Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Teacher

Eve has a good life, she has a great job and a wonderful husband. Life is good. Last year, Caseham High was rocked by allegations of a student-teacher affair. With student Addie at the centre, but Eve knows there is more to the story, and that Addie might be someone you can’t trust.

Honestly, this book is a wild ride and I feel quite torn. On the one hand, I did enjoy reading this book, well as much as you can enjoy a book revolving around grooming and pedophilia, but on the other hand, I was left with some questions.

Starting with characters, I wasn’t a fan of Eve. She was rude, materialistic, annoying and honestly not a great teacher if her treatment of Addie is anything to go by. Nate seemed alright at the beginning but, let’s be honest, if you’ve read the book, then you know that changed very bloody quickly. Addie was probably my favourite of the three. Was she perfect? Hell no. Did she make some poor decisions? Many. But the fact that no one but a predator seemed to notice that she was on a downwards spiral and seriously needed help and support is beyond me. It’s a terrible school.

I wasn’t surprised when Nate showed his true colours, between grooming multiple young girls and the events between him, Eve and Addie towards the end of the book, he honestly had it coming to him. I thought the twist with Eve practically coming back from the dead was hilarious. If that’s not karma, I don’t know what is. I didn’t see the fact that Eve was one of Nate’s earliest victims coming, even though I probably should have, but it definitely made sense.

I really liked how Addie’s life started to improve, how she was no longer the subject of bullying, she got her old friend back and made new ones and had found people who understood her abuse that she could talk to.

The final twist of the book was Jay. Honestly, I had to read those last couple pages multiple times to wrap my head around it. But it left me with questions. One, did Eve know Jay’s real identity? Two, if she didn’t, how is that possible? Considering he attends the same school she works at and he’s a fairly popular football player. Three, even if you gave her the benefit of the doubt, surely this sixteen-year-old didn’t look like he could possibly be married with a baby? Surely he looked, you know, like a teenager! Either Eve had no idea and just the worst luck, or the victim became the abuser… honestly, my brain hurts.

Overall, I found this book very intriguing and it will definitely not be my last Freida McFadden book.

Content Warnings

zsnails99's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

The epilogue completely shattered an otherwise fantastic read. Dark and gripping to some sense of vindication gets shredded to ribbons in a convoluted gotcha twist ending that ruins otherwise decent characters and makes no logistical sense. Also the shoe thing was exhausting.

Content Warnings

elbell1012's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

2.5

Content Warnings

niya_books's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

The end had my brain doing flips. Everyone was just problematic, I feel like I need to be one with nature after this.

Content Warnings

thequiltyreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Listened as an audiobook. Enjoyable thriller, though if there was one more mention of shoes I was ready to walk away. The shoe element was repetitive and unnecessary in my opion. The Mr Tuttle situation was mentioned loads but we never got to hear the full story.

A good few few twists and turns as the story went on and have to say I did not expect the last one at all.

Would give another of her books a try.

Content Warnings

graceev's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

sloanjolly's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

2.0

I was going to rate this 3/5 stars, but couldn’t after Part III and the Epilogue- they made this read even more disappointing. It would’ve been 1/5 stars except it was a quick, easy read (finished in a few hours) that did have me intrigued throughout many chapters.

Content Warnings

jenniferbowman's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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