This book has such an unnerving, creepy feeling!

If you like books that are unsettling and kind of confusing at the same time, you’ll love this! You want to know what’s really going on but you are also scared of how messed up it will be.

Thanks to Sophie White, Kensington Books, and Erewhon Books for the opportunity to read Where I End. I have written this review voluntarily.

I was not prepared for this book to be as disturbing as it was. The writing was absolutely beautiful and I could picture this island so vividly in my mind… but unfortunately, the story itself just wasn’t for me. The subject matter felt wrong to read.

An intriguing horror novella that really creeps you put. It's not scary per se (scary is rather subjective, If I am being honest) but is definitely dreadful and suspenceful. Some bits of it did make my skin crawl. The atmosphere is bleak and dark, something that heightens the effect of the book. Loved this book a lot and highly recommend.

I am really conflicted with my feelings for this book overall because the last third of the novel was so so so good - almost so good that it made me forget the difficulties I had with getting into the novel in the beginning. The strongest aspect for this novel is White's vivid descriptions. Often, they were so disgusting and gross that I needed to pause reading to collect myself, something I of course love in novels. I think it made for the discussions surrounding motherhood and the fragility of it to be really intriguing. I also loved that White looked into the "othering" of womanhood and motherhood and how often it makes pregnant individuals feel lost and horrific. I think it was hard for me in the beginning as a lot of the relationships between our main characters family was a little confusing and I struggled to understand where we stood in the plot, but once it clicked and I was into the story, I was hooked.

Thank you, Kensington and NetGalley, for my free E-book for review.

Intrigue gripped me from the very first paragraph of the synopsis: "At night, my mother creaks. The house creaks along with her. Sometimes in the morning, we find her in places. We never see her move. We just come upon her." How could one not be captivated by such an eerie premise?

Delving into this novel, I found myself plunging into depths far darker and more profound than I had anticipated. The author masterfully crafts an atmospheric narrative that unfolds like a haunting black-and-white film in the reader's mind. Set against the backdrop of a remote Irish Isle, the story weaves local superstitions and beliefs into a tapestry of suspicion, with our protagonist, Aoileann, at its center.

The author's deliberate pacing further enhances this rich atmosphere. While the initial progress may seem languid, the ambiguity of the events allows for a meticulous layering of tension and mystery. Each revelation is carefully doled out to keep readers teetering on the edge of understanding, creating an undercurrent of unease that propels one to keep turning pages.

As the narrative gains momentum, we're drawn deeper into Aoileann's world, where the author's disturbing portrayal of her character truly shines. Aoileann's journey of self-discovery is far from the typical coming-of-age tale; instead, it's a descent into the shadows of her family's past and her own psyche, mirroring the dark tone set by the novel's setting and atmosphere.

What makes Aoileann truly terrifying is the gradual unveiling of her character throughout this journey. As she unearths the truth about her family, her obsession with the enigmatic newcomer intensifies, revealing the lengths to which she'll go to assert her significance. This transformation is chilling, further deepening the novel's unsettling atmosphere. Ultimately, the result is a haunting exploration of identity and the darkness that can lurk within the human psyche.

I’ve never read anything quite like this and was absolutely disturbed and horrified by it, yet I can’t stop thinking about it. If you like the type of horror that burrows under your skin for a bit and makes you think about the nature of being monstrous, this is an excellent and propulsive read.

Creepy, thrilling, and a true examination of the complicated bonds between mother & daughter, Where I End was a real delight. To me, it feels like the perfect autumnal read, and I think what this book truly excels at is nailing atmosphere.

I definitely plan on picking up a physical copy. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Aoileann, a lonely and neglected girl living on a remote Irish island, grapples with isolation and caring for her ailing bed-ridden mother. She has dehumanized her mother to protect herself, thinking of her as the “bed-thing.” It doesn’t help that she is considered a pariah on her island. She yearns for love and a closeness she has never experienced.

Her bleak existence takes a darker turn when she meets a new woman on the island who has a baby. Aoileann becomes fixated on the woman, longing to possess her and the life she represents. As dark family secrets emerge and her obsession deepens, the novel explores themes of motherhood, trauma, the blurring of physical and emotional boundaries, and the darker corners of human emotion. This book contains some unsettling elements of body horror and other WTF moments. Please read trigger warnings.

The novel's exploration of postpartum struggles, the expectations placed on mothers, and the consequences when we don't know how to give or receive love are particularly poignant. As a mother, these themes make the story not only unsettling but emotionally resonant as well.

While this story may not be for everyone due to its disturbing elements and slow-building tension, it is undeniably gripping, with a haunting, almost poetic beauty. Sophie White masterfully blurs the lines between horror and literary fiction, earning this novel a solid 4 stars.

A big thank you to Net Galley and Kensington Publishing for providing this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5
I’ve heard great things about this one, so I was really intrigued to see what it was all about.
It’s such a strange little novella, but it definitely packs a punch. I love the mother/daughter relationship that was explored in this.
I loved that, while you didn’t agree or condone the main characters behaviors, there was a good explanation as to why they occurred.
I had heard it was disturbing and I didn’t expect the story to go where it went.
My only complaint is that it wasn’t longer, I would have loved a little teeny bit more from this one.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

I love a good 'crawling' horror novel. I don't know how to better explain it, but essentially the kind of horror novel that you can smell in the mildew and moss in the corners of dark places, the kind that sends a delicious shiver through your bones. This book delivers on that feeling tenfold, and I loved the sense of general unease that it provided throughout.

Aoileann lives a sheltered life, and, to be quite frank with you, it's the kind of life that doesn't much allow for managing the ebbs and flows of discovering that you're maybe a bit different to everyone else, and in more than one way. The twists in this story and the undercurrent of menace throughout, even when discussing the most innocent of things, is prevalent. The claustrophobia of the island setting lends much to the tone as well, and reminds me of 'Eynhallow' by Tim McGregor.

Her daily tasks in caring for her mother wear her down, and, when Rachel and her infant come to the island, they represent a change that is both welcome and dangerous. The book takes it from there, and weaves a lovely, twisted little web, full of dread and misery. While the writing style can be somewhat jarring at times, there's definitely success in creating the kind of atmosphere that White is aiming for. The book as a whole is wonderful, although I did wish it were sometimes a little more explicit about the action and less so on the descriptions.

OKAY this was crazy, awful, insaneee aka.. I loved it!

There are some pretty big trigger warnings on this if you are anywhere in the realm of postpartum. I don’t want to give specifics and it will give away plot but proceed with caution as I found it tough at some points!

Lately I’m rare to give a 5 star rating as I haven’t felt anything was very unique lately. This was exactly my perfect type of horror book though. I love the main character narration and her character was so well done. I loved the setting. I just loved how unsettling everything was the whole book!

I was most shocked that this author has mostly just written rom coms!? The switch up is insane!!

If you want to get an idea of this book's vibe, just read this quote:

"That’s what a baby is, I’ve come to see now. It is the mother’s whole soul extracted, freed from her body and out of her control. It is her entire existence absorbed by this chunk of meat, a jumble of tiny bones and flickering organs. That’s what a baby is. A little device with which to torment its mother. A bite of the meat-baby tears at the mother. Dash the little thing against the rocks, throw it away, and the mother ends."

Great writing 😃 potentially relatable thoughts about family and motherhood ☺️ words that instill so much shock and disgust you actually gasp out loud 😟

I'm a big fan of gothic stories. It's a tricky genre that requires such a specific energy in the writing that few authors get it right imo, and this one didn't disappoint me. Each chapter adds its touch of creepiness, each sentence feels wrong yet you can't stop reading. Just calling the mother "the bed-thing" was enough to get my attention 🧐

I will not spoil anything, I'll just say the events escalate little by little until it all unravels for an interesting finale. It left me a bit waiting but I think that's just because it was advertised as horror as well as gothic, but in the end it was more one than the other.

I had never read a gothic / horror story set in Ireland before but it fits the narrative so well. The author's personal story which she shares at the beginning added another layer behind everything that goes on with the mom and the narrator's thoughts.

Overall a perfect Halloween read! 🎃

The author does post a warning that this story is dark and disturbing and she does not lie! The picture she paints of the island with its people who don't welcome strangers (who are too weak to survive) and live a very hard life so that the reader can clearly picture it. Aoileann has lived there her entire life, hated and feared by everyone for what happened to her mother that to them, twisted Aoileann into something wrong. So it is understandable why she is the way she is. It is definitely not a healthy environment, in the house with her grandmother and the bed thing.

While I will say it was not a comfortable read, I did find it fascinating in a disturbing way and I had to finish it to find out why Aoileann is stuck and how her mother ended up the way she was and how and if Aoileann will be able to finally escape the island. Very raw and visceral and dark but well written.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review.

A chilling tale of isolation — set in a remote island town, a young girl and her grandmother are burdened with the task of caring for “the thing”. This unidentifiable being is bedridden and seemingly haunting the life of Aoileann, “the thing’s” daughter. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that both mother and daughter face the horror of being isolated. They themselves are islands, isolated from the town/their community, their own family, each other, and themselves. Whether due to the alienation of motherhood, struggles with mental health, or a deep loneliness, both Aoileann and her mother seem to be suffering from a lack of human connection and feeling vastly misunderstood by those around them.

The author shares in the beginning of the book about the true horror of watching her father become a “vegetable”. This experience informs and inspires aspects of the story that follows. Personally, I have shared in this sort of experience, watching someone I love become trapped inside their own body. Even without knowing this about the author prior to reading her work, the way she writes so honestly and viscerally about the character termed “the thing” would be evidence enough. The true horror of being unable to control what happens to your body & watching as someone is reduced to the state of a decaying body is one of the most harrowing things I will ever experience or read about. I had such an emotional reaction to this book, feeling the need to both set it aside and read it feverishly until the end. Ultimately, I felt that this aspect of the novel was handled really well and made for such a unique, realistic horror.

Although I thought this novel was really well written and gripping, I did have a few qualms with it. Nearing the end, I felt that the dialogue began to feel too stiff and unrealistic, causing me to feel pulled out of the story. Lastly, I felt that the ending was too abrupt and convenient for my taste, though I know some people like a neat ending. Because there were so many ambiguities in the rest of the novel, I wished that the ending would have left a little bit up to the imagination or kept readers wondering. Overall, a really solid horror story that will stick with me for a very long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for the advanced readers copy!

an absolutely gnarly and nasty gem of a book!

thanks to netgalley and erewhon books for the arc!

it's hard to review this book because i fully recommend everyone go in blind. it was such a masterclass in dread, in body horror, in mommy issues. the disturbing irish island was such a great setting and our lonely protagonist Aoileann was the perfect tour guide (even as people spit at her as she passes).

if you enjoyed motherthing, then I think this book would be right up your alley.

4.25 stars!!

Wow oh wow!! Sophie!! This was bloody incredible. The writing was fantastic and the storyline made me cry. This is so much more than just a horror book.

It’s absolutely devastating and horrific. This story gets ahold of you and it doesn’t let go till you’ve read every single page.

Apparently, this author writes rom-coms?! This is her first horror book and I’m like?? Holy s. Girl you need to write more horror!!!

Please everyone go and read this book! You won’t be disappointed but you might be disturbed.

Thank you to Netgalley for my arc copy!

It's good to have books like The Laws of the Skies (Courtois/Mullins), Maeve Fly (Reede) and now Where I End to remind me of the horrific and grotesque corners of horror whenever I get too comfortable. This book made me wish I could take out my brain and run it through a car wash, in the best way. An unflinching (to put it mildly) exploration of the toll of caretaking and terrible parenting.

It took along time for the story to start coming together. I was mid 30% in before I felt anything really started happening. There was a ton of description in this book which made feel a little clunky and slow paced. I was getting more unsettled vibes versus horror. I was left confused and wanting more explanation of the circumstances surrounding the mother inside of the other details about taking care of her.

Thank you to Netgally for providing this ARC.

At 18, Aoileann has never left the island where she was born off the coast of mainland Ireland. She’s hardly allowed to leave her house. By day, her job is to take care of her vegetative mother, duties she shares with her paternal grandmother, while her father lives elsewhere. No one will tell Aoileann what happened to her mother to cause this and over the years she has grown resentful of her duties and her mother, or as she refers to her, “the bed thing”. At the same time, the inhabitants of the island where she lives have shunned her, refusing to interact with the family and being outright hostile when they do meet. So, when Aoileann stumbles across a newcomer to the island, Rachel who has taken an artist residency and brought along her newborn baby, she becomes obsessed and goes to great, often disturbing, lengths to worm her way into Rachel’s life as she’s finally able to develop a relationship outside of her family unit.

Where I End does such an amazing job of developing a sinister and unnerving atmosphere. From the first chapter, this book is so unsettling even when describing mundane interactions and actions and it is some of the best and most immersive horror writing I’ve ever come across. The island and the house where Aoileann lives feel alive through the writing. The book explores themes of mental illness, colonialism, dysfunctional families, as well as repression and isolation, and ultimately love and desire. The mother-daughter relationship is the heart of the book even as the mother is essentially unable to communicate with her daughter and the daughter is left in the dark, as is the reader, on the circumstances of her condition for most of the book. Aoileann’s longing for the mother-daughter relationship she feels she was unfairly denied is often a driving force in her need for connection with Rachel and her resentment towards her mother and grandmother as she escalates in her actions. And despite her behaviour, it is impossible as the reader to not also hope for her success, that she’s able to escape the island she feels trapped on and that she can develop a meaningful connection and experience the love that has been withheld from her. I could not put this book down or bring myself to look away.

As I sit here to write this review, I am struck by the fact that I… don’t really know what to say.

This book was beautiful. This book was haunting, strange and more than I could have ever hoped for it to be. It is one of those rare books where I literally have no complaints to speak of, where I can only praise the author for her writing, her story and her characters.

The main character was just a tragic yet resilient girl who I spent the entire book feeling incredibly sorry for and hoping so much for her to get her happy ending. Every turn of the page was me going, ‘Please let this work out for her. Please let her find some happiness.’ She was relatable, she was disturbing, she was one of the most beautifully written main characters I have seen in a while.

I won’t spoil the end of everything, but I will say again that I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this book. This is a book that is going to sit with me for a very long time and is going to make it difficult to pick up another book, because I’m constantly going to be comparing it to this one.

I cannot wait to get my hands on the physical copy of this and add it to my collection. Thank you so, so, so very much for letting me read this beautiful work of art.