Book 22 of 2026 🎧 I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (3/5⭐️)
I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always.
Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.”
And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here.
In this smart and intense literary suspense novel, Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude.
This book was…odd. I feel like when I added it to my TBR ages ago I thought that the title referred to one’s life, not a relationship. But then the whole book she was saying she was thinking of ending her relationship, which threw me.
I listened to this on audio, and I had to re-start it a handful of times. I wouldn’t get more than 10 minutes in when I’d realized I hadn’t paid any attention to the story. I contemplated DNFing it, so I went to read the reviews to help me make my choice.
It didn’t help. Some people thought it was great, some people had no idea what they’d just read. It does have an adaptation on Netflix, so I decided I’d power through, then watch the show to see what I thought. (I listened to this at the beginning of April. It is now a month later and I completely forgot there is an adaptation on Netflix. Honestly, I don't even remember how this book ended, but based on my notes it must have been an intriguing ending!)
I actually ended up listening to almost all of it in one day. To be fair, it’s a short listen - like 5 or 6 hours.
Did I love it? No did I hate it? Also, no. I am glad that I decided to power through, but I will say if you choose to listen to this book, make sure you’re paying very good attention. Especially when it comes to the end.
Strange things happen in Fell, New York. A mysterious drowning at the town’s roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For the Esmie siblings—Violet, Vail, and Dodie—the final straw was the shocking disappearance of their little brother. It started as a normal game of hide-and-seek. The three closed their eyes and counted to ten while Ben went to hide. But this time, they never found their brother—he was gone and the ongoing search efforts turned up no clues.
As their parents grew increasingly distant, Violet, Vail, and Dodie were each haunted by visions and frightening events that made them leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people—spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years.
And now after two decades running from their past, it’s time for a homecoming. Because Ben is back, and he’s ready to lead them to the answers they’ve longed for and long feared. If the ghosts of Fell don’t get to them first.
Oh, this is a good one. I probably could’ve read it all in a day, had I had the free time. It was a good mix of suspense and supernatural. I’ve enjoyed everything by St. James, and my only regret is not physically reading all of her books. There were a couple I listened to on audio that I enjoyed, but I think would’ve had a bigger impact had I read them with my eyeballs. If you’re into ghostie stories, this one is a good one!
Some doors should never be opened.
Was it bitter, all-consuming jealousy? Pathological sibling rivalry? Pure insanity?
Whatever the cause―and everyone has a theory―it's the Crime of the Decade when glamorous Georgia Cartwright, who was adopted as a newborn, is accused of killing the biological daughter of her wealthy, Southern family.
Georgia is locked in a psychiatric institution where the most violent offenders are held while she awaits trial. The only words she whispers when her estranged twin sister Amanda visits are, “I didn’t do it. You’ve got to get me out of here.”
Amanda doesn't trust Georgia, but she can't abandon her in a place so eerie and menacing that it seems to exist in another dimension. Is Georgia the victim of a powerful family that's so depraved murder is the least of their crimes? Or is Amanda being led down a path of madness into the web of a master manipulator?
Pekkanen’s isn’t a name I see recommended often and I don’t know why. Everything I’ve read by her, including her collabs with Greer Hendricks, have been great. I listened to the majority of this in two days. It was fast paced, and I had a million possible scenarios for the ending constantly running through my head. The characters were likeable, though I was always wondering if they were reliable narrators or not.
FREE on Kindle Unlimited!
Book 25 of 2026 🎧 The Mother Next Door by Andrea Dunlop and Mike Weber (4/5⭐️)
No bond is more sacred than that between a mother and child. And no one is more sympathetic than a mother whose child faces a life-threatening illness. But what if the mother is the cause of the illness? What if the sympathy is the point?
Munchausen by proxy (MBP) has fascinated and horrified both professionals and the general public since this disturbing form of child abuse was first identified. But even as the public has been captivated by these tales of abuse and deception, there remains widespread misinformation and confusion about MBP. Are these mothers unfeeling psychopaths, or sick women who need help? And more important, how can we protect the children whose lives are at stake?
The Mother Next Door offers a groundbreaking look at MBP from an unlikely duo: a Seattle novelist whose own family was torn apart by it, and the Texas detective who has worked on more medical child abuse cases than anyone in the nation. Readers ride along on three high-stakes MPB investigations; through riveting reporting and shocking stories from the family members, friends, and doctors caught in the blast zone of these unthinkable acts, a twisted portrait of motherhood and deceit is revealed.
With help from some of the top MBP experts in the world, Dunlop and Weber uncover the complex maze of psychological, systemic, and cultural issues that compound MBP and offer solutions for how we might find our way out.
Munchausen by proxy is such a fascinating phenomenon to me. Its such an underreported and underprosecuted crime, and I can only imagine how many children experience this because it is so hard to prove and even harder to prosecute. As I listened to this, I couldn’t help but think of a student I once had whose mom had nothing nice to say about her. In fact, when I told mom nice things, she pulled her out of school. I never had any proof of anything, but some days I do still wonder. I thought the author(s) did a great job turning fact and reality into a story that was informative, but not boring. Its typical for adults who work professionally with children to be trained to watch out for your typical kinds of abuse, but not MBP, and it makes me wonder how many kids fly under the radar because people don't know the signs.
Renee Ballard works the midnight shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing few, as each morning she turns everything over to the daytime units. It's a frustrating job for a once up-and-coming detective, but it's no accident. She's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.
But one night Ballard catches two assignments she doesn't want to part with. First, a prostitute is brutally beaten and left for dead in a parking lot. All signs point to a crime of premeditation, not passion, by someone with big evil on his mind. Then she sees a young waitress breathe her last after being caught up in a nightclub shooting. Though dubbed a peripheral victim, the waitress buys Ballard a way in, and this time she is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her partner's wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night.
As the investigations intertwine, Ballard is forced to face her own demons and confront a danger she could never have imagined. To find justice for these victims who can't speak for themselves, she must put not only her career but her life on the line.
I’ve read a detective Ballard novel before, but I was pleased to see that in my Michael Connolly stash, I had the first book in her series. To start, I am so envious of her lifestyle. Works nights as a detective, goes paddle boarding when she gets off, showers at the beach, and sleeps in a tent on the beach during the daytime before going back to work. I could never do it, but man, what a life that would be. I find Detective Ballard to be a very likeable character, and very much a badass. I need to track down the rest of the books in her offshoot of the Harry Bosch universe!
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(Summaries are from Amazon, but all thoughts about them are my own!)
Reading Challenge: 13/52 physical books read in 2026
Total Books Read in 2026: 26
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