Some love this author, but sadly I am not one of them. I have tried but I think the writing style contributes to my dislike. Just a creepy book. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher!

This book cemented in my brain that Ian Reid's novels are not for me.

I've tried so many of his books but I just don't enjoy the writing style.

Iain Reid has become a favorite of mine, this book was no different to express how much I enjoy the writing skills this author has. This was definitely an emotional and thought provoking novel.

The reader is introduced to Penny the MC who's aging and is going through a memory problem. This book speaks on the fear of death and what it's like from the first person POV of having gaps in remembering the everyday things we take for granted.

There were moments where I thought Shelley was the bad guy being portrayed and that's the kind of emotional twisting I liked from this book. It was all over the place, but in a good way. The ups and downs played on the readers heart strings were phenomenal. The only downfall of this story was there wasn't enough backstory on the other characters. Overall though, I will be highly recommending this one!

Thank you Netgalley and Gallery for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

***Spoiler Alert***

Ok...so when I read this I felt sad. Sad for Penny, sad for elderly people, sad for families of people who have demetia. Just sad. Because at the surface this book is sort of a panic inducing mystery. Is Penny being held captive, is something amiss at her new home, who are the people taking care of her and what are their motives? But, as other reviewers have speculated and I agree with, this book is about someone who is slowly losing their grip on reality due to the devasting disease of dementia or alzheimers. So, it is tragic and heartbreaking. My Nana and my Grandmother bother suffered from this, and they were parnoid, angry, and child like much like Penny. They say you lose a family member twice to this disease, and they are not wrong.

4 stars

Getting old is scary. Losing your mind and ability to tell time or know what dates or which is also terrifying. This novel uses that concept in the unfolded of the subtlest of horrors. Is Penny slowly losing herself as she gives way to dementia or is there something sinister about the Six Cedars Care Home? Why are there only 4 residents under the care of Shelly and another nurse? I am experiencing a lot of familial trauma currently with the few grandparents I have left. I was hoping to understand more about what my family members may be experiencing. This was cathartic. Very healing to read and also heartbreaking. A great exploration into empathetic horror and the population of the world that society seems to reject and hate the most. I'm glad I read this and I'm glad Iain Reid was the one to write this novel. I don't think anyone else could've captured the story as well as he did.

Very melancholy and vulnerable, the acknowledgments really bring the book together and feel like an epilogue.

The prose is dreamy and chilling, and the plot is one that can be read as allegory or completely at face value and stun you.

WE SPREAD by Iain Reid

Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: I'm Thinking of Ending Things, FOE

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978198216...

Release Date: September 2022

General Genre: Psychological Thriller/Horror, Science Fiction, Existential, Suspense

Sub-Genre/Themes: Death & Dying, Aging, Memories, Dementia, Assisted Living, Care Facility, Being alone, Passion, Creativity, Community, Secrets & Lies

Writing Style: Succinct, lyrical, dialogue-heavy, character-driven, internal monologue

What You Need to Know:
I had a hard time getting into it when I tried reading my physical arc last year. The font on my NetGalley copy was too small, so this book has lingered on my shelves. This year, it made my #23in23challenge so I decided to try the audiobook and I’m so glad I did! Highly recommend the audiobook. However, I usually adjust the speed to about 1.3 or 1.5 and the way the writing flows and the way the narrator has vocally interpreted the flow of the prose, I feel like I should caution against adjusting the speed too much. 1.3 is about as fast as it can go before it starts to sound weird.

My Reading Experience:
Did you watch (and enjoy) the show, Nine Perfect Strangers on Hulu with Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy?
This book, WE SPREAD by Iain Reid (I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Foe) gave me Nine Perfect Strangers vibes but with elderly people in an exclusive retirement facility.
I know it sounds dry, and parts of it were slow…the beginning was a little mundane. Basically, an elderly woman is alone in her apartment eating “red soup” and grilled cheese and hearing voices, and falling down. Lol

Once the MC finds herself in the retirement community, things get interesting. There is a full cast of quirky characters and a mysterious lady that manages/owns the home and seriously, all the asides about living life to the fullest, finding your passion and creativity, and how fast life passes you by has given me an existential crisis! I keep thinking about how we only have this one life. It has made me want to spend more time loving my family & friends and way less time worrying about trivial, inconsequential things. Iain Reid writes the strangest, most profoundly thought-provoking books. I loved ITOET & FOE. They both left me so unsettled in the best ways…this did too! If you have fears about getting old, becoming irrelevant, being alone, watching your body age, your mind slip, losing friends and loved ones, forgetting your passion for art or reading…forgetting what it feels like to love others or have a special person…this is for you. A different kind of horror…but oh so real. I recommend the audio!

Final Recommendation: This is a slow, creeping feeling of dread; psychological horror with an unreliable narrator. It plays heavily on all our fears of aging, growing old, and ultimately, facing death. Highly recommend the audiobook--the narrator does an excellent job voicing all the characters.

Comps: Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu 2021), Nine Days (movie 2020), Synecdoche, New York (movie 2008)

We Spread by Iain Reid. I love all different types of books - different genres, books that are paced differently etc. but I honestly have no idea what I just read. This book was a bit confusing and I still have a lot of questions after finishing it. I did like the narrator but I am not sure that I would have finished it, if it were not an audio book. The plot was confusing, the book was very slow paced and the ending did not explain enough to tie up all of the loose ends. Thanks NetGalley and Scout Press for the ARC.

An insidious story with a very unreliable narrator. This one sucks you in and makes you feel like you're really enduring the main character's experience - until the story is over and then you question everything!

I have read all of Iain Reid's books. I love his style of writing. It is always mystifying and thought-provoking. This book has all of those characteristics but is also has something missing... some unanswered questions that leaves me unsatisfied. I am still a Reid fan through-and-through, but this is my least favorite of his works so far.

Thank you Netgalley for my copy of this book. This review is unbiased and my own.

Wow! I loved this philosophical and tragic novel of an elderly woman sinking into dementia. Told by an unreliable narrator throughout, it's difficult to figure out the true reality. Is something more sinister happening here, or all of this woman's experiences the results of her deteriorating mind.? While she is caught in a web of questioning, demanding and impatient, so are we.

Both frightening and enlightening, this book explores aging, impending death and uncertainty, the necessary limits of life, and the value of the present moment in a spectacularly provocative and enthralling writing style.

"I think about what more time would actually mean....More sitting around. More eating, More sleeping...,But what would the work mean if it was endless? What would a relationship mean if it kept going forever? What would a day be if it didn't end?"

I've never read any work of art like this before. It was the first Iain Reid novel I've ever read. It will not be the last.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions are all my own.

This is my first book of Iain Reid and I'm just floored with his writing. As a 70 year old woman, I was amazed how accurate he was talking about old age. The ending leaves you wide open to decide a few things, to answer your own questions. This is art.

I want to preface this by saying I absolutely LOVED I'm Thinking of Ending Things, and We Spread definitely had a similar vibe. However, whereas I kind of "get" ITOET, I did not "get" We Spread at all. It was honestly boring up until about halfway through, and by the end I was left thinking "what did I just read?" but not in a good way. I tried to process it, talk to other people who have read it, go down Reddit rabbit holes, but I just couldn't make sense of it. It was left a little TOO open to interpretation, and I was even more frustrated to read that Iain Reid doesn't ever plan on explaining his interpretation of the book. I just feel confused and left without closure. Maybe my mind isn't open enough, I don't know. I was left with so many unanswered questions and couldn't piece things together. It felt unfinished. This is not my favorite Iain Reid book, but I will still read everything he writes!

I wish I'd done more. I had years and years worth of time. It went so fast. It went too fast.

Penny, an elderly woman in her early nineties, has been struggling since the death of her long-time partner. When she has a bad fall after attempting to change a light bulb, it is decided that she'd be better off finishing out her days in an assisted living facility. And, at first, Six Cedars seems a wonderful place - a lovely old home surrounded by woods, with only three other residents. But, before long Penny begins to notice something sinister is going on . . .

"Is there something I don't know about, Jack?"

"What do you mean?"

"Here. Her. This house."

This is a wonderful slow burning psychological thriller. There's a creeping feeling of unease, and the tension is, at times, pretty nerve-racking. It's an engrossing and disturbing read.


"You're protected here from all the dangers of being an elderly woman, okay?"

I will admit, of the three Reid's I've read, this was third place for me--with Foe being first, and I'm Thinking of Ending Things being second. Despite that, this was FANTASTIC. I loved the loneliness evoked, the horror of aging, and the prison it can feel like. Highly recommend.

Deeply unsettling. Reid has done it again. He just doesn’t miss. Never before has aging been seeped in such thoughtful dread.

An absolutely gorgeous commentary on aging and the way we treat our elders. Iain has put the most lovely creepy spin on dementia and end of life,.

4.5/5 stars
"The tragedy of life isn't that the end comes. That's the gift. Without an end, there's nothing. There's no meaning.
Do you see? A moment isn't a moment. A moment is an eternity. A moment should mean something. It should be everything."

The story of We Spread revolves around Penny, an artist by profession, who lives alone in her apartment after the demise of her long-time partner, surrounded by her memories and mementos from a lifetime. A freak accident at home prompts her landlord to shift Penny to Six Cedars Residence, an assisted living facility. Penny initially resents the move and goes reluctantly but gradually settles in, enjoying the company and the fact that the residents are looked after and taken good care of. She even starts painting again. What does seem strange to her is that everyone seems to know about her and the fact that she was planning to take up residence in Six Cedars, a fact that she does not remember discussing with her deceased partner let alone something she had planned for. But it seems that her late partner had made arrangements to that effect. As the narrative progresses, Penny's memories seem to collapse into one another and her reality seems blurred prompting her (and the reader) to question everyone and everything happening to Penny at Six Cedars.

Working in elder care, I can say that this book brought a new perspective to me that really impacted me emotionally and mentally!
Beautifully written, thought-provoking yet chilling and fear-inducing, We Spread by lain Reid is hard to explain. I consider it more of an experience than a read -and an unsettling one at that, touching upon themes of aging, loneliness, advanced age-induced memory loss, and ultimately how we perceive life and death. As we follow Penny through her days at Six Cedars, it is difficult not to feel and share her anxiety, confusion and fear as she encounters the strange incidents and interactions that follow. lain Reid has created an atmosphere that reels you in and suffocates, and yet leaves you questioning and second-guessing your understanding and interpretation of this short, slow-paced yet heavy narrative.

The thing about Iain Reid books is they're not for everyone. They are weird. They are unsettling. They asks uncomfortable questions about people, life, the world. Sometimes they make you squirm with anxiety while you're reading them. If that doesn't sound like fun to you, I totally get it. But if you don't mind sitting in those bouts of unease, you will come out the other side having read something really unique and wonderful.

In WE SPREAD, Penny is an old woman grappling with all the depressing things that come with getting old. It's so painful to read her thoughts about getting old, to see what's happening to her mind and body and what is becoming of her life. So when she has the opportunity (question mark?) to join a long-term care community, she is excited to be surrounded by people like herself, and to once again discover a purpose for life. But after awhile she begins to question whether things are as shiny and bright as they seem or it just her old age rearing its ugly head again?

Iain writes with such precision and simplicity, yet nearly every word packs an emotional weight. If you've ever really struggled with the idea of aging and getting old, this probably won't make you feel any better about it. However, that doesn't make this worth skipping...in fact I think the opposite is true. I think it's important to ask the questions found in this book and really think about what it's like to grow old and start to truly break down in all senses. I think FOE still reigns supreme as my number one pick of Iain's books, but this is a close second and I will definitely revisit the finished copy I had to buy.

**Thank you to Net Galley & Scout Press for the free review ebook**

This book is a masterpiece.
So thought provoking and absolutely disturbing. I read this in one day and immediately wanted to read it again. Everything Iain writes, I will buy. No questions asked. Thanks for the ARC!