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bsparx's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Do you ever finish a book and have the reaction of, “Oh! You son of a….“?? That was my reaction when I finished Ward D. In the epilogue. Now it wasn’t a disappointed reaction. It was an intrigued, ‘you actually had me fooled‘ reaction. Do know how rarely I have those?
I noticed the reviews about Ward D are mixed, which I can understand. It becomes clear, early on, that our protagonist is an unreliable narrator. They’re not for everyone and sometimes a reader needs more patience to get through what seems like a potentially annoying character flaw. However, when you get through it, realise it’s an unreliable narrator, sometimes you can be so pleasantly surprised.
Amy, our protagonist, comes across as being very unsure of herself. She lacks confidence and, eventually, I suspected she had an undiagnosed anxiety disorder. I have anxiety myself. Reading Amy’s thoughts was akin to listening to my own thoughts. They weren’t the same, mind you, but they were exhausting. They were all over the place. I was like, “girl, you need some lexapro or something.” My thoughts and then Amy’s downward spiral was not a good mix. This was the point I had a break.
I enjoyed the other characters. They’re all very interesting, a little kooky, and questionable. About halfway through I didn’t trust any of the characters. I didn’t trust the main character. I had built up several theories and, in my experience, they’re usually right, but this time I was wrong! So wrong, and so good that I was!
Now, as someone who has a gazillion mental illnesses, I feel I can comment on the fact the story is set in a psychiatric ward (never had the actual experience though) with characters who have mental illness and disorders. I think, if you take things a certain way, you could be a tad offended by some of the mental illness portrayal. This is granted in some stories. However I don’t feel this is the way with Ward D. I feel the way McFadden wrote about diagnoses and treatment, from Amy’s perspective, was open-minded and in the positive. Amy actually learnt some things by the end of the story, which is great.
I found Ward D very easy to read. It grabbed my attention straight away and had momentum. If I was a person who was able to sit for long periods of time, and didn’t prize my sleep, I would have easily finished this book in one sitting. As it was, I finished it in just over one day, and still got my sleep. And now I want to read another McFadden novel.
I noticed the reviews about Ward D are mixed, which I can understand. It becomes clear, early on, that our protagonist is an unreliable narrator. They’re not for everyone and sometimes a reader needs more patience to get through what seems like a potentially annoying character flaw. However, when you get through it, realise it’s an unreliable narrator, sometimes you can be so pleasantly surprised.
Amy, our protagonist, comes across as being very unsure of herself. She lacks confidence and, eventually, I suspected she had an undiagnosed anxiety disorder. I have anxiety myself. Reading Amy’s thoughts was akin to listening to my own thoughts. They weren’t the same, mind you, but they were exhausting. They were all over the place. I was like, “girl, you need some lexapro or something.” My thoughts and then Amy’s downward spiral was not a good mix. This was the point I had a break.
I enjoyed the other characters. They’re all very interesting, a little kooky, and questionable. About halfway through I didn’t trust any of the characters. I didn’t trust the main character. I had built up several theories and, in my experience, they’re usually right, but this time I was wrong! So wrong, and so good that I was!
Now, as someone who has a gazillion mental illnesses, I feel I can comment on the fact the story is set in a psychiatric ward (never had the actual experience though) with characters who have mental illness and disorders. I think, if you take things a certain way, you could be a tad offended by some of the mental illness portrayal. This is granted in some stories. However I don’t feel this is the way with Ward D. I feel the way McFadden wrote about diagnoses and treatment, from Amy’s perspective, was open-minded and in the positive. Amy actually learnt some things by the end of the story, which is great.
I found Ward D very easy to read. It grabbed my attention straight away and had momentum. If I was a person who was able to sit for long periods of time, and didn’t prize my sleep, I would have easily finished this book in one sitting. As it was, I finished it in just over one day, and still got my sleep. And now I want to read another McFadden novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Mental illness, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Medical content and Murder
Minor: Addiction and Dementia
cannibalisticroses's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Mental illness, and Medical content
hannnah_reads's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
dmackreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Starting with the good, this book was INSANE. I genuinely did not know where this was going or what was going to happen. It made me sick and as much as mental health scared me before, it scares me 10x more now.
I will say a lot of things seemed very unrealistic to me and the story was very slow moving. I don’t know why so many people say this is “fast-paced” because it absolutely is not. A slow moving thriller isn’t bad if there’s little hints as to what may happen or little things happening that make your heart jump throughout but I was getting kind of bored because I didn’t really feel much until the last 30ish% of the book.
But, the ending was insane, unexpected, and very good.
I will say a lot of things seemed very unrealistic to me and the story was very slow moving. I don’t know why so many people say this is “fast-paced” because it absolutely is not. A slow moving thriller isn’t bad if there’s little hints as to what may happen or little things happening that make your heart jump throughout but I was getting kind of bored because I didn’t really feel much until the last 30ish% of the book.
But, the ending was insane, unexpected, and very good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting
swimmer120x's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
3.5
I kept wondering in this book why the staff wasn’t doing 15 minute safety checks , but it all made sense in the end. I caught on to Ramona pretty quickly, but Dr. Beck threw me for a loop.
I wasn’t expecting the plot twist at the end. It seemed a little far fetched, given thenumber of murders that occurred in one night , but still intense/good. It’s highly, highly unlikely that it would occur in real life, in a psychiatric hospital, to that degree.
The book was enjoyable, although it did not have a realistic ending. The majority of the book, aside from the ending, was realistic.
I wasn’t expecting the plot twist at the end. It seemed a little far fetched, given the
The book was enjoyable, although it did not have a realistic ending. The majority of the book, aside from the ending, was realistic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, and Gaslighting
depsy34's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
Holy crap on a cracker! I don’t usually bother to take the time to review books I rate this low but this one deserved it. It will also be the final Frieda book I read.
I had issues with previous Frieda books but they were normally minor. My major gripes have been the inability to realise it isn't necessary to pull off a ‘big twist’ at the end if it feels painfully and illogically forced in, among a few other little issues.
I actually loved at least one of Frieda's other books until the epilogue where the writing DESPERATELY tries to surprise you. It's never done well and all of the ‘twists’ are at the expense of the rest of the book.
This time I was already annoyed at the start of the book. We expect to suspend some credulity when reading a thriller. A character will make a dumb choice. Some unexpected thing (like lights going out) will happen.
With Ward D you are expected to take your credulity, shove it in a toilet, flush it, race it down to the sewage plant where you beat it up, put it in a bag, hand it to the mafia and have them go make it ‘sleep with the fishes.’
I’ll start with things which I considered ‘annoying but not entirely unreasonable for a thriller’:
1. The idea that on a psychiatric ward there is an intense and loud BUZZ every time someone enters or exits. – No. Do you have any idea about mental illness? Fun fact, a lot of psychiatric disorders include some kind of struggle with loud or unexpected noises. This is NOT a thing.
2. The entire time the main character acts like it is so hard to find her fellow doctor / anyone. Psych wards aren’t that large. OR if they are, they have HEAPS of staff on them. You think they just want it easy for people struggling with their mental health to hide?
3. Our MC is MEANT to be a doctor candidate. At LEAST they are meant to SMART. As usually, the writing tries to TELL us the MC is clever, while failing to follow through at all.
4. MULTIPLE TIMES the MC says ‘against my character’ or similar and does something idiotic. This is such lazy writing it HURTS.
5. We’re expected to believe that a psych ward, as part of a hospital, goes into basic shutdown / can’t be accessed if the power goes out?
Things I can’t overlook:
1. The elaborate plot for the sake of it. The criminals can already escape but stay in the ward to play with the MC?
2. Red Jelly vs Blood. Absolutely not. If you can be gaslit that easily you wouldn’t be a doctor. As many other reviews have pointed out – tomato sauce, hot sauce etc there were far better choices!
3. The “Twist at the end”. Oh! My! God! Honestly, even though the rest of the book was trash, I was about to breathe a sigh of relief and say ‘at least there isn’t an attempt to shoehorn something stupid in’ and THEN the FUCKING TWIST!
Fun fact – you can’t have an unreliable narrator who turns ‘reliable’ at the end. Either she NEVER acknowledges the little girl OR we see her throughout. For a hot second I enjoyed the idea that the MC had been drugged and that was why she saw the little girl, but NO we were meant to believe the MC who has been narrating to NO ONE was ignoring this hallucination the whole time. Basically – she was there but you didn’t see her but she was also telling me what to do! It’s not clever, it‘s lazy, gross and BAD.
Finally, I didn’t know before this book that Sheila is an actual practicing DOCTOR! With that in mind – this book is the most disgusting portrayal of mental health issues I’ve seen in a VERY long time! Not to mention the contradiction of the MC repeatedly talking about how you can’t ‘trust people who see things’ while very unsubtly telling us ‘people with mental illness get addicted to things’ and placing a peach iced tea in a brick and beating you over the head with it.
The portrayal of mental illnesses and the psychiatric ward is disgusting, from a doctor it makes me think she really needs some additional training and education about mental illness.
I’m done with Mcfadden's books but saddened that anyone would think this was good writing, clever writing or a good thriller. Much less acceptable in 2024 when talking about mental health.
I had issues with previous Frieda books but they were normally minor. My major gripes have been the inability to realise it isn't necessary to pull off a ‘big twist’ at the end if it feels painfully and illogically forced in, among a few other little issues.
I actually loved at least one of Frieda's other books until the epilogue where the writing DESPERATELY tries to surprise you. It's never done well and all of the ‘twists’ are at the expense of the rest of the book.
This time I was already annoyed at the start of the book. We expect to suspend some credulity when reading a thriller. A character will make a dumb choice. Some unexpected thing (like lights going out) will happen.
With Ward D you are expected to take your credulity, shove it in a toilet, flush it, race it down to the sewage plant where you beat it up, put it in a bag, hand it to the mafia and have them go make it ‘sleep with the fishes.’
I’ll start with things which I considered ‘annoying but not entirely unreasonable for a thriller’:
1. The idea that on a psychiatric ward there is an intense and loud BUZZ every time someone enters or exits. – No. Do you have any idea about mental illness? Fun fact, a lot of psychiatric disorders include some kind of struggle with loud or unexpected noises. This is NOT a thing.
2. The entire time the main character acts like it is so hard to find her fellow doctor / anyone. Psych wards aren’t that large. OR if they are, they have HEAPS of staff on them. You think they just want it easy for people struggling with their mental health to hide?
3. Our MC is MEANT to be a doctor candidate. At LEAST they are meant to SMART. As usually, the writing tries to TELL us the MC is clever, while failing to follow through at all.
4. MULTIPLE TIMES the MC says ‘against my character’ or similar and does something idiotic. This is such lazy writing it HURTS.
5. We’re expected to believe that a psych ward, as part of a hospital, goes into basic shutdown / can’t be accessed if the power goes out?
Things I can’t overlook:
1. The elaborate plot for the sake of it. The criminals can already escape but stay in the ward to play with the MC?
2. Red Jelly vs Blood. Absolutely not. If you can be gaslit that easily you wouldn’t be a doctor. As many other reviews have pointed out – tomato sauce, hot sauce etc there were far better choices!
3. The “Twist at the end”. Oh! My! God! Honestly, even though the rest of the book was trash, I was about to breathe a sigh of relief and say ‘at least there isn’t an attempt to shoehorn something stupid in’ and THEN the FUCKING TWIST!
Fun fact – you can’t have an unreliable narrator who turns ‘reliable’ at the end. Either she NEVER acknowledges the little girl OR we see her throughout. For a hot second I enjoyed the idea that the MC had been drugged and that was why she saw the little girl, but NO we were meant to believe the MC who has been narrating to NO ONE was ignoring this hallucination the whole time. Basically – she was there but you didn’t see her but she was also telling me what to do! It’s not clever, it‘s lazy, gross and BAD.
Finally, I didn’t know before this book that Sheila is an actual practicing DOCTOR! With that in mind – this book is the most disgusting portrayal of mental health issues I’ve seen in a VERY long time! Not to mention the contradiction of the MC repeatedly talking about how you can’t ‘trust people who see things’ while very unsubtly telling us ‘people with mental illness get addicted to things’ and placing a peach iced tea in a brick and beating you over the head with it.
The portrayal of mental illnesses and the psychiatric ward is disgusting, from a doctor it makes me think she really needs some additional training and education about mental illness.
I’m done with Mcfadden's books but saddened that anyone would think this was good writing, clever writing or a good thriller. Much less acceptable in 2024 when talking about mental health.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship
rachel_jones03's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Murder
theycallmerash's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This book was very exciting, nerve wracking, and tense! Some information about the narrator makes her seem somewhat unreliable which is always a fun read in my opinion. Of course it wouldn't be Freida without a big twist (and another one at the very end that you weren't expecting!)
I did take a point away for some of the mental health portrayals and a couple stretches past the imagination.
But otherwise this was an interesting read with lots of shocking twists!
I did take a point away for some of the mental health portrayals and a couple stretches past the imagination.
But otherwise this was an interesting read with lots of shocking twists!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
greatexpectations77's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I liked this one fine, and it had the patented Frieda McFadden twists. But god damn, you would think this was written 40 years ago for how it talked about mental health! Super judgy and exclusive terms about people being crazy and unstable and like animals. It felt like McFadden had never met a mentally ill person. Folks in overnight facilities are all trying their best. No one wants to live with a brain that tortures them. Everyone is deserving of care. And I feel like if one of Amy's doctors had read this book, she would get a severe talking to about how she refers to mentally ill patients. Also, she needs to get her head out of her ass about this whole I-was-dumped-for-a-test thing. People make mistakes! They get really stressed about life-changing tests and they screw up their priorities! But don't spend the whole book hating your ex and then suddenly feel all bad when he's dead. McFadden has written female characters that were way easier to support than Amy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Abandonment
jazlynenns's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Plot was ok, but it felt immature and predictable. The main character was gullible and believed anything anyone told her, which resulted in her being manipulated pretty much the whole book. I didn’t love the stigmatizing vocabulary regarding mental illness (ex: crazy, insane), and think this could’ve been written to be more accurate of experience in a mental health facility. Was an easy read and got through it pretty fast.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Blood, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, and Death of parent