Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

Got this on a pass through Brattleboro Vt, a town that has a bookstore with an owner you can talk books with all day.

Book is by Iain Reid, and has the kind of ending for which you will either praise the author for his brilliance, or curse him for being deviant.
I would steer Shutter Island haters away from this book.

It took me probably too long to realize i was reading a psychological thriller. Also, uncharacteristically, I had to reread sections a few times to see what really happened. At the end, I reread the last few chapters, and then the first few. I found that worthwhile, though like "In the Cut, or Mr Goodbar, I will never pass this way again.

So why start this thread? Hey, if you read it, what did you think?
(view spoiler)[.yeah, I know there never was really a girl, it was all Jake, and he killed himself at the end. (hide spoiler)]

Looks intriguing Barry! I'll see if I can snag a copy from the library. I am a Shutter Island fan. ;)

Sounds very intriguing!! There's a waitlist at the library...bodes well for a new author! Hahaha...amazon reviews are either 5 stars or 1 star. Either you love it or hate it! I liked Shutter Island...adding to my list!

I put off opening this topic because I thought there would be spoilers, but I finally gave in to see what the book was about (thanks for putting the spoiler in code).

Sounds intriguing; as a Shutter Island lover i will go in search of the book, and will report on it if I read it.

Just put this on hold at the library; I'm #15 on 20 copies. I'd never heard of this, I wonder how other folks have? Barry, did the knowledgeable bookstore owner in Brattleboro recommend it?

He did. I'm up that way a few times a year, and never miss a chance to visit, and ask him what he recommends.

Barry: sounds like a very good person to know! And we benefit too!
Barry wrote: "He did. I'm up that way a few times a year, and never miss a chance to visit, and ask him what he recommends."

I've read it! I get a lot of it, but not all...ehhh...I'm sure I'm not even aware enough to know what I don't get! I don't know how to hide spoilers so I don't want to say anything. But I've got questions and comments! lol

Dawn, I see Barry created a topic under the Spoiler Talk folder so you can spoil away over there!

This is the spoiler topic, to hide, got to "some HTML is OK" and click on it. it will give you:
"spoiler: (code for spiler here)
just cut and paste: "the code for spoiler"
and put your comments between the ">...<"
(view spoiler)[..got it?. (hide spoiler)]

note it will not let me type what you will actually see.

I'm just testing before I post.....How have I never done this before

(view spoiler)[ok, I'm just testing before I post (hide spoiler)]

Yay...who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks!!

(view spoiler)[Barry, I really enjoyed this book! Even knowing that there was a twisted twist, I still didn't figure it out. What I think I understand, is even though the date never happened Jake writes a story as if it did and what he thinks might have happened. However, the woman in his story is not only the girl he saw and never got the nerve to talk to, but also a voice in his head talking to him. So the story really has two different things going on. So the couple of times that she says she almost ended things on a specific night but didn't yet, those were nights he almost killed himself but reconsidered. I found that realization sad. I took it to mean that it wasn't something he was definitely resigned to do. The Caller still confuses me...was he calling himself? Were there even calls or did it symbolize something else? And the nosebleed at the end...what did that mean? (hide spoiler)]

Can't say I got it all either Dawn.

Well I definitely didn't get it all either and had different conclusions from those in Dawn's spoiler. I went into the book with the predisposition that things were not as they seemed so my leaps to conclusions were Shutter Island influenced.
That said, I decided that (view spoiler)[ Jake existed in a world of his own creation, a world where he was somehow preserving the bodies of his victims and playing with them in various pantomimes. His parents appeared to be enshrined in their own home a-la Psycho and the girlfriend telling the story was doing so as if she were still alive, but was not. The hair falling out, missing toenail and other signs of wear seemed to support that she was long dead but mobile.
As for the phone calls to "her" cell phone, that part was the one of many most confusing unresolved parts for me. (hide spoiler)]

I almost hate to think I need to read this again, just to figure it out.

Barry: I won't listen again, the female narrator's voice didn't send me. I might, maybe browse a hard copy.
Barry wrote: "I almost hate to think I need to read this again, just to figure it out."

Barry and Dawn: further spoilers musings...(view spoiler)[the old girlfriends, the creepy old barn, the even more creepy basement hole under the parent's house, and the references to others at the dinner and their garb made me picture a macarb scene even before the high school --which I couldn't decide whether it had been long closed or was open - I mainly think open, just after hours. Creepy with a capital C. I think this guy Jake was a serial human taxidermist who finally ended it all for no apparent reason leaving several old girlfriends and other "playthings" behind. (hide spoiler)]

Dawn:
(view spoiler)[ I agree that Jake was talking to someone and perhaps c.reating both sides of the conversation as many a young child has done playing with dolls. He was described as the troubled son. Hearing voices could fit that. What happened to the other brother I wonder. (hide spoiler)]
Dawn wrote: "Yay...who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks!! (view spoiler)[ However, the woman in his story is not only the girl he saw and never got the nerve to talk to, but also a voice in his head talking to him. So the story really has two different things going on. So the couple of times that she says she almost ended things on a specific night but didn't yet, those were nights he almost killed himself but reconsidered. (hide spoiler)]

I'm on vacation with only my iPad which doesn't allow me to read the spoiler links! It's killing me! Lol! Will be home Thursday!!!

Oh Ann! You have some really good insights that really do make sense. And if possible, make the book all the more creepier!
(view spoiler)[I think you must be correct...the parents are still entombed in the house. Ugh!!! There also has to be meaning to the girl at the ice cream store saying she was worried about the girlfriend/Jake?....I might have to get this from the library again. (hide spoiler)]

I know Dawn! Very creepy the more we think about it!

Dawn wrote: "Yay...who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks!!

[spoilers removed]"

Dawn, that's a pretty good analysis of the book. I didn't even get as far as you did until I read the companion website afterthingsend.com where readers post their ideas on the book.

Wow.

Btw, why are we using spoiler HTML when this is a thread on which spoilers are permitted? I think anyone who doesn't want the plot spoiled wouldn't be reading this topic.

Barry wrote: "I almost hate to think I need to read this again, just to figure it out."

A couple of posters on the website I mentioned were about to read the book again or had just read it again and found it even more enjoyable.

Ann's observations take the plot to a whole new level. I don't think I've heard anyone make that comparison. Yikes! Now I'm even more creeped out!

Ann wrote: "Barry: I won't listen again, the female narrator's voice didn't send me. I might, maybe browse a hard copy.
Barry wrote: "I almost hate to think I need to read this again, just to figure it out.""

This is one of the few books I read since neither of my library networks had it in audio. I think if I'd listened to it it would have freaked me out completely. As it was I had to stop reading it on the night of the 31st, about 20 pages from the end, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go to sleep. I really tried, because I wanted to list it on my August reads, but I knew I would regret it.

One thing that's confusing to me about the scenario you paint, Ann, is that (view spoiler)[several times towards the end the girlfriend looks in the mirror and says she looks like Jake. So I think I favor another interpretation that Jake has made up the whole thing in his disturbed little mind and is telling the story of what would have happened if he had actually given the girl he met in the bar his phone number, but he never did. I know, it leaves a lot else unexplained but to me it's a fantasy story that he made up, perhaps wrote in a journal that we are now reading. (hide spoiler)] I agree with Barry that this book bears re-reading. I also agree with Barry that this is Shutter Island II, LOL! I bet people who didn't like SI will hate this one, but it is going near the top of my list so far this year. So thanks for the recommendation, Barry!

Carol: just trying to help! Lol. I was thoroughly creeped out, still am actually. :)
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "..Ann's observations take the plot to a whole new level. I don't think I've heard anyone make that comparison. Yikes! Now I'm even more creeped out! "

The only thing that I'll say about this in comparison to Shutter Island is that I found it a little harder to read. I think it was because SI was pretty much a straight ahead mystery thriller until the very end when (view spoiler)[the twist was thrown in that had you see everything else you'd read in a completely different light. (hide spoiler)]. With ITOET (and isn't that a doozy of a title now that we've read it!) -- and I don't think this is spoilering so I won't use HTML ------- I found the way the girlfriend jumped around from narrating what was going on to reminiscing to wandering into philosophical musings a little annoying. I actually put the book down about halfway through, which I didn't expect to because so many reviews said they read straight through, couldn't put it down. I picked it up again probably 3 or 4 days later and I still didn't read it straight through but i did read it every chance I got.

Carol: That there is a site http://afterthingsend.com to discuss the book never occured to me!
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Dawn, that's a pretty good analysis of the book. I didn't even get as far as you did until I read the companion website afterthingsend.com.."

Ann wrote: "Carol: That there is a site http://afterthingsend.com to discuss the book never occured to me!
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Dawn, that's a pretty good analysis of the book. I didn't even get as far as you..."

I think it was listed on the last page of the book, Ann, that's probably why you missed it. I started reading it after I finished the book on my lunch hour, and I had to tear myself away it was so interesting!

Dawn wrote: "I've read it! I get a lot of it, but not all...ehhh...I'm sure I'm not even aware enough to know what I don't get! I don't know how to hide spoilers so I don't want to say anything. But I've got qu..."

lol, dawn. exactly how i felt when i finished it.

i am much less, but still confused after reading everyone's thoughts. (view spoiler)[ i figured out pretty early on that the girl didn't really exist- or was already dead. the whole scene with the family was eerie and made me wonder if there had been other girls that jake had killed and left entombed in the basement.
but then i thought jake was the caller, so maybe the girl was real? or maybe there really was no caller and it was all in jake's head? (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Sherry: still confused seems to be the consensus!
The phone calls are some of the strangest parts!
Sherry wrote: "i am much less, but still confused after reading everyone's thoughts.."

I just started reading it, so I'll be confused with you all. LOL.

Ann wrote: "Sherry: still confused seems to be the consensus!
The phone calls are some of the strangest parts!
Sherry wrote: "i am much less, but still confused after reading everyone's thoughts..""

(view spoiler)[ could the phone calls have been hallucinations? seems that the almost the whole book was some kind of hallucination..(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Very hard to tell what is real. I did a double take after reading the last chapter.

I decided not to finish this book.

Sherry: re your spoiler in message #34; that is a very real (reverse pun intended) possibility. (view spoiler)[ hallucination, imagination, without knowing the state of the two characters, how could we "get it" when the phone calls are discussed? (hide spoiler)]

Amy: I can understand and respect that. The lure of this spoiler thread kept me listening, but I'm not sure a print book would keep me going. I'm not sorry I read it, but it would take the right mood.
Amy wrote: "I decided not to finish this book."

Ann wrote: "Amy: I can understand and respect that. The lure of this spoiler thread kept me listening, but I'm not sure a print book would keep me going. I'm not sorry I read it, but it would take the right mo..."

what kept me reading was the fact that it was a short book :)

I did read the spoilers. LOL

(view spoiler)[Sherry, I agree that either he was hallucinating, or if was having a split personality thing going on, then maybe he was calling himself and leaving messages. Although, sometimes the phone was ringing when he was in the car. (hide spoiler)]


Sherry wrote: "Ann wrote: "Sherry: still confused seems to be the consensus!
The phone calls are some of the strangest parts!
Sherry wrote: "i am much less, but still confused after reading everyone's thoughts.."..."

Ann wrote: "Amy: I can understand and respect that. The lure of this spoiler thread kept me listening, but I'm not sure a print book would keep me going. I'm not sorry I read it, but it would take the right mo..."

I agree and also agree with Sherry that it was easier to keep going because it was short. I think a longer book with that plot would be crazy-making!

A couple on the web site I recommended have advocated for a second reading of the book, saying much became clearer. Don't know if I have the stomach for it but the idea sort of appeals to me.

carol/bonadie said "A couple on the web site I recommended have advocated for a second reading of the book, saying much became clearer. Don't know if I have the stomach for it but the idea sort of appeals to me. "

i totally couldn't handle another reading of it.. but if anyone does read it a second time, let us know if things get clearer!

Dawn: the your spoiler comment in message 41
Time certainly was fluid in this tale, context hard to pinpoint!