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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Meh. This is my third book of McFadden's and least favorite so far. The twists fell short for me. It was easy enough to get through, but the character development felt shallow, especially for Dawn. PSA to any authors that may read this: if your characters have autism, please don't make that their only personality trait.
Is McFadden running out of ideas?
The Coworker follows two work colleagues - Natalie, the top saleswoman in a nutritional company and Dawn: an eccentric accountant, with an obsession with turtles. Dawn disappears and it seems she may have been murdered.
With all McFadden’s books, I find they all have decent pace. This book matches that pace and never dwells on one point too long or feels boring. The writing is decent for a thriller, nothing noteworthy but nothing to drag through the mud either.
However this book holds A LOT of issues. The plot twist made no sense whatsoever. McFadden clearly had a lot of ideas and tried to throw them at the reader all at once. The book became heavily oversaturated with twists in the second half of the book that were heavily unrealistic, even impossible.
The second half of the book felt like a strange concoction of her precious novels The Housemaid and Never Lie. I fear McFadden is running out of routes of where her novels are heading and just re-releasing storylines in a different format.
The characters were also quite annoying and changed throughout the novel. Without going in to too much detail due to spoilers, the second half of the book felt like completely different characters.
Overall, I wouldn’t suggest this book. It is possibly the worst McFadden thriller I have read so far and a huge disappointment for her! Hopefully the next novel can be a change in direction for McFadden from the same old rut she is in.
The Coworker follows two work colleagues - Natalie, the top saleswoman in a nutritional company and Dawn: an eccentric accountant, with an obsession with turtles. Dawn disappears and it seems she may have been murdered.
With all McFadden’s books, I find they all have decent pace. This book matches that pace and never dwells on one point too long or feels boring. The writing is decent for a thriller, nothing noteworthy but nothing to drag through the mud either.
However this book holds A LOT of issues. The plot twist made no sense whatsoever. McFadden clearly had a lot of ideas and tried to throw them at the reader all at once. The book became heavily oversaturated with twists in the second half of the book that were heavily unrealistic, even impossible.
The second half of the book felt like a strange concoction of her precious novels The Housemaid and Never Lie. I fear McFadden is running out of routes of where her novels are heading and just re-releasing storylines in a different format.
The characters were also quite annoying and changed throughout the novel. Without going in to too much detail due to spoilers, the second half of the book felt like completely different characters.
Overall, I wouldn’t suggest this book. It is possibly the worst McFadden thriller I have read so far and a huge disappointment for her! Hopefully the next novel can be a change in direction for McFadden from the same old rut she is in.
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Just another Freida McFadden book that I binged in a day! I would recommend The Coworker to a reader who is looking for a popcorn thriller. I'm not sure if it was my familiarity with McFadden or that the plot was more predictable than the others, but I felt like this was one of her more straightforward stories. I will always prefer predictable over a random twist, so I enjoyed this one! Caution: you will read the word "turtle" MANY times.
The revenge seeker in me was disappointed with the end. I wish that Dawn psychologically manipulated Natalie like how Natalie manipulated Mia. I get that Natalie is in a relationship with a cheater who will definitely cheat on her in the future, but I hated that she still got to rip off the company and walk away blameless.
The one thing I couldn't wrap my mind around was how Caleb could not know who Tara was. Since the bullying was done by both of them, it makes no sense that he wouldn't recognize Tara's name. I also felt like the investigation was a bit unrealistic (i.e. no follow up on who Mia was), and Dawn's plan was not as clever as I felt like it could be for the best revenge.
The one thing I couldn't wrap my mind around was how Caleb could not know who Tara was. Since the bullying was done by both of them, it makes no sense that he wouldn't recognize Tara's name. I also felt like the investigation was a bit unrealistic (i.e. no follow up on who Mia was), and Dawn's plan was not as clever as I felt like it could be for the best revenge.