In Iain Reid’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, a ramshackle farmhouse in the middle of nowhere may be the creepiest home since Norman Bates took up residence at the top of the hill in Psycho. (Photo by Teresa Alexander-Arab, Flickr)

Have you ever read a book that was brilliantly written, and yet so shocking in its denouement, it left you feeling so ponderous you simply had to talk about it with friends to make sense of it all? Iain Reid’s debut novel, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, is one such book.

Scout Press

The novel starts with a man and his girlfriend driving to the country across a frosty landscape to the family farm where she will meet his parents for the very first time. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship knows this is already a stressful situation. But this book isn’t about turning anxiety into humorous moments straight…