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A review by woahshereads
The Coworker by Freida McFadden
2.5
2.5 ⭐️ DISCLAIMER: I did listen to the audio version of the book in which I did not think the narrator did the book justice. Each POV was read in a monotoned voice with little expression or interest & thus I found myself disengaging with the plot. Nevertheless, I persevered through it.
Overall, I enjoyed this book & the twists and turns at the end. I was surprised to see that Dawn was alive and well but I was not surprised in the least that she had help from Caleb. It was so obvious that the new and shiny perfect boyfriend of the mean coworker had to be involved somehow. I will say I didn’t see the “Mia/Amelia” situation unfolding the way it did either. However, there was always something a little off by her emails..
Now for the troublesome parts of this book…Dawn is penned to be an antisocial and awkward person who has a profound love for sea turtles which in turn makes her the unlikeable character of this story. Dawn is clearly autistic & seems to have grown up in an unloving if not emotionally abusive household - although absolutely none of this is stated by the author. This made me feel so incredibly icky & uncomfortable to read, I don’t know how someone could have written this and thought “yeah, this sounds okay”. Dawn was consistently bullied throughout her life & experienced a traumatic loss at an early age, she never got the help she needed & yet we thought it was okay to right her to be murdered and bullied further by the hot coworker who is fucking her boss and stealing money?! LET ALONE, we end the book with the two of these people seemingly coming to an agreement to never expose one another’s secrets and just move on? I can’t.. Natalie is only furthering the abuse and continuing to take advantage of Dawn.
I know this isn’t a real story but the entire play out of Dawn’s character doesn’t sit well with me. There are plenty of other ways to write a character as being unlikeable - even with keeping their background of being bullied - without giving them a developmental disorder & not addressing it at all..Poor judgment and I know Freida can do better.
Overall, I enjoyed this book & the twists and turns at the end. I was surprised to see that Dawn was alive and well but I was not surprised in the least that she had help from Caleb. It was so obvious that the new and shiny perfect boyfriend of the mean coworker had to be involved somehow. I will say I didn’t see the “Mia/Amelia” situation unfolding the way it did either. However, there was always something a little off by her emails..
Now for the troublesome parts of this book…Dawn is penned to be an antisocial and awkward person who has a profound love for sea turtles which in turn makes her the unlikeable character of this story. Dawn is clearly autistic & seems to have grown up in an unloving if not emotionally abusive household - although absolutely none of this is stated by the author. This made me feel so incredibly icky & uncomfortable to read, I don’t know how someone could have written this and thought “yeah, this sounds okay”. Dawn was consistently bullied throughout her life & experienced a traumatic loss at an early age, she never got the help she needed & yet we thought it was okay to right her to be murdered and bullied further by the hot coworker who is fucking her boss and stealing money?! LET ALONE, we end the book with the two of these people seemingly coming to an agreement to never expose one another’s secrets and just move on? I can’t.. Natalie is only furthering the abuse and continuing to take advantage of Dawn.
I know this isn’t a real story but the entire play out of Dawn’s character doesn’t sit well with me. There are plenty of other ways to write a character as being unlikeable - even with keeping their background of being bullied - without giving them a developmental disorder & not addressing it at all..Poor judgment and I know Freida can do better.