Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Coworker by Freida McFadden

18 reviews

charlotte_helen's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

Another excellent thriller written by Freida McFadden. I especially enjoyed the dual POV and how it flicked between Natalie and emails written from Dawn in the past. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Murder, Child death, Infidelity, Grief, Mental illness, Blood, Violence, Self harm, and Bullying

amberboo61997's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

If you like turtles, the book is already 30% geared towards you. 
I neither loved nor hated The Coworker by Freida McFadden. The book is fast-paced, mysterious, and keeps you on your toes as each twist throws you for a loop. However, like some McFadden books I've read in the past, she definitely knows how to write a despicable and unlikable main character. Especially a main character like Natalie, who really embodies the "dumb blonde" trope in a sense as she bumbles through her own lies and bad personality traits once the heat starts being put on her. However, I can't even fault Natalie for the majority of the book since other characters featured in the book have their own flaws and nastiness within them. 
The Coworker overall is a tale about the effects of bullying in both schools and the workplace and how it can have a detrimental effect on anyone involved. Does it get this point across? Yes. But the readers might be in for a shock when the aftermath doesn't give them a sense of "justice" nor does anyone deal with the consequences of their actions. Instead, it feels rather lukewarm. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Ableism, Infidelity, and Body shaming

Minor: Blood

I'm also going to say this. Everyone in this book needs serious help and their priorities are so low it's in Hell. Like how are you smart and you've been plotting a revenge plot against a person for nearly a decade and yet there are so many flaws and holes in your plot that it's honestly embarrassing? Dawn's obsession with Mia turned their relationship into one that was akin to sisterhood, to one that felt more alike to a "scorned lover" plot. Which would've probably been a better plot than trying to convince us that these two were just high school best buddies. And then lets add on the turtle talk like that's going to make her character any better. Also, how are you going to be going on and on and on about how Mia deserves justice and Natalie deserves to rot and yet the ending is you two having a mutual agreement. What happened to all that gusto? I guess murdering only one of the bullies was enough for Dawn. Which we never come back to by the way. Let's just mention it and shrug it off. Also, Natalie is just...there's not much else I can say on her in terms of bad personality and bad decisions. Much to our displeasure, she'll probably keep winning in life due to her luck and good looks, but it would've been nice to see her actually lose. I feel like Natalie just got slapped on the wrist and because of that, it made the ending very unsatisfactory for me.

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

kyrstin_p1989's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

While not my favorite of her books, this one still packed a punch. All of McFadden’s novels read so easily, I fly right through them. Many of the chapters end in tiny cliffhangers and they’re short,  so it’s easy to keep plowing through the story. This thriller/mystery did not surprise me as much as some of the ones I’ve read in the past. It did have a twist, but it wasn’t an unexpected one to me so I think that dropped this book in my eyes as far as the rating goes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Grief, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Ableism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, and Violence

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

rsagarin's review

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Ableism, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide, and Alcohol

asporer22's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

This was my second book by this author, and once again I didn’t see the whole twist coming. I knew to be on my toes and think outside of the box, but I didn’t think it would take the turn it did. I would’ve rated this book higher if it had better characters. I found Natalie to be insufferable at times and couldn’t look past it. I also highly disliked that Dawn had very few personality traits. I get that it was part of the story for Dawn to be so dull, but it felt like a potential lack of effort on the the authors part. I’m not sure I would recommend this specific book to another reader, but I would recommend Frieda. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Self harm

Minor: Infidelity and Suicidal thoughts

shesflippinpages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Grief, Mental illness, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Murder, Self harm, Blood, Bullying, Suicide, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Infertility

brynhayes's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Bullying, Self harm, Blood, Mental illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts