dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“One day your family will be complete.”

Another great story by Freida McFadden! No one can write a twist and misdirection like her! I really liked the sort-of joke, when Polly was talking about her mom’s books, and her favorite was Stephen King’s
The Shining. I swore she was going to say Misery lol, since this story seems inspired by it.
 
I really liked how the book ended. With McFadden’s stories, sometimes the story can change at the last minute (like literally the last minute!) but it felt like a “happy” ending to me.
 Docked it some just because of how much I HATE the trope of women who have amazing, loving and supportive husbands and fulfilling careers, but since they can’t have kids, they need to just kill themselves, because having a child is the only thing that could and should ever matter to a woman. I considered DNF, and if it were any other author I wouldn’t have continued. But 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark tense medium-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: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

this was such a weird experience 😬

On the one hand, I read this book so incredibly fast (especially for someone who’s been on an ongoing reading slump) but on the other hand, I can’t say I actually enjoyed this sadly :/
I’ve read several books by this author and I kind of know what to expect — questionable characters, crazy plots, several twists, usually cool epilogues. These were here. However, the book felt repetitive — quite literally, things being repeated several times, including things characters would say to each other. It felt as if we were going in circles 😅. 

The last Freida McFadden book I read was The Boyfriend, so compared to that FMC, Tegan had at least SOME survival skills. Don’t get me wrong though, I was still screaming out of frustration. 💀
I did enjoy the multiple POV narration, I think it works best for this type of story; but I could not STAND Polly’s pov — concern increased by 1000% 😶. 

I’m still going to read her next book though, we all know it 😩. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The plot twist of who the villain is really got me, I didn’t see it coming. Frieda done did it again🥰

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Finished reading: June 11th 2025


"How do you know what’s right or wrong without your mother telling you so?"

Freida McFadden's books are often referred to as so-called popcorn thrillers, and I can't deny that it has been a fitting description so far. Her books tend to be both fast-paced and easy to read, focusing on the entertainment level instead of a complex plot and lots of character development. The Crash is no exception to that rule, and I literally flew through it in an afternoon. That said, I agree with the reviews that this is not her strongest book... The plot is on the weak side, and quite repetitive in parts. Her infamous shocking final twist tactic wasn't all that successful either this time around; while I definitely didn't guess where the story would go, I found the twists to be rather underwhelming to be honest. The Crash started out well enough though and especially the first two parts were quite entertaining. I enjoyed the bad weather trope, although the resulting situation was too much like a Misery rehash (and King definitely did it better!). I guess it's an improvement from some of her previous female main characters that Tegan at least tries to get herself out of the situation for a change, although she still isn't the brightest bulb in the box... Which results in more than one very frustrating moment. Polly is so much worse as a main character though and I can't say that I enjoyed spending time inside her head. I wasn't a fan of the prologue and epilogue either; instead of blowing me away with an unexpected twist, it mostly just distracted from the rest of the plot. Still, I can't deny that I couldn't stop turning those pages, and it is without doubt a very fast read. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings