Tag: freida mcfadden

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Crash by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

Tegan finds herself pregnant after a one night stand and facing the possibility of a life-changing payout if she takes a deal with the father and never breathes a word of his name again. As memories from their night together return, however, she questions whether that’s really the right choice for her and her baby. Hoping for some clarity, she sets out for her brother’s house only to find herself stranded in a blizzard.

The vast majority of this book takes place at the home of the couple who save Tegan from the blizzard. During this time, she’s locked in the basement and the single setting got a little repetitive after a while. We get excerpts from her perspective as well as the man and woman who live in the house. I enjoyed getting to see how each of their motivations were at war with one another.

Like all of Freida McFadden’s books, I finished this one super quickly and found it hard to put down. That said, I also always find her writing repetitive and often predictable. There were some points that were hammered home wayyy too many times.

I listened to the audiobook and it was the perfect immersive way to pass the time on a road trip.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Crash at an indie bookstore near you
The Crash on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

Oof, a tough read for sure. The Perfect Son is the story of the Cass family. It mostly focuses on Erika who’s son Liam has a history of disturbing behavior from the time he is very young. Now, he’s a teenager and Erika does everything in her power to protect the people in Liam’s life from him. When a girl from his class at school goes missing, Erika fears the worst.

This book was soooo repetitive. The descriptions of Erika worrying about how messed up Liam was really insisted upon themselves which for me made the twist incredibly obvious. There was no build up at all because I was expecting the ending and it felt like wading through a bunch of unnecessary worrying to get to it.

I always find McFadden’s writing style kind of addictive in that the pages fly by and she is really good at building suspense. I definitely needed there to be more to this book though. It felt like it lacked true substance, especially compared to some of her other thrillers.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
The Perfect Son on Goodreads
Buy The Perfect Son at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

One by One by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
Genre: Thriller

*Rolls eyes very hard.* I have never so quickly whipped through a book that I was not enjoying. I will never understand how McFadden’s books draw me in so deeply and quickly or what about her writing keeps me glued to it. For some reason, that was still the case even as I was consciously aware that this book felt extremely cliched.

Claire is headed to a weekend getaway with her husband and two other couples. When their car breaks down in the woods, they decide they’ll walk the rest of the way to their accommodations, it should only be a couple of miles. Instead of an easy walk though, the group finds themselves hopelessly lost and slowly people begin to die or disappear.

I felt like I was right there with the group walking in circles in the woods because this book took so long to get anywhere. I didn’t feel like there were any hints about the context of why this was happening to them, it was just the group increasingly getting scared and walking around more and Claire thinking she can reconcile with her husband as he does borderline nice things for her.

Usually, McFadden’s books have a crazy twist that I love and that gets me fired up rethinking the entire book. This one just felt flat. There are excerpts throughout the book from ‘anonymous’ that I knew were going to tie in, but when their identity was ultimately revealed it didn’t really make sense to me.

This was somehow still a thriller I read in just a couple days and wanted to find out the ending to, but would recommend any of McFadden’s other books above this one.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy One by One at an indie bookstore near you
One by One on Goodreads

Book Review, thriller

The Teacher by Frieda McFadden ~ Book Revie

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

This book is nottt going to be for everyone. It’s one of the more twisted McFadden books, focusing on the relationship between Addie, a high school student, and her English teacher, Nate. Nate makes Addie feel special at a time in her life when she’s at her lowest of lows and no other students want to spend time with her. As their relationship escalates, she quickly becomes obsessively jealous of Nate’s wife Eve, who herself feels trapped in a loveless marriage.

McFadden’s short, snappy chapters always make her books breeze by and this was no exception. Told from alternating perspectives, I loved getting to know the secrets each of the main characters was harboring. We know from the prologue that someone ends up digging a grave and although I guessed pretty early on who it was for, I couldn’t wait to see how we would get there.

In typical McFadden fashion, there was a big old twist at the end. At first I was shocked in the way only a truly twisty twist can do, but if I think about it too much it just…doesn’t make sense. It didn’t put me off the whole book, but it definitely could have been better thought out.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Teacher at an indie bookstore near you
The Teacher on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller
Similar to: The Housemaid

The Housemaid’s Secret revisits Millie the maid as she takes on a new job working for Douglas Garrick. If you’ve read The Housemaid (which you should before picking this up), the premise will be familiar, with Millie quickly suspecting some sort of abuse is occurring in the luxurious penthouse she cleans.

McFadden’s books are sooo easily digestible. I flew through this one as Millie drew nearer and nearer to doing something drastic, all while knowing she was somehow being misled. I loved the flip in perspective halfway through the book that illustrated just what was at play.

If you know McFadden’s style, you know that there’s not necessarily a ton of interesting choices being made with the writing, but I could not read this book fast enough (Although, I will say, Millie’s relationship with her boyfriend was harped on one too many times for my liking).

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Housemaid’s Secret at an indie bookstore near you
The Housemaid’s Secret on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Never Lie by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

I really love thrillers with big old houses that act as their own character and Never Lie was just such a book. Tricia and her husband attend an open house at a remote mansion only to get snowed in during a storm. The house belonged to the late Adrienne Hale, a psychiatrist who disappeared years prior. As the storm rages outside, Tricia begins to explore and discovers a series of cassette tapes that Dr. Hale used to record sessions with patients.

I knew from the get-go that everything was not as it seemed in this story. The ‘being locked in a creepy house during a storm’ thing was kind of cliche and I’ve read a lot of similar thrillers, so I knew the chances of me being blown away weren’t super high. The first half of the book was pretty slow. It was a lot of hearing creepy sounds and then nothing happening. What kept it interesting were the interspersed recordings of Dr. Hale’s sessions. I was intrigued to figure out how they would fit into the present.

I definitely did not see the big twist(s) coming and I was pleasantly shocked, but the ending was just okay and didn’t live up the the thrill that I think the twists could have provided.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Never Lie at an indie bookstore near you
Never Lie on Goodreads