Friday, March 22, 2019

Blog Break + Review: Foe

Just a quick scheduling note that I'll be taking a brief break from the blog next week!  I'm hoping to get some fun stuff ready for the coming weeks, so I'll talk to you all in April!

Foe
Iain Reid
Published September 4, 2018
A taut, philosophical mind-bender from the bestselling author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things.

We don’t get visitors. Not out here. We never have.

In Iain Reid’s second haunting, philosophical puzzle of a novel, set in the near-future, Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with alarming news: Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm...very far away. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Henrietta won't have a chance to miss him, because she won't be left alone—not even for a moment. Henrietta will have company. Familiar company.

Told in Reid’s sharp and evocative style, Foe examines the nature of domestic relationships, self-determination, and what it means to be (or not to be) a person. An eerily entrancing page-turner, it churns with unease and suspense from the first words to its shocking finale. - from Goodreads
The thing that ran through my mind the most while reading this book was, WTF WTF WTF?!? This sci-fi story is a thriller, but not in the typical action-packed sense.  It's a character-driven, atmospheric, and psychological thriller.

Junior and his wife Henrietta ("Hen") live on a farm in the middle of nowhere.  One day, Terrance, a representative of OuterMore, a quasi-government organization that is researching space exploration, visits their farm and announces that Junior has been entered into a lottery to be a part of the expedition to the space station.  Some time later, Terrance returns to inform Junior that he has been chosen.  The trip could last years, but Hen won't be alone back on Earth - OuterMore will provide her with a very familiar companion.

One of my first thoughts when reading was, well, this seems unfair - Junior didn't ask to be part of this expedition, and now there's a chance he could be taken away from his home?  What if he doesn't want to go?  The lottery process takes so long that it's actually a couple years before Terrance comes back to tell Junior he's been chosen, so now he's been stewing about it for all this time.  Then once he's been chosen, the process to prepare him and Hen for the mission starts, and things get even weirder.

In the midst of all this, we have three major characters.  Junior is the narrator; he's a pretty simple guy.  He loves his wife, loves his home, goes to work everyday.  Hen was not super-likable.  There were several times she attempted to tell Junior how unhappy she is in their life together, how she feels smothered by him, how she wants to see more of the world, but she would never come out and say she wanted to leave him.  And then there's Terrance.  It was hard to know what to make of him, to know if I could trust him.  He's so invested in helping Hen and Junior prepare for the mission, but his methods were strange.

Just when I was wondering how this would all work out, boom - MASSIVE twist I didn't see coming!  It totally changed the way I looked back at the story.  I really liked the ending of the book, too - even though it felt slightly heavy-handed, for me it was the only logical conclusion.  I loved the writing; it was very straightforward, but also had an eerie and ominous undertone to it.  If you're looking for a sci-fi story that's a little different, definitely give this one a try!

4.5 stars

30 comments:

  1. First, I hope you have a wonderful break! ANd second, whew. This book! YOu definitely have piqued my interest about it and all the twists!

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  2. Haha I love the WTF WTF WTF feeling with books. I gotta say I'm definitely intrigued by this book now after reading your review, Angela. I think I would love it!

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  3. I'm good with a WTF feeling as long as it eventually delivers. Sounds like this does. Have a good break!

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  4. This book sounds very weird! I’m glad you mostly liked it. Enjoy your break!

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  5. I hope you enjoy your blogging break. Good luck with your to-do list.

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  6. you had me at atmospheric. I love those kind of books

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  7. Hmm that twist sounds pretty amazing! And I'm really curious what kind of "familiar" companion they have in mind for her. Sounds somewhat ominous. :)

    Have a good break!!!!

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    1. Ominous is a good word for it!

      Thanks, Greg!

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  8. Enjoy your blog break! I hadn't heard of this book, but it definitely sounds like something I'd enjoy! I'm going to have to go look it up!

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  9. I hope you enjoy your blog break! This book sounds so good. A sci-fi psychological thriller really sounds right up my alley.

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    1. Thanks, Suzanne! I hope you enjoy it if you do decide to read it!

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  10. Now this is exactly the kind of Sci Fi that I like...character focused and eerie! I'm definitely adding this to my list, thanks for highlighting it.

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  11. I hope you have a great break and do something FUN!! I hope the weather is nice and you get to do something outdoors. All the best. This sounds like a good Sci-Fi. I will have to totally check this out!

    Mary

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  12. This sounds weird and twisty and now I am most curious!

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    1. Weird and twisty are definitely good words to describe it!

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  13. While this isn't something I would typically read you've made it sound so good! I'm really glad you enjoyed this one so much. And I hope your break is a good one! I've pretty much been on break all year but I'm starting to find myself getting back into blogging as I find my feet in this year's routine and I'm able to start prioritising slowly.... Here's hoping it continues on an upward trend! :)

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    1. Thank you so much, Di! I'm looking forward to reading your posts!

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  14. I hope you’ve been having a great week off, Angela! Loved your review of this one! Happy spring!

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  15. I was thinking about taking a week off, but March has been a busy blogging month for me! I had previously committed to a lot of blog tours, so I want to wait until I don't have anything on the schedule! My personal reviews can wait, but I can't bail when other people are counting on me to do something on a certain day. I hope you enjoy your break! I might have a few days in April. ;)

    I love books that make me think "WTF" the entire time I'm reading them! I love books that keep me on my toes and make me question everything that's happening. I'm so glad you enjoyed this one! It's new to me, so I'll have to check it out.

    Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬

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    1. Thanks, Lindsi! Yes, I totally agree, if you've already committed to stuff, you can't really take a break! I didn't really have anything time-sensitive coming up, so I figured it was a good time!

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I'm so glad you stopped by, and I would love to hear your thoughts! Comments are always greatly appreciated!