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I Am Thinking of Ending Things

Ian Reid's "I Am Thinking of Ending Things," is one of the most haunting novels I've read this year. To say too much about the novel would give away the pleasures of the story but it's enough to say that it concerns an unnamed narrator's drive through a snowy evening to visit her boyfriend's family. During the drive, she considers breaking up with him.

Similar to "Disappearance at Devil's Rock," Ian Reid displays a subtle grasp of the tropes of the genre. Although the book is written with enough piercing observational skill to function as a contemporary exploration of relationships, it also knows how to build a sense of dread and alarm through well chosen details. The book functions like a psychological horror story where the killer, haunted house, and heroine exchange places with each other like half-remembered dreams.

I suspect readers of Chuck Palahniuk, Thomas Ligotti, and Mark Z. Danielewski will enjoy this book immensely.

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I'm releasing a new chapter of my web fiction novel, "Agent Shield and Spaceman," today. I'm making a bit of head way this month revising a few chapters ahead. We are are about ten chapters away from the end of Part One, which is an exciting milestone for me. I hope to keep my schedule of two to three chapters each week through September but then, with the start of my teaching job, things might get dicey. I have a vague plan of finishing up the entire novel sometime in November but I'm giving myself permission to adjust that as necessary to maintain the quality I want out of each chapter. I hope you are enjoying the story so far. 



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