Foe: A Novel
Written by Iain Reid
Narrated by Jacques Roy
4/5
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About this audiobook
A taut, psychological thriller from Iain Reid, “one of the most talented purveyors of weird, dark narratives in contemporary fiction” (Los Angeles Review of Books).
Severe climate change has ravaged the country, leaving behind a charred wasteland. Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable if solitary life on one of the last remaining farms. Their private existence is disturbed the day a stranger comes to the door with alarming news.
Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm, but the most unusual part is that arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Henrietta won’t have a chance to miss him. She won’t be left alone—not even for a moment. Henrietta will have company. Familiar company.
Told in Iain Reid’s sparse, biting style, Foe is a “mind-bending and genre-defying work of genius” (Liz Nugent, author of Unraveling Oliver) that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.
Iain Reid
Iain Reid is the author of the critically acclaimed comic memoir One Bird's Choice, which won the CBC Bookie Award for Best Nonfiction Book. His writing has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and online in publications such as the Globe and Mail, Reader's Digest, and The Classical. He writes regularly about books and writing for the National Post. His work has also appeared on CBC Radio and NPR. He lives in Kingston, Ontario.
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Reviews for Foe
702 ratings43 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well constructed with an eerie pace and thematic similarity to Asimov or Dick. A bit predictable, and stretched out to be a novel, but an easy, thought-provoking read nonetheless.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5slow burn despite length of book
Science Fiction (futuristic)
Marriage
Creepy
Unexpected twist
Would recommend to SF readers1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unsettling and subtle sci-fi that makes you feel slightly off-kilter.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great narration hence 4 stars instead of 3 !! When it comes to the book itself , it has 2 strong points- the beginning and the end. The middle could have been so much more exciting and thought-provoking but instead it fell flat and felt very pseudo-deep and like a prolonging of the conclusion (which, let's be honest, was predictable ... ) *** SPOILER ALERT *** i really disliked the real junior so I'm kinda glad H left while leaving an imposter behind ??♀️ I think that made this worth the while
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Audiobook was riveting from the start. Great mysterious tale has element of strangeness, horror, science fiction. Held my attention as few stories do. Will definitely read the author’s other book.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I loved this book! Weird, thought provoking, & touching. My kind of Science Fiction.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Another philosophical thriller by Iain Reid.
This revolves around the complexities of marriage and long committed relationship. It also tackles the themes of isolation, contentment and aversion to change.
I also like the scientific possibilities this one told.
The Title is Perfect. An indirect double entendre.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I found this strange and interesting look at what makes us human.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really good! Creepy with slow burning suspense. Great narrator. I kept thinking about this book for days after I finished.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I suggest reading this over listening to it as the audiobook lacks the grammatical differences that you need to see to get the point of the ending.
This is a very high 3 stars. If it had been more creepy and ominous (cough like his first book cough) this definitely could have been a 4 or 5.
Otherwise this is an Iain Reid and I ain’t gonna say shit about it cuz you should read it.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was weird, sinister, unnerving, uncomfortable. A slow burn of a book, not a typical thriller but very thought provoking.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved everything about it. The thrill!! I finished it in a day. And the narration was commendable.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I really enjoyed the subtlety of this book. The pacing was great so that the eerie, wrongness of things crept up on you. Loved it.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You know something is off about her husband but you cant put your finger on it. And from his perspective, you’re trying to figure out why his wife and their guest behave in odd ways when no one is watching. What the hell is going on? Keeps you sucked in till the last page, loved the ending!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Um livro que te deixa na dúvida todo o tempo e que consegue deixar na dúvida mesmo no fim
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A little over stretched in the middle. But the execution of the last few chapters, even if you can see it coming, is excellent, worth the wait.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is really good. It was very interesting to see how things turned out. I was mad at Terrance for a while. Book was really good over all.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A interesting take on AI vs human experience, kept my interest and left me with questions since it's such a short book
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Strange story that grew boring. Ending not totally surprising. Not recommended.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Very anticlimactic - like they skipped the whole part where her actually leaves.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is my kind of weird! There's something wrong with everyone in my opinion, but what's real and what is ordinary?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is so depressing yet so gripping. I couldn't put it down. The story reminded me a lot of Black Mirror which is one of my favourite shows. I also loved I'm thinking of ending things so I will definitely be checking out more of Mr. Reid's works.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The story was good, I really like the concept. There was too much internal monolog which frankly, made it boring. I’m not completely turned off of the author, but he’s lost some points.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It was ok. The story was interesting but also very predictable.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This was awful. Extremely slow and the wife is a horrible person.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very few books surprise me anymore. This book surprised me. I did not see that coming. Excellent story and excellent narration. This has been my favorite audiobook of the year so far.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I feel like this might be a book that divides people, but in the end I really liked this. I'd read Reid's debut book, so I knew what to expect going into this.
There's always a risk at slipping into being gimmicky, and I usually prefer straight forward text. So from the start, I was a little wary because of the use of the quotation marks in dialogue. However, a little goes a long way and it ended up working as a nice little flavoring, as there weren't any other typographical tricks in the book.
I caught on to the twist pretty early on, which was probably the whole point what with all the hinting at it, but what I didn't really guess was where the author was going to end the story. Personally, I loved the ending, even more so than with "I'm Thinking of Ending Things".
This is one of those books where I loved the writing, but I'm not quite sure why. Something about how crisp and effective it was. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on any future work of Reid's. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I was really expecting to be creeped out and/or unsettled by this one, but mostly I was just confused. The premise made me think this one would be a winner for me: man essentially gets drafted into some sort of vaguely-described space program where he'll be taken away from his wife for a long period of time. So the company in charge of all this barges into their lives and says they'll be studying this man's movements, demeanor, habits - everything - so they can make a lifelike replica of him to keep his wife company while he's away. And once the company gets rolling, the man and his wife are almost never left alone to talk about what is going on. So that seems cool. Only, it was equal parts boring and confusing. I didn't like Junior or his wife Hen, and I didn't care what was happening to them. In fact, they didn't seem to care about what was happening either. As I neared the end and figured out the twist, their apathy became more understandable, but I wish everything had been done cleverly. All the conversations in the book seem stilted, incomplete, and almost out of left field. The characters weren't really fleshed out and there wasn't even really a spooky atmosphere. There were a few scenes with like...horned beetles? Those made no sense and I'm not sure if they were supposed to be spooky. There was also a small bit of body horror involving dental floss. But otherwise, I wasn't creeped or unsettled by this. There was an extra twist at the end that also kind of left me scratching my head.Overall, this was a big disappointment and not one I'd recommend, but maybe it was all just too deep for me.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Junior and Hen live in an isolated farm house surrounded by canola fields. Aside from coworkers, they rarely see other people, until one evening a stranger, Terrance, arrives. He tells Junior that Junior has been chosen to take part in a very important project, and must go away for a very long time. But while he is away, Hen will not be lonely, because he will be replaced with an absolute double.The book has been described as an eerie psychological puzzle, which sounds good, but I was extremely disappointed by it. Why would Junior be so accepting and passive about Terrance's proposal? And why would Hen, who Junior adores, be so distant and enigmatic? Of course, there is ultimately a "big reveal" (not particularly hard to guess), but by the time it comes it is anticlimactic and I just didn't care any more. I'm not sure what Reid was attempting--a psychological study of a marriage?; a SciFi thriller?; a dystopian warning?In any event, none of it worked for me. One reviewer said the cover is the best thing about the book. I agree (in fact the cover is the reason I bought the book), but this is the proof of the rule not to judge a book by its cover.2 stars
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Junior and Henrietta are married and live on a farm. They enjoy their solitude. There are no neighbours, the city is far away, and they don't get visitors. Ever. So imagine their surprise when, not only do they get a visitor one night, but this visitor comes with the news that Junior has been randomly selected to travel very far away. Alone. No Henrietta. Arrangements have already been made and Hen will be left in good hands.
I was SO excited when I found out Iain Reid was coming out with another book because I loved I'm Thinking of Ending Things SO much!! I was even more excited when I got my hands on an ARC. Just by looking at the cover you can tell it's going to be creepy and that something sinister is lurking in those pages. I loved everything about this book - Junior and Hen are real and they're living in an old house in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't imagine having to go through what they did. I couldn't get through this book fast enough. I couldn't wait to know exactly what was going on! Junior's frustration was palpable. Definitely a clever, thought-provoking, page-turner.
Thank you to the author, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC.