Best-selling author Iain Reid’s newest, “We Spread,” is a riveting, disturbing examination of the isolation and decrepitude of old age. Some believe that death, and our foreknowledge of it, are the worst part of the human experience, but Reid’s latest novel shows us that there could be worse things.

Penny is an elderly woman living alone in a large city. Her long-time partner is dead. She goes for days or weeks without speaking to another human being and doesn’t seem to have any family. There is nothing about her existence that she enjoys.

The first part of the novel is quite difficult to read. Penny’s first person narration emphasizes her miserable marking of time without love or companionship. Even her cat has died. Then weird things begin happening.

She begins hearing voices coming from the next apartment, which is unoccupied. One day, standing at the window she sees a mysterious stranger staring up at her from the street. After she suffers a fall in her apartment, her landlord packs her up and deposits her at Six Cedars, an assisted living residence.

However, strange things continue to happen once she is at Six Cedars. There are only four residents. The only staff are Shelley, the director, and Jack, an assistant. At first, Penny is happy to find that she sleeps soundly at night and that her appetite has returned. However, when she’s been there just four days, she is told she has been there for three years.

And there are mysterious gaps in her memory. She wakes from naps she doesn’t remember lying down for. She looks out a window briefly to find that hours have passed. Her slippers fit fine one day but are too small the next and too large the day after that.

Penny suspects that Shelley is up to something nefarious. Her conversations with Jack convince her of it. Shelley tells Penny that everyone wants more time. More time to live, to work. However, Penny comes to realize that immortality comes at a price, one that is perhaps too high.

Although Penny is suspicious of Shelley and mourns the loss of her memories, she does find human connection that renews her energy and appreciation of life. Hilbert, another resident, becomes a particular friend to Penny. She quickly comes to care for him and tries to protect him.

Hilbert explains to her about Pando, as aspen tree colony that is actually one organism with a massive, connected root system. Pando, Latin for “I spread,” becomes the primary metaphor of the novel. It’s suggested that Shelley, a former biologist, is trying to prove that a similar interconnectedness among people will give them infinite time on Earth. Penny concludes that interconnectedness is what gives our lives meaning and purpose but that infinite time is too much.

Penny’s narration and limited point of view ask the reader to wonder if Shelley is up to no good, or if Penny is merely suffering from dementia. The novel’s ending gives no clear answers. However, this psychological thriller, out Sept. 27, will certainly leave the reader thinking about how we live our lives, especially how we end them, and how much we should rely on our own perceptions. Certainly not light reading, the novel is rewarding for those who appreciate an unreliable narrator and an ambiguous ending.

WOW WHAT A RIDE. Let me start off by saying I have worked with the elderly population for the past 7 years so I was instantly hooked by this book where we get the POV from an elderly woman. Living alone, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for her to take care of herself. She ends up moving into an assisted living facility and the story gets progressively crazier, more weird, and unsettling. We as the reader have no idea if this is all our main characters cognitive decline or if something more sinister is going on. I won’t sit here and pretend like I have even the slightest clue of what a lot of the themes in this story were or even pretend that I understand some of the ending. BUTTTTT this was just so fast paced, interesting, and made me tear up at certain points. If someone would like to dissect this book for me and send me their thoughts please do lol. I think this has done a wonderful job at exploring the process of aging and human connection.

“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 mean everything.”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first experience reading anything by Reid and I feel like I have been missing out on some great storytelling. I devoured this short book in a matter of a few hours. I could not put it down. Reid's writing is simultaneously easy and complex. No wasted words. To call this atmospheric is a gross understatement. Reading this book reminded me of that feeling I had when I first read "The Yellow Wallpaper." Something was lurking, creeping right underneath the surface, clawing at me to where I began to question my own sanity.

I would not classify this a horror, but I would also say there are enough subtle elements of dread and apprehension to get the heart racing. Pondering what it means to age is not exactly NOT horrifying...

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Name of Book: We Spread
Author: Iain Reid
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press
Genre: Thriller, Horror for Beginners
Pub Date: September 27, 2022
My Rating: 2.5

Eight-nine year old Penny, an artist has been healthy and happy living at home but after an accident has been place in ‘Six Cedars” a high end care home.
The residents seem a bit odd and soon strange things start to happen.

Hmm I did read [book: I’m Thinking Things] but it was only okay and really wasn’t for me.
Since I am a little old lady who doesn’t like to consider herself old, I thought this might me interesting. Hmmm

Want to thank NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for September 27, 2022

Penny is getting older. She's gradually falling into the rhythm of aging. & after years of living with her partner & then on her own, she finds herself spending her days inside a long-term care residence. That's when things get worse. Time starts slipping. Memories grow fuzzy. Over the span of just a few days (weeks? months? years?), these effects grow more & more severe. It's the work of old age, it must be. Or perhaps it's the work of something far more sinister.
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I love Iain Reid's approach to storytelling. On the surface, it's simple, it's easy to read, but there's a complexity to it that makes his books feel light yet dense at the same time.
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Now enter, WE SPREAD; I want to call it a horror novel due to the underlying dread - crawling, creeping, inescapable dread - but this book is really more of an introspective character study bathed in gallons of existentialism. The horrific aspects aren't in your face, they're subtle, looming just over your shoulder & in your peripherals.
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The focus of the story is Penny & her struggles: with aging, with memory, with adjusting to her new life in Six Cedars. It's a quiet story, but Reid knows just how to work the levers and pulleys behind the scenes, cranking the wires of tension & the coils of mystery tighter & tighter & tighter. Within this smoke & mirrors act, he mines as much ambiguity as he can & molds it into sharp shadow shapes. Like a Rorschach of constant anxiety fueled by the unknown & what it can manifest.
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Despite the short length, WE SPREAD is a colossal iceberg of a novel. There's far, far more beneath the inky surface, beginning on the page & ending in the deep, dark corners of your own mind. It's a novel that allows for an ocean's worth of exploration in just water droplets of story, & it proves why Iain Reid is such an important voice in contemporary storytelling.
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Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC copy of this book. I already can't wait to read it again.

I devoured this book in a day, I was drawn in immediately and couldn’t put it down. In a way, I do think that’s the best way to read it since it sucks you in and draws you into the madness of the main character and her life. However, I felt that there were too many red herrings and loose ends to make this a cohesive piece. I get that ambiguity is very much Reid’s bag, and I am all for the discomforting, unclear ending that makes you question just what was real, but I generally felt confused and unsatisfied at the end of this novel. I needed just a little bit more, it felt like I was running up a spiral staircase only to reach a wall.

That said, the writing is wonderful, atmospheric I’ll certainly be thinking about it for a while and discussing it with anyone I can, so it’s definitely successful lthere.

NOPE...not for me! I had such high hopes for this book and the first 20% or so really hit home as I live alone and can identify with the main character, Penny. But the rest of the book gets weird and runs in different directions that makes it difficult to figure out what is happening. In fact, you never really get answers. Didn't care for it and won't recommend it.

This is the third novel by Iain Reid I have read and each one is original, creepy and thought provoking. As an older woman, this book about aging and the process of letting go of who you once were is both terrifying and interesting. This book can be taken at face value or as a metaphor for societies need for individuals to be productive and also the things that can be taken away from us as we age. Pat is an artist who lived for many years with her artist partner. After he dies, she finds herself lonely and trying to get by eating canned soup and living a quiet life. One day she has a bad fall and before she is even recovered she is hustled into a cab by her landlord and taken to a residential care facility in the country.

The landlord tells Penny she and her partner made arrangements to come to this care home but Penny cannot remember doing so and since they were city people she can't imagine them choosing a place buried deep in the woods. She also isn't consulted about which of her belongings to bring to this home. The home which is on a bluff surrounded by tress has only three other residents besides Penny. It is run by Shelley a creepy. cold woman and Jerry a nice orderly. Once Penny arrives she becomes quickly disoriented. She has a strict schedule of eating and attending meetings and is required to paint again, something she had long given up. She is told each resident much do something productive, one plays violin, one conjugates French verbs, one makes math equations. Only Penny senses something is terribly wrong with this place. Are we only important when we are productive? Should personal choice ever be taken away? Can we force senior citizens to live in a way we want them to instead of the way they want to? These are the questions posed in this very unique book and I felt a strong connection to Penny and her intelligent way of looking at the world. Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Another excellent novel from Iain Reid. I love how he weaves such deep and thoughtful themes into his books which also contain traces of the strange and horrifying -- but never so much that they subsume or overwhelm the message, and this is particularly skillfully handled here. "We Spread" is an excellent story addressing our fears of ageing and mortality. These subjects are treated sensitively, even when the events in the story are abstract. The story is ultimately truly touching and resonant.

There's so much to say about this book. Iain Reid is a genius and always finds a way to capture how unsettling some certain situations can be, especially when mind games are in the cards. I really want to re-read this book because of things I may have missed in the earlier parts. Iain Reid knows how to hook and audience and does it extremely well in this story. I had so many questions and felt so many emotions while reading Penny's story, something that normally doesn't happen to me. I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for this free arc in exchange for my honest review.

An unusual and arresting view of growing old. Not quite horror, but not a light read either. It sags in parts and struggles to keep the reader interested.

Penny has lived alone for a long time but after a recent fall, Mike, her landlord brings her to Six Cedars, a long-term care facility. It has all been arranged her informs her by her former partner to make things easier for her once she can no longer live alone.

At first, she is happy here. She is eating and sleeping well, something she did not do when she lived alone. She is making friends and enjoying human contact.

Then things begin to not seem so copacetic to her. Things are off. She is told she has been there for some time, but she knows she has only been there for 4 days. Penny can't quite understand what is happening, she is uneasy and suspicious.

Like Penny, readers will be left unsettled wondering what is going on. Residents are encouraged to eat, sleep, keep busy and be productive. Living a long life is important is stressed.

Is what Penny is experiencing the result of aging? Is there something sinister happening at the home?

I enjoyed how the book touched on loneliness, aging, the need for human connection, cognitive decline, memory, and death. As I mentioned, there is a sense of wariness, unease, and tension in the book. Reid masterfully set the stage in We Spread. Beautifully written and thought provoking.

This would make a great book club selection.


Thank you to Gallery Books, Gallery/Scout Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I don't really know how I feel about this book. It wasn't bad. liked the writing and the beginning of it, but I felt bored throughout a lot of it. I think it would make a good short film, though.

Thank you to Gallery/Scout Press and NetGalley for the early digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wrote a review on Instagram, and I think it sums up my thoughts on this book perfectly, so I’m just going to put that here as well.

What an unusual read, but that doesn’t surprise me coming from one of Reid’s books. I can see how this won’t be for everyone because of its strange, unusual, and eerie nature.

Would I consider this horror? Unless you’re talking about the “horrifying” thought of getting old, I wouldn’t label it that. I think suspenseful and nail biting is more in line with this one.

The characters are unsettling, but you never really know what’s happening. I could never tell what was a genuine conversation and what wasn’t. I thought at one point it was going down “The Truman Show” route. Then I discovered it absolutely was not.

Such a quick, unputdownable novel that I’d recommend if you like strange and ambiguous stories. With Reid’s novels, you’re on your own.

My goodreads review will be up within a day or two.

I thoroughly enjoyed this short and unsettling book about the horrors of losing ones self and memories as well as the miserable state of elder care in the modern western world. Reid succeeds in making the reader feel Penny's panic. We feel as lost in the novel's timeline as she does. Engrossing and creepy in the best way.

We Spread is beautifully written and left me feeling anxious and unsettled from the first page to the last. Iain Reid is a master when it comes to atmospheric writing. This book has a similar vibe to I’m Thinking of Ending Things and Foe so if you’re a fan of his other books you’re going to love this one.

My only gripe with this book was the seemingly abrupt ending. I wanted to learn more about the facility and the workers. Moreover I wanted to learn what the end goal was for the whole evil nursing home. I also really liked the character Jack and felt like I missed out on a lot of his story due to the first person perspective that the story is told from.

Overall it was a very engaging and binge worthy read and I think everyone should give it a shot.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

"Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. "

Wow, good read! The story has just enough 'what ifs' to keep you feeling off-kilter. After a slow beginning, the build up and the pacing of the story took off and was excellent. The ending adds volume and depth to the wonkiness felt throughout the book.

4.25☆

"We Spread" is a brilliant, short tale of madness from the highly-skilled Iain Reid. Full review to come.
Thank you NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Iain Reid does it again but this time it's more unsettling than before. As a senior citizen with years of experience in nursing homes, I marvel at what an ambiguous book this is. And how compulsively readable! Given the point of view, it could be read as straight-ahead horror or as a Kafkaesque view of life from a damaged brain, or both at once. Those with dementia are often undone by a change from the routine of home to the innate weirdness of hospital/nursing facility living. This would be an excellent read for book clubs. Highly recommended
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Iain Reid is incredible at building tension and unease. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves I'm Thinking of Ending Things! This is definitely a great book for buddy reads and discussions! It will be published September 27th! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐