Find Me Where It Ends, by Cassandra Khaw

Tor Nightfire, October 2026

ISBN: 9781250877895

Availabie: Hardcover, paperback, electronic (pre-order)

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

Find Me Where It Ends is a stripped-down novella, a well-done suicide-oriented tale with ghosts and spectral animals. It fixes all the problems that plagued Khaw’s last novel, The Library At Hellebore: there are no more confusing plots or poor word choices, and it gives a good insight into the psychology of the main character, who is considering such a choice.

Antigone is a single woman who just hit forty. She gave up a chunk of her life to help her rather miserable mother, and she also works as a part-time paranormal investigator/ghost banisher. She’s got two overriding problems: she’s been considering suicide for some time, and a ghostly black dog– a harbinger of her own demise– shows up on her doorstep and moves into her house. As the story quickly counts down the weeks, days and hours towards her chosen time of death, Antigone interacts with various people and ghosts who help, and also hurt, her perspective on life. The final hour quickly hits at the end of page 130, and a decision needs to be made, based on whether she has seen enough inside this short time frame to change her mind, or follow through. Does she? That, dear readers, I will of course not tell you. Read and see for yourself.

Let’s break it down. First thing with a topic like this, is that the protagonist has to be one that readers will find believable. You don’t have to agree with the character’s reason for desiring to end their life, but the narrative has to be one the readers will buy into. Khaw is a gifted writer, and she handles explaining Antigone’s reasons and how she got to this point with deft prose throughout. Here, it’s because Antigone’s life is one of unrealized dreams, there is nothing happy in her life, and she feels… tired. So very tired. Tired enough that living seems like more work than it’s worth. I suspect some people may relate to such sentiments. Khaw handles it well, without the poor word choice that plagued her last book, which was loaded with words so rarely used that Dickens himself would have been left scratching his head. This time, any reader can handle the vocabulary.

It is during Antigone’s interactions with others that the narrative really shines, perhaps even more so then the parts concerning Antigone’s state of mind. And, the parts about her psyche were very well done. Most people want to help her, but the story shows the difficulty of trying to do so, as many of the ideas of “helping'”prove more detrimental than beneficial. It feels true to life: as anyone who has been in the same boat knows, dealing with suicidal people is like working with a very volatile substance. That’s why this story works so well. Despite the ghostly trappings with the black dog and others, this is a beautifully written narrative on a very touchy subject, one that could happen to many people.

Bottom line: if you want a touch of well-written, relatable, real-life darkness, this is the way to go. Recommended.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson