I wasn’t sure what to expect with ‘We Spread’, but it was a lovely surprise! Penny, an elderly lady who is struggling to live at home by herself, is moved in to a very small, close-knit care home called Six Cedars. However, as time goes on and the staff start behaving oddly, Penny is unsure whether all is as it seems.

We Spread is quite a short book at around 300 pages, however it certainly is an engaging and compelling read which I finished in two sessions. I could not put it down! The story is very moving in places, particularly early on when Penny is trying to cope on her own and when she reminisces about her life. When she reaches the care home it is still sad but there is a real underlying malice and sinister air about the place. You can’t be sure what is going to happen and what might be revealed.

Penny is an unreliable narrator, her short-term memory is fading and she leaves notes to try and explain or remember certain pieces of information. As a result, some of the prose and dialogue is repeated slightly to remind us of this, although it is very well done and doesn’t feel tedious or repetitive. My mind jumped around from trying to work out if the care home and its unusual owner Shelley really had bad motives or if this paranoia was just a result of Penny’s old age.

The plot slowly and carefully increases the stakes and builds tension all the way up until the end when we get some more information. I still don’t really know what was real and what was Penny’s imagination by the end but I don’t mind at all – it was a good choice which leaves the reader thinking about the book for days after they’ve turned the final page.

Overall, We Spread is a moving and sinister read which kept me hooked throughout. I will certainly keep an eye out for more books by Iain Reid. Thank you to NetGalley & Simon & Schuster – Scribner UK for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This started off well, and Reid is
great at creating confusing, and claustrophobic narratives, but I was totally left wanting more. It was cool to read from an older perspective, and I thought the scattered nature of Penny's brain was done really well. I just felt like all the build up was a bit redundant in the end. Good news is, I felt pretty luke warm about I'm Thinking of Ending Things too, so if you liked that, then it's likely you'll enjoy this aswell.

Creepy! I can't think of a better way to kick off the "spooky" fall reading season than with this book! This is the first novel by Iain Reid I've read, although I did watch 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' on Netflix, and this has a lot of those same vibes - you don't quite know what's happening, but you have a sinking feeling that it's not good.

Artist Penny loses her long-time love and is moved into Six Cedars, an assisted-living facility in the woods where, oddly, there are just three other residents and two caretakers. They spend their days eating, talking, working, and sleeping. Then time starts bending, and Penny doesn't know if trouble is afoot or if she's just getting older and starting to lose her grasp on reality. This book explores time, aging, memory, and death and will have you furiously turning pages to unravel the mystery.

"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."

This is a short but nevertheless a disturbing book. Iain Reid’s books are always cryptic. Here we meet Penny. She lives alone after the loss of her longtime partner. She is old, how old she is we don’t know. Living alone is becoming difficult and after a fall she is transferred to a care home. Obviously her partner arranged everything and Penny is told she knew about it. But she can’t remember. When she arrives at the residence she is skeptical. But soon she finds it comforting to be taken care of. There are only three other people living there and two caretakers. But Penny got that feeling that something is happening there.

The story is unsettling and also sad. Penny is very old and we see what it means to get old. In your head you may think you are still the same but your body and mind will betray you. It is sad to see her decline. Her new friendship with Hilbert is so beautiful and we see the small things you can still enjoy in old age. But up until the abrupt ending you never know what is really going on. Is Penny losing her mind, has she dementia or is there really something sinister going on. Is the manager performing some dubious experiment or is it all in Penny’s head? What did the long years of loneliness did to her? This book is mysterious, creepy, atmospheric and also a bit philosophical. Iain Reid is an extraordinary writer and I am looking forward to read more from him in the future.

Iain Reid should sit down and go through his journals to locate which day he decided to become a writer. We should make that date a holiday. I don’t think We Spread is comparable to the story in I'm Thinking of Ending Things. But they are similar, in some ways. Both works present what is mundane and common in a quiet and dull way, but Reid adds a touch of fear and confusion. You don’t know what to trust or what to expect and when it’s all said and done, your head’s still full of thoughts you can’t make right.

The book follows Penny, an old lady who lives by herself and never leaves her house. Her partner died ages ago, she barely eats, and she knows she forgets things. Penny knows she’s reaching the end of her days alone, does not find pleasure in anything, barely eats, and needs to leave notes to herself to remember things. That is, til one day, she moves to a curious little care home that only hosts herself and three other residents. It’s all pleasant… until it isn’t.

Something that I noticed in the reviews of We Spread and Reid’s ‘Acknowledgements’, even, is how personally touched we all are by the story. My grandmother was in a care facility at some point and she passed away there; I remember visiting her every weekend and she would be sweet to everyone, yet sometimes she’d point out how the nurses would be up to something or other. I think I couldn’t really understand at the time (and I still don’t) how scary it can be to be taken from your home to such a place, losing all familiarity with a new routine that is dictated to you. Especially when your memory is now what it used to be, and especially when you’ve always been so independent.

I guess this book is not about this fear, but maybe it really is. I am not sure. Reid’s books seem to always leave all questions unanswered. I can never tell if he has an actual story in mind or if he’s putting something out for us to figure out whatever way feels right, but regardless, I am glad that this can either be an actual horror book or just a mundane thing that is left unspoken about and unnoticed. I’m bumping this to a 5 stars. I think horror book-wise, it’s a 4 stars; but if I look at it from another perspective, it’s def a 5 stars, so I’m going that way here.

Highly recommend.

Is this what we’ve got to look forward to as we age? Confusion? Delusion?

After falling while trying to fix a light, Penny is forced to leave the apartment she had shared with her partner of many years into a home that they had chosen many years previously, to live in their declining age. It’s a beautiful house set on huge grounds with forests in the distance. Penny can’t remember them making this provision when they were younger. Her memory is getting sketchy about all sorts of things, like why is there a potato next to her sink sprouting? When and how did it get there? Mike the manager of the apartments is forced to pack up for Penny and deliver her to her new home. She will be one of four residents in the home, run by the manager, Shelley and Jack, her assistant.

I found the book confusing at times. However, that is exactly what Iain Reid set out to do. Dementia is hard to understand and the person suffering from it has no idea where reality starts or ends. It’s certainly given me a completely distinctive look at how frustrating life can become for someone with the disease.

Rony

Elite Group received a copy of the book to review.

Iain Reid is a master storyteller.
Penny is an ageing lady who lives in an apartment alone since the death of her longtime partner. They had both been artists- he had ambition whereas Penny painted for pleasure. Her current living arrangement is not working for her as she declines in years. As a reader you can feel the despair and loneliness Penny is subjected to and so when Mike, her landlord, comes to tell her that she is moving to a special care facility as arranged by her partner before his death. Penny is confused but has no option but to go.
On arrival at the care facility Penny feels uncertain and overwhelmed but quite quickly she begins to develop friendships with the other 3 residents. She is eating better and sleeping comfortably all night and she soon accepts that moving here was the best thing she could have ever done.
All sorts of emotions are encompassed throughout the story adding a kind of creepy backdrop. Penny loses her perception of time passing her by and struggles a bit with the ageing process.
Highly recommended.

Ian Reid is quickly establishing himself as a master of the weird and unsettling. His first book I’m Thinking of Ending Things, also made into a Netflix film, had a main character who seemed to have a tenuous grip on reality. His follow-up Foe (also being made into a movie), takes a very science fiction premise and again ups the ambiguity. His third book, We Spread, does something similar but this time through a potentially more mainstream lens of dementia.
Penny’s partner was a famous artist. Penny also painted but had been clearly left in his shadow. When he passes away, Penny is left on her own in their apartment and finds herself lonely and struggling to cope. When she has a fall while changing a lightbulb she is moved to an exclusive old age care facility in the country that only has three other customers and two staff. At first Penny thrives in the new environment – she finds herself eating and sleeping better and even taking up painting again. But then things start to slip. She finds herself suspecting that things are not as they seem, she loses time, she loses memories.
We Spread is a deliberately disorienting book. The reader, seeing things from Penny’s perspective, is never clear whether there is something sinister going on or whether Penny is suffering from some form of dementia. Reid creates tension and uncertainty from the smallest details – the length of Penny’s nails, whispered conversations, scratch marks on the staircase. This disorientation seems designed to mimic possible the effects of age and dementia, particularly when people suffering or potentially suffering from dementia are moved out of their familiar environments into a completely new place. If Reid’s intention was to makes readers think about those consigned to old age homes, and to see things from their perspective then he has succeeded.

Just as in his other great novel Foe, Iain Reid masterfully combines words, thoughts and ideas that are for the reader to read, think about and finally understanding the story.
What happens with the inhabitants of the very luxurious care residence Penny is suddenly living in - for she herself had no idea that her late husband made provisions for her - is not spelled out meticulously and this adds to the feeling there is something wrong with the whole set-up. This story is meant to be read between the lines; there are actually some signs that point to what is really happening but they are very subtle.
Not a book to rush through, but to read slowly - I only read it one time but I think that when you read this book more than once, you may discover even more interesting things in it.

I loved this story. This is the first book that I have read by Iain Reid, and it certainly won't be the last.

Penny is an older artist who has lived most of her life in the same apartment. Her partner is long gone and her home is full of mental and physical remembrances of her life.

When she has an accident, she's made aware that her deceased partner had prearranged for her to have a room in a very unusual old folks' home. There are only another three elderly people resident - Ruth Hilbert, and Pete. The house is in a beautiful setting in woods that circle the house. On the first night, Penny has her best and most comfortable sleep in years. Looked after by Jack and Shelley, and occasionally rubbed on by Gorky the cat, Penny starts to become very unsettled as she loses track of time and actions. She thinks she has been at the home for only four days, but is told it has been three years. These 'incidents' start to accumulate at a steady rate as the poignant and chilling atmosphere builds.

What Penny goes through, the reader also feels - vividly. The author has the feelings of loneliness, confusion, isolation, indignity, and terror absolutely spot on. Is this the effects of aging or something more sinister? The ending was just perfection. I don't think I've ever felt such a rapport with a work that wasn't an artwork.

I chose this ARC from a selection. I voluntarily and honestly read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. My thanks to the publisher, NetGalley, and the author.

Very thought provoking, quite disturbing and overall just amazing!
If you've enjoyed Reid's previous works, We Spread won't disappoint you at all.
Highly recommend!
Thanks for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I finished this book in one sitting, not only because it was short but also the language and writing of Iain Reid flowed easily and beautifully.

Starting this book I had thought it would take us on a journey of grief and loss, but I quickly found that I was wrong. We Spread sheds a light on the scary parts of aging; physical changes, memory loss, fear of death, paranoia, or even the inevitable sense of loneliness despite being part of a community or a family.

Because I’ve seen I’m Thinking of Ending Things, I found myself continuously trying to find and figure out the plot twist, but then I quickly realized that it was intended for me as a reader to go on this journey confused and afraid as if I were Penny. As she was questioning her own reality, I found myself questioning my own perception and understanding of the author’s words.

This was a fast, yet heavy and enlightening read. I look forward to picking up the author’s other works.

"Art and surrealism encompassed my life..."

Iain Reid's previous novels, I'm Thinking of Ending Things and Foe, were compelling and intriguing, but I feel he's excelled himself with We Spread (even though I'm not sure I properly understood it).

Penny is an elderly artist, bereaved of her long term partner, her mind more fragile than it once was, and we see everything through her perceptions. No longer deemed able to live alone, she's admitted to a unique, very small residential care facility, Six Cedars (succeeders??), set among trees, with only four residents and, apparently, two staff - manager Shelley and a young man called Jack. It's a comfort to be warm and fed and cared for, to have the company of the other residents, Ruth, Hilbert and Pete - not that Pete has much to say - but things gradually become more unsettling. Reality and time seems to be slipping, and why can't she go outside? What's real and what isn't?

We see what Penny sees, feel what she feels, and it's both deeply sinister and rather beautiful. It's got elements of horror, certainly - in a subtle way - but also feels like a tender meditation on ageing.

An enthralling read which I will probably need to read again in the near future, and I look forward to reading other people's views on it.

I wasn't sure what to make of this book. It was pretty disturbing, and different. I do like writers who think outside the box, and I don't think this author had a box in the first place. This was a highly original take on old age and how it takes over ,not an easy read, and at times not a comfortable read, but not a book that is forgettable.

Iain Reid writes incredible, literary, thought provoking works of art that genuinely defy genre.

His stories tend to have a strong sense of isolation running through the narratives, his trademark if you like, each novel explores the human condition in unique and emotionally resonant ways. Anyone who drew in a sharp breath through the final page of the intensely brilliant "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" will know exactly what I mean.

We Spread examines the onset of old age through its main protagonist and her slowly slipping sense of time and place, it is both disturbing and beautiful- beyond my ability to describe it, this is a full on amazing read.

For a short book, Ian Reid's extraordinary genre defying novel makes quite the chilling emotional impact, leaving me shaking my head on finishing, wondering what on earth I had read. He explores the themes of art, getting older, beginning to feel the inevitable decline in our physical health and mental faculties, losing agency over lives, and the nature of our relationships. What starts out as the all too ordinary soon moves into darker and more unsettling territory, but nothing is certain, all is ambiguous. Penny is an elderly artist, she has lived in her small apartment home for decades, surrounded by all that she has accrued during her long life. She has learned to accept and accommodate what comes with old age, but matters have come to a head with a few 'incidents'.

Her longtime partner passed away many years earlier, but had made provisions that she knew nothing of. Which is how she finds herself with a room in a long-term care facility. At first, all appears fine and normal, with Penny conversing and mixing with others, but soon time becomes blurred, more difficult to differentiate, her sense of self and grip on life begins to slide away from her. Is what is happening all part of the normal ageing process or is something more sinister at play? The talented Reid writes beautifully, building a menacing level of tension and atmosphere, incorporating elements of horror, that draws in the reader with ease from start to finish, whilst touching on issues that none of us can escape from as we all inevitably get older.

A short, disturbing, captivating and thought provoking read on life and death that I recommend highly. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I'm a massive fan of Iain Reid's previous novels and was delighted to get offered We Spread for an early review.
This tale of an elderly woman who ends up in a unique and exclusive nursing home has all the dread and tension you'd expect from Reid. What it also has is a striking emotional depth and a sensitive insight into aging, accepting support and self-determination.
It is a fascinating exploration into what we want or expect from life as we grow older and the choices that we need to make by and for ourselves.
We Spread doesn't have the same horror/ thriller vibe as his two previous books, but instead offers something much more substantial.

In Iain Reid's latest, we're focusing on Penny, an aging artist and a widower, who is moved into a long-term care facility to live out the rest of her days.

That, as a premise within this genre, was an immediate YES for me. I've been really fascinated by and interested in how horror interprets old age. Long story short, it's pretty ageist most of the time, and I'm still trying to figure out why. Why we see horror movies and read horror books in which the elderly are depicted as scary, as an element of horror, as a crutch to help raise the hair on the back of your neck. Or, simply, as decrepit. Their old age something that should be fixed or eliminated.

The most recent example that comes to mind is MANOR (2021), in which a 70-something woman moves into a facility after an incident. The aforementioned happens in succession. MANOR is, actually, very similar to WE SPREAD in plot. At least certain aspects of it. But where I was disappointed with MANOR, WE SPREAD never let me down.

(That was a very long-winded intro to I THINK THIS BOOK IS AWESOME.)

We Spread is and isn't a horror-thriller novel. It's extremely tender, the language transports you into Penny's mind, and it becomes more like a mash-up of MANOR and THE FATHER. (I know I'm comparing a lot, but I really *am* invested in these explorations of old age, please bear with me). WE SPREAD just does something utterly beautiful - it carried me through Penny's life, it made me feel exactly the way she was feeling, it gave me the same kind of doubt, and regret, and confusion, and ultimately, something more. Peace, maybe, or perhaps we can call it a very nostalgic kind of acceptance of... everything.

WE SPREAD leaves a lot up for discussion and interpretation, and I love that as well.

Overall, this was just incredibly good and I'm really glad I got to read it. Would absolutely recommend - it's thrilling but it goes a lot deeper than that. It's just... human. I loved it.

Interesting premise and great build up of suspense, capturing the loneliness and uncertainty of old age.

I had only read one of Reid's previous novels 'I'm thinking of end things' which I thought was fantastic. It was definitely not my usual type of novel which I think made it even better.

So when I say his new novel on Netgalley I knew I had to request.

Penny lives alone after the death of her long term partner. After a few falls, it is clear she is unable to live alone and is moved to an assisted living facility, a very small scale care home with only a handful of residents.

When she gets there, she begins to lose a grip on reality.....or does she?

Reid definitely has an immense talent as an author of taking a subject and with sparse, gentle writing making it into a novel which will definitely make you think.

I am not quite sure about the ending but then, given the subject matter, I am not quite sure I need to be and am not quite sure it matters.

Massive thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK, Scribner UK, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review