much more. The depth, complexity, and intensity of this story blew me away.
The ending is ambiguous, open to interpretation. And I hate that—except here I loved it. This might be the only instance where ambiguity totally worked for me. In fact, I felt it was the exact right way for this story to end. I didn’t want the neat bow, because nothing about this story is straight forward. We’re left to contemplate the totality of what we read, which I’ll be doing for a long time to come.
*Huge thank you to Simon and Schuster for the free download!*
The post Complex, Intense, Profound Story — WE SPREAD by Iain Reid appeared first on Quiet Fury Books.
