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music_girl84's review
Too inappropriate. Teacher/ student relationship and grooming. Very disgusting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Sexual content, and Bullying
dblue236's review
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
4.0
Trigger warnings: Adult/minor relationship, pedophilia, infidelity, violence.
I have yet to read a book from this author that I didn't like, and this one continued the trend. There were definitely some things about it that were cringeworthy, but considering what the book was about they weren't all that surprising. I definitely never saw the twist at the very end of the book coming and I tore through it over the course of a couple days. Looking forward to reading more of her work in the future!
I have yet to read a book from this author that I didn't like, and this one continued the trend. There were definitely some things about it that were cringeworthy, but considering what the book was about they weren't all that surprising. I definitely never saw the twist at the very end of the book coming and I tore through it over the course of a couple days. Looking forward to reading more of her work in the future!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, Death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Bullying and Sexual content
Minor: Blood
betteroffdev's review
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? It's complicated
0.5
Not quite sure where to start with this one, and really feel tempted to not spend too much time going too far in-depth over it, because why should I when the author themselves never bothered to?
The Teacher by Freida McFadden has been a recent resident of the NYT Bestseller's list and, a common "currently-reading" I have seen among several colleagues, readers I follow, and forum platforms, so I decided to give it a try. After seeing McFadden's name several times across several books on many best-selling and awarded lists, I guess I assumed it would be a pretty safe bet to try as an introduction to the author.
The story begins from an unknown perspective where someone we don't know yet is burying a body. We don't get any details on this situation, but then skip three months previous and begin diving into chapters that alternate randomly between the perspectives of Addie, a junior in Caseham High who, following a scandal with a teacher the previous year, has been ostracized from her peers, and Eve, a teacher at Caseham High who works as a math teacher on staff (alongside her husband, who is one of the school's English teachers). Through these alternating perspectives, we learn about Addie's struggles in isolation at school and her problems at home as well as Eve's struggles navigating what feels like an unhappy, passionless marriage. From that note onward, much messiness ensues.
I mentioned earlier I saw several people around me reading this book and noticed that even beyond that, it was being mentioned in a number of other spaces; what I never paid any mind to was what anyone was saying they thought about it. In hindsight, I'm not even sure that would have mattered because from what I've seen now, post-completion, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive (we'll touch on that more later) and I think if anything, going in with that knowledge would have just left me all the more confused as I read it myself because I really and truly could not stand it.
Between what feels like lazy, underbaked character development and dialogue, to the questionable way very sensitive topics are written about, to the especially weird parasocial online presence this author creates with her fans, all of this gave "the ick" (and no, not the kind where a story has successfully pulled off a despicable villain that is the result of careful, thought-out planning, development, and execution).
/// *Be Warned: From this point on there will be Spoilers* ///
This book is a trainwreck; and I do not mean the captivating kind. I mean the kind where it just doesn't seem to stop happening and each new development makes it more messy than the last. I made it almost halfway through this book before I finally thought 'Okay no, it's not just off to a rocky start, this is truly bad writing and with that in mind, I need an explanation to why this book let alone this author is as regarded as they seem to be.'
The overall glaring issue in this book is it presents the concept of a student groomed by their teacher as the central conflict and both the story itself and the author expect readers to believe that simply because the antagonist is grooming a minor that it therefore is presenting it in the correct form of unfavorable light. The reality, unfortunately, is a story littered with inconsistencies, plot-holes, and an insane amount of focus from the perspective of a minor of the experience of being groomed, exploited, and sexually assaulted. Any one of us can sit down and write the worst most insane possible thing we can think up, but that doesn't make the writing "good" and it certainly wouldn't make us good writers.
When Freida isn't creating painfully unrealistic dialogue between characters who all have a maximum of two characteristics each, she's flipping between saying everyone has always loved Eve's husband and how they all think she's so lucky to have him, to revealing he's been a creep and an absent ass all along that no one seems to have any connection to or relationship with. We watch Eve go from saying she needs to be worried about the fact that Addie will be in her husband's class this year, to remarking with genuine shock a handful of chapters later that she didn't know he was going to have Addie as a student this year.
The problem remains that you can make a villain a despicable and deplorable human being through whatever the means may be; but you have to recognize why when you finally decide two-thirds of the way through the story to make it a point that your main character, Eve, recognizes her husband's crimes for what they are and plans to seek justice but ultimately "justice" to her is just using what she's learned to get out of a relationship (that clearly neither of them had any interest in maintaining anyway and put up zero fight to keep from ending) and not having him held truly accountable and punished for his crime(s) because (surprise!) Eve is actually a groomer sleeping with a minor herself, it doesn't exactly paint the story in any frame of a skilled or artistic light.
This isn't clever, brilliant writing, despite what the thousands of brainwashed cronies Freida has running around her private Facebook groups will endlessly echo back to her (much to her satisfaction, and benefit, clearly). This is the purposeful exclusion of just the right amount of information so you can use the same plot twist three times in your story for the purpose of shock value (I'm not kidding- three times).
What retribution do we find in the end, since this awful crime is supposedly recognized and seen for what it is by all involved? Addie, the groomed minor we read from the perspective of at times, abruptly flips a switch when she hears another girl has been groomed by her same teacher and decides then to involve the police. Eve, who was also groomed as a minor by the same teacher of Addie (who is now also her husband), plays pranks on her husband for days including carefully placing pairs of luxury high heels for days around their home and shoving a live raven inside of a rotting jack-o-lantern, and kicking him ultimately inside a shallow grave she uses to bury him alive with the help of her (surprise!) personal side-piece who has also been a minor and student from the school she works all along! No wonder Eve didn't seem more interested in involving the police- she's a groomer herself! Guess it runs in the story!
Even if we choose to purposefully ignore the deliberate hypocrisy in Eve's disgust at her husband for sleeping with a minor while she's been knowingly doing the same thing herself, it doesn't undo the awful everything-else about this entire novel and the context to its success. While at least Nate dies in the end, at the hands of his wife, none of the adults grooming and abusing minors in this book face justice and retribution. The minors involved all magically become pals at the end with the plan to move on like nothing ever happened, and Eve mysteriously disappears off the radar. How convenient! What a moving tale about the lessons learned and definitely not the utilization of a very present real-world issue for repeated (beat-you-over-the-head-with-it) "shock" value and "twists!"
While my disdain for this story is likely now more than clear, there are a few final notes I should address. I myself am a high school teacher; I could argue a lot of this hits too close to home, because every element of both Nate and Eve as educators was a failure from the get-go; from Eve's relentless bitchery toward students to Nate's constant inappropriate interactions and conversations, long before he ever makes an actual move on a student in the story. They're both failures of examples of educators, and the rest of their school doesn't seem to be any better. But I think what still upsets me the most, is the context I know feel I have about this book, the author, and the entire weird vibe I get from this ever-present "success" surrounding it all.
Freida McFadden is an author who has randomly appeared within the last decade. In that time, her description online has amounted to nothing more than the simple fact that she writes and is a physician specializing in brain injury? That's a strangely weird amount of lack of information about an author that has appeared on several best sellers lists across several titles for her 20+ books that all come from the last decade alone. The only answer I can seem to find to bring some degree of sense to it all? Freida is hugely present in her "fan" spaces; namely on Facebook. She either runs or is part of several private Facebook groups entirely about her and her books where she interacts directly with fans either relishing in the nearly endless echo-chamber of praise for her about how great and crafty she is, or is being curt and irritable over even the slightest mention that someone might not have successfully taken something away from a piece of her work on account of her writing being anything less than perfect and intentional.
I've learned now several people have tried to address how not uncommon it is for Freida's books to closely mirror other titles out there and that, in her Facebook spaces, if you make these comparisons, you will be blocked. The groups themselves (as I am in them, hoping to see more discussion and less fawning aimlessly) are a mess of readers desperate for interaction with Freida, pursuing parasocial relationships where they can feel connected to a "best selling author," meanwhile completely unaware that the very reason she is likely even able to be a best-selling author in the first place is entirely because of the audiences of these Facebook groups and the word-of-mouth it gives her work. Hell, that's why I'm here!
Unfortunately, whether or not all the many other titles of Freida's actually are any better than this one is going to have to remain a mystery to me, because the entire experience of it all has put me off ever reading her again. I know I said I'd keep this short, and I know I clearly didn't, so if you made it this far- thank you for listening. I felt like I had a lot to get out since it feels like praising this author and her books everywhere else is almost expected or you risk expulsion from the platform.
All I can say to end things now is, TLDR: I sincerely dislike this book. It was the first book I genuinely struggled to get through. I highly discourage you from reading it and in fact, wish everyone out there under this weird McFadden spell freedom and healing so you can be reminded someday of what genuinely good writing and thrillers are actually like. Thank god it was gifted to me. I'd definitely be upset if I'd have spent money on this.
The Teacher by Freida McFadden has been a recent resident of the NYT Bestseller's list and, a common "currently-reading" I have seen among several colleagues, readers I follow, and forum platforms, so I decided to give it a try. After seeing McFadden's name several times across several books on many best-selling and awarded lists, I guess I assumed it would be a pretty safe bet to try as an introduction to the author.
The story begins from an unknown perspective where someone we don't know yet is burying a body. We don't get any details on this situation, but then skip three months previous and begin diving into chapters that alternate randomly between the perspectives of Addie, a junior in Caseham High who, following a scandal with a teacher the previous year, has been ostracized from her peers, and Eve, a teacher at Caseham High who works as a math teacher on staff (alongside her husband, who is one of the school's English teachers). Through these alternating perspectives, we learn about Addie's struggles in isolation at school and her problems at home as well as Eve's struggles navigating what feels like an unhappy, passionless marriage. From that note onward, much messiness ensues.
I mentioned earlier I saw several people around me reading this book and noticed that even beyond that, it was being mentioned in a number of other spaces; what I never paid any mind to was what anyone was saying they thought about it. In hindsight, I'm not even sure that would have mattered because from what I've seen now, post-completion, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive (we'll touch on that more later) and I think if anything, going in with that knowledge would have just left me all the more confused as I read it myself because I really and truly could not stand it.
Between what feels like lazy, underbaked character development and dialogue, to the questionable way very sensitive topics are written about, to the especially weird parasocial online presence this author creates with her fans, all of this gave "the ick" (and no, not the kind where a story has successfully pulled off a despicable villain that is the result of careful, thought-out planning, development, and execution).
/// *Be Warned: From this point on there will be Spoilers* ///
This book is a trainwreck; and I do not mean the captivating kind. I mean the kind where it just doesn't seem to stop happening and each new development makes it more messy than the last. I made it almost halfway through this book before I finally thought 'Okay no, it's not just off to a rocky start, this is truly bad writing and with that in mind, I need an explanation to why this book let alone this author is as regarded as they seem to be.'
The overall glaring issue in this book is it presents the concept of a student groomed by their teacher as the central conflict and both the story itself and the author expect readers to believe that simply because the antagonist is grooming a minor that it therefore is presenting it in the correct form of unfavorable light. The reality, unfortunately, is a story littered with inconsistencies, plot-holes, and an insane amount of focus from the perspective of a minor of the experience of being groomed, exploited, and sexually assaulted. Any one of us can sit down and write the worst most insane possible thing we can think up, but that doesn't make the writing "good" and it certainly wouldn't make us good writers.
When Freida isn't creating painfully unrealistic dialogue between characters who all have a maximum of two characteristics each, she's flipping between saying everyone has always loved Eve's husband and how they all think she's so lucky to have him, to revealing he's been a creep and an absent ass all along that no one seems to have any connection to or relationship with. We watch Eve go from saying she needs to be worried about the fact that Addie will be in her husband's class this year, to remarking with genuine shock a handful of chapters later that she didn't know he was going to have Addie as a student this year.
The problem remains that you can make a villain a despicable and deplorable human being through whatever the means may be; but you have to recognize why when you finally decide two-thirds of the way through the story to make it a point that your main character, Eve, recognizes her husband's crimes for what they are and plans to seek justice but ultimately "justice" to her is just using what she's learned to get out of a relationship (that clearly neither of them had any interest in maintaining anyway and put up zero fight to keep from ending) and not having him held truly accountable and punished for his crime(s) because (surprise!) Eve is actually a groomer sleeping with a minor herself, it doesn't exactly paint the story in any frame of a skilled or artistic light.
This isn't clever, brilliant writing, despite what the thousands of brainwashed cronies Freida has running around her private Facebook groups will endlessly echo back to her (much to her satisfaction, and benefit, clearly). This is the purposeful exclusion of just the right amount of information so you can use the same plot twist three times in your story for the purpose of shock value (I'm not kidding- three times).
What retribution do we find in the end, since this awful crime is supposedly recognized and seen for what it is by all involved? Addie, the groomed minor we read from the perspective of at times, abruptly flips a switch when she hears another girl has been groomed by her same teacher and decides then to involve the police. Eve, who was also groomed as a minor by the same teacher of Addie (who is now also her husband), plays pranks on her husband for days including carefully placing pairs of luxury high heels for days around their home and shoving a live raven inside of a rotting jack-o-lantern, and kicking him ultimately inside a shallow grave she uses to bury him alive with the help of her (surprise!) personal side-piece who has also been a minor and student from the school she works all along! No wonder Eve didn't seem more interested in involving the police- she's a groomer herself! Guess it runs in the story!
Even if we choose to purposefully ignore the deliberate hypocrisy in Eve's disgust at her husband for sleeping with a minor while she's been knowingly doing the same thing herself, it doesn't undo the awful everything-else about this entire novel and the context to its success. While at least Nate dies in the end, at the hands of his wife, none of the adults grooming and abusing minors in this book face justice and retribution. The minors involved all magically become pals at the end with the plan to move on like nothing ever happened, and Eve mysteriously disappears off the radar. How convenient! What a moving tale about the lessons learned and definitely not the utilization of a very present real-world issue for repeated (beat-you-over-the-head-with-it) "shock" value and "twists!"
While my disdain for this story is likely now more than clear, there are a few final notes I should address. I myself am a high school teacher; I could argue a lot of this hits too close to home, because every element of both Nate and Eve as educators was a failure from the get-go; from Eve's relentless bitchery toward students to Nate's constant inappropriate interactions and conversations, long before he ever makes an actual move on a student in the story. They're both failures of examples of educators, and the rest of their school doesn't seem to be any better. But I think what still upsets me the most, is the context I know feel I have about this book, the author, and the entire weird vibe I get from this ever-present "success" surrounding it all.
Freida McFadden is an author who has randomly appeared within the last decade. In that time, her description online has amounted to nothing more than the simple fact that she writes and is a physician specializing in brain injury? That's a strangely weird amount of lack of information about an author that has appeared on several best sellers lists across several titles for her 20+ books that all come from the last decade alone. The only answer I can seem to find to bring some degree of sense to it all? Freida is hugely present in her "fan" spaces; namely on Facebook. She either runs or is part of several private Facebook groups entirely about her and her books where she interacts directly with fans either relishing in the nearly endless echo-chamber of praise for her about how great and crafty she is, or is being curt and irritable over even the slightest mention that someone might not have successfully taken something away from a piece of her work on account of her writing being anything less than perfect and intentional.
I've learned now several people have tried to address how not uncommon it is for Freida's books to closely mirror other titles out there and that, in her Facebook spaces, if you make these comparisons, you will be blocked. The groups themselves (as I am in them, hoping to see more discussion and less fawning aimlessly) are a mess of readers desperate for interaction with Freida, pursuing parasocial relationships where they can feel connected to a "best selling author," meanwhile completely unaware that the very reason she is likely even able to be a best-selling author in the first place is entirely because of the audiences of these Facebook groups and the word-of-mouth it gives her work. Hell, that's why I'm here!
Unfortunately, whether or not all the many other titles of Freida's actually are any better than this one is going to have to remain a mystery to me, because the entire experience of it all has put me off ever reading her again. I know I said I'd keep this short, and I know I clearly didn't, so if you made it this far- thank you for listening. I felt like I had a lot to get out since it feels like praising this author and her books everywhere else is almost expected or you risk expulsion from the platform.
All I can say to end things now is, TLDR: I sincerely dislike this book. It was the first book I genuinely struggled to get through. I highly discourage you from reading it and in fact, wish everyone out there under this weird McFadden spell freedom and healing so you can be reminded someday of what genuinely good writing and thrillers are actually like. Thank god it was gifted to me. I'd definitely be upset if I'd have spent money on this.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, and Toxic relationship
coobugz's review
challenging
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Bullying
Minor: Body shaming, Cursing, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Stalking, and Domestic abuse
allya2259's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent
cartermon4's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
What a twist!?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Domestic abuse, Violence, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Stalking, Cancer, Infertility, and Vomit
varamanna's review against another edition
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Murder, and Rape
maggieparedesauthor's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Wow. Just wow. I am glad I picked up this twisty thriller. The ending literally had my mouth hanging open in surprise. Just when I thought I couldn’t be more shocked, I was. This book is a must read!
Trigger Warning: Grooming, pedophilia, abuse of authority and power, extramarital affairs/cheating
Trigger Warning: Grooming, pedophilia, abuse of authority and power, extramarital affairs/cheating
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Grief, Gore, Bullying, Murder, Violence, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, and Injury/Injury detail
auntieash_'s review
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Murder, Sexual content, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Stalking
thelibraryofanolive's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Body horror, Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Rape, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Alcoholism, Cancer, Grief, Gore, Addiction, and Alcohol