Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

The Coworker by Freida McFadden

10 reviews

booksofautumn's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Grief, Stalking, Suicide, Death, Sexual content, Murder, Violence, and Suicide attempt

ccrowley18's review

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved Dawn Schiff! What a multi-dimensional character. I loved this. Guessed the ‘twist’ from the start but that ending honestly left me with chills. This was definitely a creepy one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Murder, and Bullying

alyssams884's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Stalking, Ableism, Suicide, Blood, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Infidelity, Suicide attempt, and Self harm

lvidler's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book.  I struggled so much with it. 

Perhaps it’s a different book when read.  I read an audio copy and had a few thoughts on it. 

The narrator breathed really heavily.  I had a hard time with the constant quotes and information about turtles. 

In the end , I really struggled to believe the plot twist and collaboration of the people who “did it” 

It didn’t make sense to me , the connection. 

I feel like this ended up being completely far fetched in all aspects.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Self harm, and Stalking

lmayfieldx's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Mental illness, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death and Ableism

bookedandbusy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Another absolutely incredible thriller!!

I love a good revenge story.

this had me hooked from start to finish and I could not stop reading!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Suicide, Infidelity, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Infertility

solnit_and_sebastian's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Just when you think you know what's happening, McFadden spins another surprise into the story! Characters and motives continue to evolve throughout The Coworker, giving mystery fans fodder for guesswork. One thing I appreciate about this author's characterizations is that no one is entirely blameless, lending an element of realism to the proceedings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Stalking, Bullying, and Death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Cursing, Suicide, Infertility, and Sexual content

_meganrose's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Suicide

spootilious's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

 

Read: September 25, 2023
 Title: The Coworker 

Author: Freida McFadden
 Genre: Mystery
 Rating: 0/5
 Review: 

I’ve been trying to think of something good to say about this book. I really have. The closest thing I can say is that it wasn’t entirely predictable. The ‘plot twist’ wasn’t too surprising and most of the plot holes were tied up…. But that’s as far as I can go with nice things to say. 

To start off, the writing style is extremely immature. It almost feels like I’m reading a fifteen-year old’s first attempt at a thriller novel. I’ve noticed that many people think that it’s due to the main character’s personality and I’m happy that like it, however, with the main characters being so one dimensional I can’t agree. 

Natalie is written like a stereotypical B*mbo (I apologize for my choice of words, but it was the best descriptor I could think of), and Dawn is written like the only autistic representation the author has ever experienced is Rain man. The only personality traits are the Nat is considered pretty and Dawn really likes turtles. Honestly it made me want to vomit. 

Surprisingly enough the only characters in the entire book that didn’t seem one dimensional were the men… and even then, only barely. 

The way the office was written made it obvious that the author has no experience with an office environment and the way the police work was written was sloppy and seemed to have no research done whatsoever (though I may be a bit bias, having worked Law Enforcement). 

Fifteen minutes into this novel and I knew I was going to despise it, though I did my best not to, I haven’t found a decent reason to feel otherwise. Overall, the storytelling was boring and flat, the characters were detestable and dull, and the ‘thriller’ part of the book maybe lasted 3-4 minutes before being utterly ruined by the fact that there is not a single redeeming quality to any of the characters, and the terrible, grotesque, and dehumanizing representation of autism in this novel makes me sick to my stomach. I would have called it quits on this novel but wanted to give it a complete chance and finished it… which only made my distaste worst. 

I feel terrible having to write such a terrible review and giving the lowest (though I wish I could go lower) review I have ever provided but felt even worse as I was reading. 

Minor TW: Death, Self-harm, Vomit, Confinement, Murder, Violence, Suicide, Blood, Ableism, Bullying, Child Death, Emotional Abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Stalking 

 Quotes: 

N/A 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Ableism, Bullying, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child death, Death, Sexual content, Cursing, Grief, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Confinement

aleen_elizabeth's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Slow for first half, then decent twist. Characters are shallows not very realistic.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Murder, Suicide attempt, Ableism, Bullying, Death, and Self harm