We Spread

Written by Iain Reid

Narrated by Robin Miles

The author of the “evocative, spine-tingling, and razor-sharp” (Bustle) I’m Thinking of Ending Things that inspired the Netflix original movie and the “short, shocking” (The Guardian) Foe returns with a new work of suspense following an elderly woman trapped in a mysterious facility.

Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.”

Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?

At once compassionate and uncanny, told in spare, hypnotic prose, Iain Reid’s “exquisite novel of psychological suspense” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Sep 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781797144252

Iain Reid

Iain Reid is the author of four previous books, including his New York Times bestselling debut novel I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which has been translated into more than twenty languages. Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman wrote and directed the film adaptation for Netflix. His second novel, Foe, is being adapted for film, starring Saoirse Ronan, with Reid cowriting the screenplay. His latest novel is We Spread. Reid lives in Ontario, Canada. Follow him on Twitter @Reid_Iain.

Reviews for We Spread

[Jennifer Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This one will definitely stick with me for a while.

[Kisha West · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a very interesting book. I enjoyed reading it. Lots of unanswered questions but an entertaining read.

[Billie · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

We Spread
by Iain Reid
Contemporary Suspense
Scribd Audio

Penny has lived in her same apartment for years, surrounded by the things that she'd collected throughout her life, then after a fall, she finds that before her partner died, he had made sure she had a place to go when she could no longer care for herself. She has no memory of this, even though she was told she was with him when the arrangements were made.

Taken from the only place she knew, and felt safe, she becomes the fourth resident in a long-term care home and her days begin to blur together. But is it because of her age or for some other reason?

Told in first person through Penny's eyes, the reader only knows what Penny knows, what she believes, and thinks. Penny's thoughts of how different those around her acted, from the other residents to her caretakers; having worked in a nursing home, I have seen these things, but this story wasn't any different than what healthcare workers see every day.

I think it was the first-person point of view and only having it from Penny that made this story not that suspenseful. Other characters' points of view would have added more depth, and more questions about Penny's grip on reality, giving and taking away from Penny's accusations, thus giving the reader more to think about and adding to the mystery.

There was nothing scary about this book, other than the page count vs price. And the suspense or mystery part of the story is just an everyday occurrence for those who have worked with the elderly, especially with those who have memory issues.

For me, the most memorable thing about this story is when Penny takes a tissue from her sweater sleeve. Shirt sleeves are the best tissue holders.

2 Stars

[MyFirstName MyLastName · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So this is the last time I'm going to write a review for this site because the voice recognition is terrible . And it's greatly delayed . And trying to go back and edit it is a nightmare because the scroll function makes it impossible to actually see the words you're trying to edit. This must be the first time and all my years of listening to books and reading them that I'm not sure what I'm supposed to understand actually happened. It reads like a thriller where there's ongoing tension between the main character and the woman who runs the medical facility. A lot of twists and turns where the elderly woman, a resident there, is either being badly gaslit, has dementia, or even something Supernatural. There's a lot of detailed back and forth in search of that answer and the end in my opinion is anti-climactic andl more toward and Alice Munro kind of book. It seems to Peter out in a little rush of magical realism / spiritual musing even though there is what some people might consider a little surprise to the ending. I got the feeling especially since they were clues that we're never followed to the end or resolved, that the writer didn't know what she wanted the message to be or the answer to the puzzle until she got to the last chapter and decided that that was the answer itself... or something. With that kind of book if you're reading it you can just flip back to the page where it clearly turned the corner and tried to discern where the writer is heading with that and then whether the remaining paragraphs bear that out just to be sure you haven't misunderstood. But when it's an audiobook, you would have to fast forward and back on the screen while walking the dogs, so it's irritating and too much trouble. So if you're thinking it's a thriller with a supernatural component it would be disappointing . to those who are looking more for acommentary on life's Biggest Mysteries, those lengthy somewhat repetitious suspenseful wonderings and wanderings by the main character might be distracting and tiring. There is at least one important relationship that is never fully resolved and interaction between the main character and one of the caregivers there that also seems to be left hanging. The ending is supposed to resolve everything I suppose however it doesn't anymore then having someone die of a heart attack in old age resolves all of their issues with former Associates. Ending and resolution are not of course the same thing! The narrator added a lot of emotion and suspense. She did such a good job that even when there. was what felt like repetition and it otherwise would have dragged, she kept me interested. But those are the same parts that seemed meant to add suspense but came to what felt like nothing in the end. So maybe the narrator was too good at that. There are some special moments in the book. One is a moment between two Elders who feel an attraction and their attraction to each other is handled in a way that is more realistic and honest and yet more complex and interesting then the usual tropes. You know the ones about the Dapper little gentleman with a bow tie hoarding some little elderly lady who has the voice like Aunt bees getting all in a dither about her romantic feelings toward the Dapper little white haired man with a cane. Ad nauseam as though we all turn into those people when we age. So there were some scenes like that that I found very realistic and that made them intriguing. I think this author could do a wonderful job if he or she knew whether they wanted to write a thriller or something purely realistic and thoughtful. My apologies for all of the typos and the run-on sentences. The voice recognition for this is terrible and when I try to edit, it's nearly impossible to do so. The scroll function goes crazy so that it's impossible to see where I am in the text or for the text to hold still long enough for me to make a change. That's infuriating and I won't bother to do it again. I complained about that a year ago and the year before that and they still haven't fixed it!

[Heidi Sheehan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Definitely different and intriguing. The thought of losing time and feeling like you are losing your mind is terrifying.

[Nathaniel Sofranko · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What did I just listen to? Again, Iain Reid is weird and I liked it, but there's so many theories about what is happening!

[Rachel · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good to listen to when you have some almost mindless tasks to do that require minimal thinking. You can half listen and half do what you're supposed to be doing. You don't really need to concentrate on the story so much, and you can zone out a few times and not miss anything important; which I suppose was the intention with the meandering old woman narration. The person reading annoyed me more than a bit. She can't really do voices that well. She sounds convincing enough as an old lady but when she reads conversations between characters she slips sometimes and they end up sounding the same at random points and she often sounds confused (not sure if it was written that way but it gets annoying halfway through). I'm not sure those sentences were written to end in question marks, but a lot of times she says them like they are questions, it's really annoying after the halfway point.

[Amanda Dale · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this author’s other books so I had high hopes for this one. This was a disappointment, sadly. The story line dragged on and on as the book spent most of the time focused on truly irrelevant details that end up having no bearing on the outcome.

[S. Moore · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I sincerely dislike ambiguous endings. And this novel had one doozy of one.

[Diana Reese Puckett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Iain Reed is a brilliant writer and has a way to take the ordinary and twist it into something sinister. The narrator did a great job bringing the story to life. This novel was fast and brilliantly written genre bending tale. As thought provoking as it was unnerving

[Amanda Rens-Moon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It gave me a lot to consider. How fluid is reality, if we can't trust our memory? Are we only as valuable as the work we complete? Great aging questions like self determination, dignity, and quality of life vs quantity of life.

[melissa jackson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I appreciate the complexity of getting older and battling what is true and what isn’t. It’s a scary thought when loses all sense of a cognitive mind

[Cheri Redmond · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Terrible, don't waste time on this one,disappointing idk why hyped