Why does it so often make us feel lonely? Why do we feel her presence even when we are in a relationship? Loneliness can be destructive; negative feelings, oscillating around it, creep into every corner of our being. It destroys the body and psyche. It is not so easy to deal with, it is not so easy to eradicate.
Nobody thought that one evening would change almost the entire life of one person. The young woman meets an intelligent man with whom she immediately establishes a thread of understanding. The couple spend more and more time with each other, and the separation of several days becomes almost harmful. Between two people a feeling begins to emerge that is still strange.
However, the woman is hiding a secret. For some time now, he has been receiving telephones in which the caller leaves a voice message at the post office. The woman has no idea who the stranger is, but she knows she should finally talk to someone about it…
(…) It is commonly believed that fear of horror and horror are fleeting experiences. Once they have attacked, they do so strongly and quickly, but they do not stay long. That is not true. They do not fade until they are replaced by another impression. Deep fear will grow and spread if it can. He cannot be slipped out, outsmarted or tamed. An independent person will only be ventilated. Fear is a rash.
“Maybe it’s time to stop” is a novel that doesn’t surprise us from the very beginning, it flows lazily forward. The impression of boring reading, falling into stagnation, is inevitable. Somewhere in May, the spectre of a detective novel is ghosting; somewhere, a note of romance is breaking through; somewhere, anxiety is shrouding. Eventually, the reader approaches a climax that shocks, evokes extreme emotions and rewards seemingly wasted time.
Reading appears to be a theatre of two actors. Despite the fact that sometimes other characters enter the stage, the main roles are played by a pair of protagonists. Iain Reid takes the reader on a journey through the fragile yet rich surface of the human mind. The plot of the novel has been meticulously constructed. The reader gets to know her through the prism of conversations, thoughts and feelings of the protagonist, because it is the woman who becomes the narrator of the novel; it is her emotions that the viewer observes; it is with her that she crosses the border of madness.
Though not without negative experiences (probably the intentional effort of the author) – the feeling of consternation or chaos – the essence of the novel attracts attention. Reading creates a peculiar tension, which tightens with each successive fragment, and the plot twists make you dizzy. The feature line oscillates around philosophical considerations, questioning obvious things, creating a perfect relationship, and finally loneliness. The structural elements are strange, twisted, but at the same time intelligent and astonishing. The secrets that are accumulating surround us, and on the horizon there appears a ghost that heralds something inevitable.
The author carefully prepared psychological portraits of the characters. The complex tissue of their personality is impressive. At first, they appear to be uninteresting, melancholic characters, who are difficult to decipher and find sense in their behavior. Some of the decisions taken are far too surreal, too unreliable.
Some things in this life (…) although there are not many of them, they are real, tested cures for rainy days, for loneliness. It’s the same as with puzzles. Each of us has his or her own solution to solve.
Iain Reid has created a kind of psychological game whose climate is eccentric and stuffy. Constant wandering in the fog of mysteries is intriguing, although it may scare you away. The author goes to the endless sea of human personality and asks questions, the interpretation of which is left to the reader. “Maybe it’s time to stop” is a book that stays with the reader for a longer time.
In short, “Maybe it’s time to finish” is a novel whose initial construction does not impress. Iain Reid explores the secrets of the human mind, the keys in it, to finally surprise. It’s worth getting to know! Factory 7