Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Coworker by Freida McFadden

24 reviews

velmad's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book.  I struggled so much with it. 

Perhaps it’s a different book when read.  I read an audio copy and had a few thoughts on it. 

The narrator breathed really heavily.  I had a hard time with the constant quotes and information about turtles. 

In the end , I really struggled to believe the plot twist and collaboration of the people who “did it” 

It didn’t make sense to me , the connection. 

I feel like this ended up being completely far fetched in all aspects.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Self harm, and Stalking

lmayfieldx's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Ableism and Death

rsagarin's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Infidelity, Blood, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

asporer22's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This was my second book by this author, and once again I didn’t see the whole twist coming. I knew to be on my toes and think outside of the box, but I didn’t think it would take the turn it did. I would’ve rated this book higher if it had better characters. I found Natalie to be insufferable at times and couldn’t look past it. I also highly disliked that Dawn had very few personality traits. I get that it was part of the story for Dawn to be so dull, but it felt like a potential lack of effort on the the authors part. I’m not sure I would recommend this specific book to another reader, but I would recommend Frieda. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity and Suicidal thoughts

shesflippinpages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infertility

brynhayes's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

priscillarobock's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

mbedrosian's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

jhabelita's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

Okayyy, a plot twist after plot twist was there but the ending was very anti-climactic IMO. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Toxic friendship

spootilious's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

 

Read: September 25, 2023
 Title: The Coworker 

Author: Freida McFadden
 Genre: Mystery
 Rating: 0/5
 Review: 

I’ve been trying to think of something good to say about this book. I really have. The closest thing I can say is that it wasn’t entirely predictable. The ‘plot twist’ wasn’t too surprising and most of the plot holes were tied up…. But that’s as far as I can go with nice things to say. 

To start off, the writing style is extremely immature. It almost feels like I’m reading a fifteen-year old’s first attempt at a thriller novel. I’ve noticed that many people think that it’s due to the main character’s personality and I’m happy that like it, however, with the main characters being so one dimensional I can’t agree. 

Natalie is written like a stereotypical B*mbo (I apologize for my choice of words, but it was the best descriptor I could think of), and Dawn is written like the only autistic representation the author has ever experienced is Rain man. The only personality traits are the Nat is considered pretty and Dawn really likes turtles. Honestly it made me want to vomit. 

Surprisingly enough the only characters in the entire book that didn’t seem one dimensional were the men… and even then, only barely. 

The way the office was written made it obvious that the author has no experience with an office environment and the way the police work was written was sloppy and seemed to have no research done whatsoever (though I may be a bit bias, having worked Law Enforcement). 

Fifteen minutes into this novel and I knew I was going to despise it, though I did my best not to, I haven’t found a decent reason to feel otherwise. Overall, the storytelling was boring and flat, the characters were detestable and dull, and the ‘thriller’ part of the book maybe lasted 3-4 minutes before being utterly ruined by the fact that there is not a single redeeming quality to any of the characters, and the terrible, grotesque, and dehumanizing representation of autism in this novel makes me sick to my stomach. I would have called it quits on this novel but wanted to give it a complete chance and finished it… which only made my distaste worst. 

I feel terrible having to write such a terrible review and giving the lowest (though I wish I could go lower) review I have ever provided but felt even worse as I was reading. 

Minor TW: Death, Self-harm, Vomit, Confinement, Murder, Violence, Suicide, Blood, Ableism, Bullying, Child Death, Emotional Abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Stalking 

 Quotes: 

N/A 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship