I wanted a bit more answers at the end but I guess it was left up to interpretation. I have a feeling I know what happened with Hen at the end. The beetles felt like they were supposed to have some meaning but I'm not quite sure. Another novel from Iain Read that makes you contemplate your own life. His books always seem to stay with me.

A tense, atmospheric read, which is all the more terrifying for the simplicity of the writing. Even though I guessed the twist, I really enjoyed this one.

An amazing story that had me hooked forever. I definitely binge read. Ready for more books by this author.

This is a book that is outside of the genres that I usually read but the synopsis was intriguing. I am glad that I took the chance and read it. Iain Reid is quite the story teller! After finishing the book, I had to sit with it for a bit. I had to think about what I read. I found that I questioned everything that the author had written. That is a good thing. And of course the twist at the end was awesome. Unforgettable!

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. I am sorry that it took me so long to do so!

This novel is full of suspense, and it just keeps building. The narrator here is Junior, a man who lives with his wife Hen in an old farmhouse in the country. As the book begins a visitor arrives unexpectedly late in the evening, and Junior is told that he has been chosen to go somewhere as part of an initial test for a colony of people to live away from the earth. Junior isn't really interested in this and wants to just live his life as he has been.
He works in the nearby feed mill, and, although most of the farmland around them is now farmed by corporations, he has a few chickens that he looks after, and gets satisfaction from.
The visit by this representative, Terrance, from a government-affiliated organization called OuterMore seems to unsettle both Junior and Hen. He doesn't stay long, only to tell them about the project, called The Installation, which is a temporary resettlement of people in space on a man-made planet that orbits the earth, and that there has been a lottery and Junior was chosen to be part of the project. He doesn't have any say in the matter.
This is where it started to get seriously creepy for me. Terrance talks about the microphones on the screens being always on, and how they don't exactly do active listening, but they pay attention to words of interest. In this case, it is any talk of space, travel, planets, etc.
After the visit it takes a while for the couple to get back to normal to feel comfortable again, but they do and days and then weeks, and then months go by. Until two years later Terrance is back, and he is taking all kinds of measurements of Junior, fitting him with sensors and such.
There is a growing feeling of menace of disbelief that this is happening, that Junior and Hen have such little control of their own lives. And Junior doesn't trust Terrance. He feels that there is information that is being hidden from him, that there is another agenda. There are times that Terrance talks to Hen by herself and Junior feels jealous and concerned.
This novel moves slowly, but has a growing feeling of unease of low-level suspense that something is going to happen beyond what already has. There is a lack of background to the situation, to where exactly they are, to how they ended up there, to how Junior and Hen came together. This book gave me a feeling in the pit of my stomach of dread, of wariness.
An amazing read, and so well done. Understated.

This is outside of what I normally read While I did not enjoy it, it was very well written. I liked the descriptions of the characters and the plot was interesting. I think this would be a good fit for a science fiction lover.

Different than i was expecting, after reading his first novel. More sci fi than I typically like. I almost stopped reading it halfway through, because it was pretty slow, but I'm glad i conitnued. The ending was pretty good.

Foe by Iain Reid was definitely not something I would have picked up without others having raved about it. This strange little book follows Henrietta and Junior, a married couple who live on their remote farm sometime in the future. One day, a stranger appears at the door and informs them that Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away for an unknown period of time. He doesn't have a choice in the matter, and in an effort to address Henrietta's loneliness, they are going to leave her with some unusual company.

Junior and Henrietta are living a quiet and solitary life on their farm when a stranger arrives to inform Junior that he has been randomly selected to journey into space. However, Henrietta will not be left alone as someone familiar will be staying with her while Junior is away.
This is a psychological suspense/sci-fi novel set in the near future and mainly deals with family relationships, how well we know each other, and how people deal with unthinkable situations.
Overall, I enjoyed the novel but found it did lag a bit at times. I am glad I stuck with it as it was an interesting story.

This was a fascinating and creepy read and I loved every minute of it. I seriously couldn’t put this book down.

This is the first book of Ian's that I've read, but will definitely be checking out more of his titles. This is a page turner that keeps you guessing. Loved the ending.
#foe#netgalley#indigoemployee

This is a popular book in our library, with a readers score of 4 stars out of 5. Definitely worth a read.

Reading Iain Reid books is like reading a nightmare. Dark, shadowy, intelligible yet still somehow quietly inexplicable nightmares. It's how I felt during and after reading I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, and it's how I feel now having read Foe. And I loved both of them because of it.

Foe is much different than I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, in most ways. But I'm not going to compare them or try to hold Foe up to I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, because I don't think that's fair to either the book itself or Iain Reid. I didn't go into Foe with the expectation of it being an extension of I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, or anything of the sort, and I think that's why I've seemed to enjoy it more than a lot of people have so far. One thing it did have in common with its predecessor though, is that it had my mind going all over the place the entire time. With Foe, I went from thinking "it's aliens!" to "it's a set up!" to "nope, every one of you is a goddamn clone" to "the horned beetles are the aliens!" and everywhere in between. And if that all sounds ridiculous to you, it's because it is. I felt ridiculous. And I loved it.

Additionally, the final act was jaw-droppingly good, and there was one style choice throughout the book that helped reveal the ending so, so well, and it's those little details and easter eggs that make Iain Reid's books so fun - terrifying and nightmarish, but fun.

What especially made it so dreadfully fun for me was how claustrophobic the story made me feel - within the setting (a little isolated farmhouse), but also in the thoughts and actions of the main character, Junior. It's hard to go into detail about what I mean, because spoilers would abound, but claustrophobic is definitely the most apt word I can think of for Foe's story, despite its concepts and ideas being, essentially, boundless.

The reason I didn't give it a full five stars is because I felt, at the time of reading, that the middle of the book kind of lulls. For a book so small, it made it really noticeable, and I didn't feel like it was as unputdownable as I wanted it to be. That said, upon finishing the book and letting it sink in for a while, I realize that the monotonous middle made absolute sense to the story as a whole. But while actively reading through it? It honestly felt rather dull for a short period.

Overall though, Foe was fantastic, just as I knew it'd be, and I can see myself thinking about it often for a long time to come.

It would be classified as a sci-fi psychological thriller? It’s Iain Reid. His books for lack of a better word "screw" with your head but in a good way that keeps you drawn into the story and wanting more.

I figured out the twist pretty quickly but read the entire story to get the satisfaction that I was right. It was like unpeeling an onion layer by layer and unveiling each new part to the story that gave you just a little bit more.

The character development was wonderful. The main characters become so engrossed in their lives together yet are so far apart from each other at the same time. They get set in routine but don’t actually realize what the other is feeling.

This book is a must-read recommendation from me!

Foe by Iain Reid is a dark, intense thriller about Junior and Henrietta, who live a quiet life far from the city. One day a visitor, Terrance, mysteriously arrives and tells Junior he has won a random lottery and has been selected to help build a settlement in space. Henrietta must stay behind, but they will make sure she is looked after. Reid's writing style is concise but lofty at the same time. You get the feeling that something is not right, it's uncomfortable and illogical but persists. I felt drawn into the story and compelled to continue reading. Interesting premise with a nice twist at the end. Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for a ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Sometimes, the weather and climate provide all you need for a backdrop when reading a book. While Canadian author Iain Reid’s exquisite sophomore novel Foe is set during a long, hot summer (and was initially released during one), this is the kind of book that really works when the air is crisp, pumpkins are on the porch, leaves are falling and the nights are growing longer. It’s because Foe is a book that is genuinely creepy and paranoid. The season really brings out the thrills and chills of this read, so if you’re looking for a book that will freak you out in the Halloween season, this is the book you absolutely need to pick up, now. Foe is an unsettling novel, and I’m confident that it won’t leave my memory easily. It’s so good, I have to ask — why wasn’t this shortlisted for the Giller? It’s miles ahead of An Ocean of Minutes in terms of being compulsively readable, for one thing, and for another thing, it’s quite well written.

The novel is about a rural couple named Junior and Hen who, one evening, get a visit from a stranger from a big city corporation. The man is named Terrance, and he comes bearing news that Junior has been longlisted for space exploration, meaning that he’ll be one of the first people to temporarily live in the Installation — a kind of space station set up by the private corporation Terrance works for. As it would turn out, Junior does eventually get selected — but where does that leave Hen? Well, thankfully, Terrance has a replacement Junior for her that acts, talks and thinks just as the real Junior does. And, that, my friends, is where the goings get freaky. Hen gets more and more reserved and standoff-ish as Junior prepares for his day in the sun, and pretty soon the duo is fighting just without resorting to throwing things at each other.

The thing that works about Foe is that this is a psychological book. Most of the action takes place in the mind, and, in a deft twist, Reid makes a stylistic choice — one that has meaning at the book’s conclusion — of not putting Junior’s words into quotation marks, whereas Terrance and Hen do speak in quotes. It’s almost a feminist touch: here’s a guy who’s out to go on a big adventure while the woman stays at home, holding down the fort, so why wouldn’t he be a bit self-absorbed and not need quotation marks around the things he says? However, the true meaning behind this move is revealed in a shocking twist I didn’t see coming, and then there’s a double twist that just puts the screws into the read. This is a measured, nuanced book where things are not quite what they seem and even a seemingly ordinary beetle that appears over the course of the novel from time to time can have a meaning and purpose to it. Not a word is wasted in terms of ratcheting up the mind-games tension between Junior and Henrietta, and everything has a place and a reason.

You might think that a novel of this sort might be boring, but Reid gives us a glimpse of domestic homelife that is sweet and sentimental — giving us something for the characters to work towards restoring, and something for the reader to pin his or her hopes on. You do want Junior and Hen to kiss and make up, you do want Junior to have a fun time in space, and even you do hope that Terrance, as creepy and calculating as he is, gets to complete his mission of transformation and reconciliation of the couple. That just makes the very ending of the book — not to carp, but its really endings plural — all the more mortifying.

Foe is a book that’s hard to pigeonhole. It’s science-fiction, but not very. It’s a domestic family story, but it’s not really literary. (No offense to the author, who has weaved a fine tale here.) This book might be categorized under the New Weird fiction genre, of which Jeff VanderMeer seems to be a proponent of. The only exception to that attempt at categorization is that Reid doesn’t really go off too much into the biotechnology angle of things with his tale. Still, there are comparisons between Foe and VanderMeer’s Borne: the feuding couple, the surrogate baby (in Reid’s case, of the replacement), a somewhat post-apocalyptic landscape. Still, Foe stands on its own as a superlative tale. The only drawback is that the book does have those multiple endings. You expect the book to end at a point, and you turn the page for an “and then this happened.” Still, the duplicity of endings leads us to a double-twist, so there’s that. It’s a trade-off, and I don’t think personally that I would change a word of this book.

I appreciated Foe for what it was: an attempt to out-paranoia what is one of the most paranoid texts out there, John Carpenter’s 1982 take on The Thing, just without the Antarctic setting. You’ll find yourself checking your allegiances with Foe. Start cheering on one character and suddenly you might be distrusting them moments later. There’s a sense of danger in the day-to-day and ordinary, and that all culminates to a whopping conclusion, even if one character’s motivations for doing what is done not very clear. Still, I can breathlessly exude that Foe is one of the very best Canadian books I have read in a long, long, long time. This is a page-turning thriller that will get the heart rate up and the blood flowing. I’m glad to have read it, no matter the season. I really do think that I now have a new favourite author, Canadian or otherwise, to champion, and I hope that there’s more like this one in the author’s book writing pipeline. If so, I’ll be sure to savour it.

This book was an excellent read. I felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight zone or Black mirror. I found I could not trust anyone and anything and I liked it. This is the sort of story where nothing is as it seems and it makes for an intense read. I would like to thank Netgalley for the ARC. I think Iain Reid outdid himself with this work and I was so happy I had the opportunity to read it. To give this book 5 stars out of 5 seems like an injustice. Overall, this book was way more impressive than I thought and I highly recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the shows I mentioned and of science fiction.

There was something beautiful about this book even though I found myself turning on all the lights to read it. I didn't want to put it down, but I also felt eerie about moving forward. A great read.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting concept and it had a lot of potential but after awhile it got really repetitive. I was also hoping for some type of mind blowing ending as advertised, but I managed to figure it all out midway through the read.
It had a cool premise, I just think it could have been executed a bit better. But that being said, I would give this author another shot.

I was quite interested in reading this novel as the synopsis held great promise for an interesting read. I unfortunately missed out on the opportunity of reading this novel, as I was quite busy with finishing off my university studies and did not pay enough attention to when the deadline to read the novel was! Therefore I read maybe one chapter before the archive date. I will definitely be on the lookout for this novel in the future for an opportunity to find out what I missed out on!