What are you reading? "We Spread" by Lain Raid

 Noelia's contribution

The Book

I'm torn between recommending We Spread by Iain Reid or not.

Amazon

The novel follows Penny, an elderly woman who lives alone in her apartment, surrounded by countless handwritten notes that help her remember what she is increasingly forgetting. After an accident, she is moved to a care home, setting the stage for a story that is as unsettling as it is thought-provoking.

The novel is divided into three parts. The first was, without a doubt, my favourite. Reid gives Penny the space to reflect on her youth, her marriage, and the life she has lived, while gradually revealing the extent of her cognitive decline. It's clear that she needs help, yet she fiercely resists the idea of losing her independence. These opening chapters are both moving and deeply human.

The second part explores an especially sensitive subject: the experience of being uprooted because of dementia. Reid brilliantly captures the confusion, fear, and grief of being forced to leave behind the home that holds a lifetime of memories in exchange for an unfamiliar place where others insist you'll be better cared for. Through Penny's eyes, the care home feels alien, even threatening. Everyday routines become oppressive, the constant supervision feels suffocating, and strange events begin to unfold that she cannot make sense of. At the same time, she forms unexpected friendships, leading to thoughtful conversations about life, time, memory, and what gives our existence meaning. This section was easily the highlight of the novel for me.

Unfortunately, the third part didn't work nearly as well. It tries to sustain the novel's growing sense of mystery and unease, but the suspense gradually loses its impact, and I found the ending far more predictable than I had hoped. Rather than deepening the story's emotional core, the narrative leans more heavily into psychological horror, and for me, it never fully succeeds.

Overall, We Spread offers a compelling and deeply empathetic portrayal of dementia from the perspective of the person experiencing it. Its greatest strength lies in showing how frightening and disorienting it is to lose not only your memories, but also your home, your independence, and your sense of self. While the novel occasionally loses its way in its attempt to become a work of psychological horror, it remains an insightful and emotionally resonant exploration of ageing, memory, and identity.

The Author

Simon & Schuster - Ian Reid

Iain Reid is a Canadian novelist, screenwriter, and former journalist best known for blending psychological suspense with literary fiction. Before turning to novels, he worked as a columnist and nonfiction writer, experiences that sharpened his keen observational style and interest in the complexities of human behavior.

He made his fiction debut with I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2016), an acclaimed psychological novel that was later adapted into a film by director Charlie Kaufman. Reid followed it with Foe (2018), a haunting exploration of identity, relationships, and technology, which was also adapted for the screen. With We Spread (2022), he shifted his focus to aging, memory, and dementia, crafting a deeply unsettling novel that examines the fragility of perception and the fear of losing one's sense of self.

Across all his work, Reid has established a distinctive voice characterized by sparse, elegant prose, slow-burning psychological tension, and stories that blur the line between reality and imagination, inviting readers to question both the narrator's perspective and their own assumptions.