🪲🪲🪲 3/5 Beetles – A clever psychological drama with light sci-fi elements, but I wanted to like this more than I did.
Format: Kindle
Read: September 2024
Foe is another book that had been on my reading list for quite some time, ever since I read We Spread. I’d read some opinions where readers thought Foe was more complete and better executed, but I’d actually disagree now I’ve read both. I think what they mean is We Spread is – very intentionally – ambiguous, while Foe does have a clearer ending for the central mystery.
Foe tells the story of a young married couple, in a vague but not too distant future. A mysterious man – Terrence – turns up and disrupts their quiet county life with the news that Junior has been short listed for a space mission, and they must begin preparing for his absence. That is about as far as the science-fiction element goes, otherwise this is a very grounded examination of a marriage.
As with We Spread, Iain Reid is excellent at building a slow creeping atmosphere. The setting is vague, given the isolation of their home and vastness of the canola fields I picture it as somewhere in the USA, but it could be anywhere. The characters are incredibly ordinary, there is nothing special or remarkable about Junior or Hen which makes events feel all the more uneasy and random. The chapters are very short which keeps momentum, and I felt pulled along with Junior as control slips away with Terrence inserting himself in their life.
As with We Spread, it would be an interesting one to reread and look for clues. I definitely recommend reading this one as the author uses punctuation marks as a subtle indicator, and that would be lost in audio format!
However, it has a few flaws. Firstly the twist is easy to see coming, although I do think it was well executed. Secondly, the middle gets a little bogged down in the mundanities of life and really dragged. Just as I was getting fed up with Juniors passivity things turned around and I read the last quarter in one sitting.
I can’t really say anything else about it without spoiling it!
I would definitely read more Iain Reid, I’ll see if I can get hold of I’m Thinking of Ending Things. I’d also love to find more authors that write this kind of weird, quiet paranoid horror.
The cover indicates there is a Prime movie adaptation of Foe, I’m not really sure how well this would work as a movie. It stars Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan, and reviews indicate even they couldn’t make this an entertaining film. Stick with the book!
REVIEW SUMMARY
I LIKED
- Cleverly executed. The unremarkable characters, vague setting and mundanity of their lives make Terrance’s arrival feel all the more sinister.
- Effective building of tension and paranoia.
- Love the author dropping subtle hints, watch out for his use of punctuation.
- I enjoy trying to read the story between the lines!
I DIDN’T LIKE
- The middle did drag.
- The twist is easy to predict.
