Simon & Schuster We Spread

Great read

Absolutely loved this book, which will be a difficult read for some as it touches on dark areas of our lives that we’d rather not think too much about. Beautifully written, compelling and disturbing it is a true thriller (horror?) story for our times.

Halfway through and loving it!

I liked this story -- the plot, the characters, the potential. Jumping right in, to my mind, there were two possible scenarios: Penny was suffering from dementia -or- she was suffering from dementia and she was residing at a care facility which was working to increase our lifespan by experimenting on senior people. My gut told me there was no plan by the employees of the care facility to experiment on seniors. I believe Penny was in the beginning stages of dementia when she was removed from her home by the apartment manager. Several examples were given (i.e., not caring for herself or her home, knocking on wall, person watching her from outside, suspicious maintenance man). And after she moved to the care facility, her disease kept progressing. There were many examples of this, both in what she thought was happening around her and the things that were happening to her (i.e., things growing on her and others, turning into someone else, losing time). She was confused, scared and concerned about everything. I know that dementia can be a terrifying disease. I wanted to think there was a plot involved, but ultimately came to the conclusion that the story was really about a woman suffering from dementia who was spiraling downward. So, four stars in my opinion -- one for the characters, one for the plot and its potential, one for the location and one for the nice dust cover. I would have given it five stars, but found it rather frustrating to not get any definitive answers from the author.

We Spread has the classic uncanny atmosphere of an Iain Reid novel. Having a narrator of 90 years of age was new and interesting, and it felt like my own mind was spiralling along with hers. It was definitely a slow burner and not as eerie as Reid’s previous 2 novels, but still loved it and recommend it!