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A review by nicolem_young
The Inmate by Freida McFadden
2.0
⭐️⭐️.5
2.5 Stars= It was an okay read
TRIGGER WARNING: VIOLENCE & MURDER
POV: Singular, first-person
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Part of an interconnected series: No
Safe or Dark: Dark (see trigger warning above)
First and foremost, the main female character, Brooke Sullivan, gave me a migraine. She was almost too stupid to live. It was painful. For a nurse practitioner, she seriously lacked intelligence.
I wanted to love this book so bad. So many people raved about how it was an amazing read. I wanted it to live up to the hype so badly. Sadly, it just didn't. It starts out strong. It had so much potential, and I was so excited to see where things went. But as the story went on, the plot got stupider and stupider. I just wanted the pain to stop.
Please allow me to list the issues I had with this story:
1) How Brooke was able to get into the prison system to begin with. She was intimately related to Shane Nelson. He had tried to murder her ten years before she got the job as a nurse practitioner at the prison he was incarcerated in. Her testimony helped land him a life sentence there. The judicial system would have had all the information to link the two. Any average person could have searched for the names Brooke Sullivan and Shane Nelson on the internet and would have seen the entire story. That would have been a huge red flag right away. There is absolutely no way a prison would allow someone who has a link to a prisoner to land a job at that institution, no matter how desperate they are.
2) The way Brooke second-guessed herself more than I did when taking a high school algebra test, and we had to hear her unbearable wishy-washy thoughts. Seriously, every two seconds, she was trying to decide if it was her ex-boyfriend Shane who tried to kill her that fateful night many years ago or her estranged best friend Tim Reese. I get it. There were factors that played a part in her mind, possibly playing tricks on her. BUT COME ON! One second, it might have been Shane, and the next, it might have been Tim.
3) The way Brooke practically swooned over Shane the moment she saw him for the first time since the night of her attempted murder. She has supposedly had nightmares about that night for the past ten years. Yet she isn't repulsed by the sight of Shane as soon as he steps into her exam room. Instead, she remarks on how he is still rather attractive (I believe she used the word hot to describe him). Maybe even more so than he was at eighteen. She also starts to divulge personal information to him. It comes out like barf. She even worries about what happened to him and his wellbeing, and not just as a healthcare provider to the inmates. It made no sense.
4) The whole "I lope you" nonsense. That is all. What the hell was that? It was such an ick.
5) Brooke's son, Josh, got bullied at his old school because his dad wasn't in his life and he was essentially a "bastard." What year is this? 1955?
6) The whole babysitter thing. I don't want to give too much away, so, that's all I'm going to say.
7)Josh was such a young ten-year-old. Brooke sheltered and coddled him. So, what he ended up doing in the epilogue was just not believable. There is no way he would be capable of doing that. He just didn't seem mature enough. It just wasn't believable. At all.
The author did a nice job of making us, as the readers, second guess ourselves when it came to the who-done-it (not nearly as much as Brooke, though). Once, I thought I had it all figured out, but I was wrong. The story flowed nicely between the past and the present. The two timelines were pieced together nicely. She also made it very clear that Shane was a walking red flag from the jump, while Tim was a green (although at times yellow) one.
This was the first book I have read by Freida McFadden, and even though it wasn't a great first impression, I will check out her other books in the future.
2.5 Stars= It was an okay read
TRIGGER WARNING: VIOLENCE & MURDER
POV: Singular, first-person
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Part of an interconnected series: No
Safe or Dark: Dark (see trigger warning above)
First and foremost, the main female character, Brooke Sullivan, gave me a migraine. She was almost too stupid to live. It was painful. For a nurse practitioner, she seriously lacked intelligence.
I wanted to love this book so bad. So many people raved about how it was an amazing read. I wanted it to live up to the hype so badly. Sadly, it just didn't. It starts out strong. It had so much potential, and I was so excited to see where things went. But as the story went on, the plot got stupider and stupider. I just wanted the pain to stop.
Please allow me to list the issues I had with this story:
1) How Brooke was able to get into the prison system to begin with. She was intimately related to Shane Nelson. He had tried to murder her ten years before she got the job as a nurse practitioner at the prison he was incarcerated in. Her testimony helped land him a life sentence there. The judicial system would have had all the information to link the two. Any average person could have searched for the names Brooke Sullivan and Shane Nelson on the internet and would have seen the entire story. That would have been a huge red flag right away. There is absolutely no way a prison would allow someone who has a link to a prisoner to land a job at that institution, no matter how desperate they are.
2) The way Brooke second-guessed herself more than I did when taking a high school algebra test, and we had to hear her unbearable wishy-washy thoughts. Seriously, every two seconds, she was trying to decide if it was her ex-boyfriend Shane who tried to kill her that fateful night many years ago or her estranged best friend Tim Reese. I get it. There were factors that played a part in her mind, possibly playing tricks on her. BUT COME ON! One second, it might have been Shane, and the next, it might have been Tim.
3) The way Brooke practically swooned over Shane the moment she saw him for the first time since the night of her attempted murder. She has supposedly had nightmares about that night for the past ten years. Yet she isn't repulsed by the sight of Shane as soon as he steps into her exam room. Instead, she remarks on how he is still rather attractive (I believe she used the word hot to describe him). Maybe even more so than he was at eighteen. She also starts to divulge personal information to him. It comes out like barf. She even worries about what happened to him and his wellbeing, and not just as a healthcare provider to the inmates. It made no sense.
4) The whole "I lope you" nonsense. That is all. What the hell was that? It was such an ick.
5) Brooke's son, Josh, got bullied at his old school because his dad wasn't in his life and he was essentially a "bastard." What year is this? 1955?
6) The whole babysitter thing. I don't want to give too much away, so, that's all I'm going to say.
7)Josh was such a young ten-year-old. Brooke sheltered and coddled him. So, what he ended up doing in the epilogue was just not believable. There is no way he would be capable of doing that. He just didn't seem mature enough. It just wasn't believable. At all.
The author did a nice job of making us, as the readers, second guess ourselves when it came to the who-done-it (not nearly as much as Brooke, though). Once, I thought I had it all figured out, but I was wrong. The story flowed nicely between the past and the present. The two timelines were pieced together nicely. She also made it very clear that Shane was a walking red flag from the jump, while Tim was a green (although at times yellow) one.
This was the first book I have read by Freida McFadden, and even though it wasn't a great first impression, I will check out her other books in the future.