THE TEACHER

By Freida McFadden

⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 (Goodreads: 3.93)

GENRE: Domestic Thriller

PART OF A SERIES? No

WORTH READING? Yes (and no)

SUMMARY:

Eve's life seems perfect. Every morning, she wakes up, kisses her husband Nate, and leaves for her job as a high school maths teacher. Everything appears normal.

But…

Last year, a student named Addie was at the centre of a scandal involving a student-teacher relationship. However, Eve is aware that these disturbing rumours hide much more.

Everyone believes that Addie is untrustworthy, lies, and ruins lives.

But no one truly knows Addie. No one is aware of the secrets that could ruin her. And Addie will go to any lengths to keep them hidden.

Opening line: “Digging a grave is hard work.”

Obviously, that’s a cracker of an opening line! Freida McFadden hooks you straight away. The pacing of this book is excellent; it never really lets up. I found it a quick and easy read.

Repetitive – one of my pet hates in a book is when one character (or the narrator) tells you something, and then less than a chapter later, you get told the same thing again. Almost verbatim. I don’t need to be told twice.

Unlikeable main characters; very few characters who were likeable.

Despite all the hype about this book containing many twists and turns, I found it far too predictable. That is something that frustrates me as a reader.

Having said all this, I obviously read the whole thing, so there was enough there to keep me interested. But at around the 75% mark, I felt myself looking longingly at my bookcase that contains many (many!) books waiting to be read… I became quite desperate to finish this McFadden book and move onto something else.

I won’t be reading any more of Freida McFadden’s books, as I feel there are other thriller writers I would choose before her (such as Karin Slaughter, Nicci French, Dervla McTiernan, Teresa Driscoll, Jilliane Hoffman, Gillian Flynn and Harlan Coben, to name a few). I do understand that she is quite popular, though, so perhaps the simplicity of her writing just isn’t my cup of tea.

Click here if you’d like to give the paperback version of The Teacher a go

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