If the summary of this makes your skin crawl, just wait. It gets worse.

I have enjoyed everything I have read by Freida and this was no different. This story, while troubling, has you experience the complete gamut of feelings. The characters are so believable and easily relatable that every one of them leaves a mark.

Without spoiling the tale, when you come to the end you still didn't see it all coming. Highly recommend especially for those who have read others of hers.

Ok, so Freida McFadden is a SUPER popular psychological thriller author, and since I occasionally like that genre (it's a love it or hate it situation for me), I thought I'd check her newest one out! And while I totally get the appeal for fans of folks who are fans of Lisa Jewell, Megan Miranda, J.P. Delaney or other, similar authors, this just didn't do it for me. While it was a very easy book to read, I thought all the "twists" were very transparently telegraphed - I knew what was going down long before it happened. The only "twist" that I didn't see coming was in the epilogue, and that's because it made absolutely no sense and created several plot holes. It soured me further on a book I already didn't like. I don't love thrillers that are based around adults having sex with teenagers as a matter of personal preference and feel pretty comfy saying that that dynamic wasn't handled well here. The epilogue definitely confirmed my feelings about the book being poorly plotted. Anyway, if this thing hasn't gone to print, maybe 86 that epilogue.

TLDR: This was not my thing at all, but fans of Lisa Jewell, Megan Miranda or McFadden's other books will likely find a lot to like here and I'd recommend it to folks who can't get enough of the genre. 1 star - I didn't like it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hollywood Upstairs Press for the eARC, which I received for an unbiased review. The Teacher will be available on 06 February.

This book was a wild roller coaster that you can only expect from Freida. I had zero idea what was going to happen next up until the very last page. I had to go back and read the last few pages more than once to make sure that I hadn't imagined what I just read. Great job as always!

Any book I finish in one sitting I think deserves a 3 from me but other than that this book did not wow me like previous McFadden ones have. I think it mainly can be due to my comfortability with one of the main themes of the plot, which in that case other people will probably like this book a lot more, however, this felt more like a domestic suspense to me for a majority of the book until the last 30ish pages where I began feeling like it was a thriller/mystery. The twists in the end still caught me off guard though however of the books I’ve read by McFadden, this is one of the weaker ones for me.

The Teacher by Freida McFadden is a story of twisted secrets and revenge coming out in February. The teacher referred to in the title could be Eve Bennett or her husband Nate in this psychological thriller set in Caseham High School where she teaches math and he teaches English. She’s a tough-as-nails, take-charge teacher while he uses his charm and intelligence to become the most popular teacher at Caseham, especially now that Art Tuttle was fired for messing around with his student Addie Severson.

Eve believes her marriage is on the rocks as Nate’s affection for her has grown cold. To fulfill the needs that are not being met at home, she indulges in shopping for stiletto heels and having an affair with the shoe salesman. Since both are married, they confine their relationship to the shoe storeroom once a week.

While Eve loves teaching math, she does not love seeing Addie’s name on her class list. Eve knows from the Tuttle scandal that Addie cannot be trusted, she lies, she hurts people, and she destroys lives. Worse, Addie struggles in math, having engaged Mr. Tuttle for some tutoring.

Addie has not been able to live down the scandal of the previous school year, and she knows returning to Caseham is going to be tough. No one befriends her, and one student in particular bullies Addie openly. School is a living hell for Addie but when Nate encourages her poetry writing in his English class, she finds some satisfaction. She even joins the poetry magazine that Nate supervises, providing just the right circumstances for the student and her teacher to enter a forbidden relationship.

When Eve encounters Addie and Nick alone in his classroom, she snaps some photos. What if she exposes Addie’s part in a doomed student-teacher scandal? How will Nate’s career survive? His marriage?

Freida McFadden, a writer who uses this pseudonym, writes psychological thrillers and medical humor novels. A brain injury doctor, she self-published her first book on Amazon in 2013. Best known for her book The Housemaid, she lives with her family in a house overlooking an ocean.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting December 12, 2023.

I would like to thank Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

There are 2 teachers involved in this storyline. Wasn't sure which one had more secrets to.hide. Then throw in a teenage girl with a troubled past and a murder and you have a book that keeps you guessing til the end. .
Thank you net galley for this ARC.

Being a teenager is challenging, especially for Addie. She was involved in a scandal the previous year, and you hear more of her secrets throughout the story. Eve is a tough teacher, and she does not want to let Addie off easy in any aspect. You will feel shocked and even appalled with new secrets being revealed while hearing Addie and Eve's stories. You will also get a look at Eve's marriage with her attractive husband Nate, a teacher that everyone is left wondering why someone like him could be with someone like Eve. It is grueling to decide who to trust throughout this book. I kept switching from feeling bad for one character and then on to another. Near the end of the book, I thought I had already read the most shocking twist, until I got to the epilogue. The epilogue made my jaw drop in disbelief.

Popcorn and Plot Holes

The Teacher is an over-the-top thriller about two high school teachers whose entanglement with a troubled student results in murder.

Told through the POVs of a Math teacher, Eve; Nate, an English Teacher; and their student, Addie, none of the three are particularly likable. Eve’s chapters are the most interesting; she has some spunk, except when she acts like an idiot over her shoe collection. Nate is a douchey scumbag. Addie is whiny, and she sounds much younger than a 16-year-old. She does not feel authentic. The three have zero depth.

The plot is basic and relies on many twists. I guessed most of them, but the last one was surprisingly good. In addition to the twists, there are a lot of plot holes.

As the plot develops, the stupidity of the three characters grows. I couldn't take them much more in the end, and I had to suspend my disbelief multiple times, especially concerning the outcome of the Pumpkin Patch. However, the final twist is a good one and bumped my review up a star.

There is also the inclusion of some poems, which are laughable, but the author’s note explains that McFadden wanted to include intentionally bad ones.

This makes for a good, mindless read when you are craving something over-the-top and a little ridiculous.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press.

I liked this book. Couldn’t put it down. I feel like I should’ve seen the ending coming but I definitely did not! 10/10 would recommend. love Freida’s work.

I couldn’t put this book down! What an addictive page turner this was! I was hooked the whole way through. Just loved it! This was my first book by Freida McFadden and it wont be my last!

Wow, I absolutely loved this book it's instantly became my favorite by Freida McFadden. I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy and I have to say that this is one of the best twists that I've read in a long time which is why she's one of my absolute favorite authors. Bravo Freida!

I am becoming a big fan of Freida McFadden! This was the third book I’ve read by her, and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve come to expect fast-paced plots, short chapters, plot twists, and psychological thrills in her work, and The Teacher definitely delivered. I love how this book used multiple POVs to move the story line along. In thrillers, I love when you’re never quite sure which POV you should be trusting or if you can even believe any of them. At times this book (because of certain subject matter and plot points) made me very uncomfortable but that discomfort only added to the reading experience for me and intrigued me to the point where I had to know how it was all going to play out in the end.

I read this book through an advanced readers copy.

I want to start by saying I am not the biggest Frieda fan. I really enjoyed the housemaid and I read many of her other works because they are fun and quick reads. I do not find her work to be super scary or suspenseful. It’s more of a fun thriller if that’s a thing. This book is a lot better than her recent release, The Coworker.

Pros:
I really enjoyed the plot for this story and the multiple point of views. I felt like Addie’s character was depicted perfectly as a teenage girl. I’m also a sucker for a twist in the epilogue! Loved that little information.

Cons:
I am not really into this obsession that was in the Coworker and in this book. It did not play a major roll in the story and felt like it was pointless information.

There’s so much more I want to say but I want this review spoiler free

I finished the book in three days. Once I got pulled in I couldn’t stop reading. Eve and Noah are a married couple that are also teachers. What secrets do they have? The characters were very unique from Freida’s other books.. The plot twist was good and I loved the epilogue. I didn’t see that coming at all.

Thank you to Net Galley and Sourcebooks for providing an early copy of The Teacher by Frieda McFadden

The suspenseful and disturbing The Teacher is guaranteed to keep the reader completely engaged in the twists and turns in the lives of several devious and malevolent characters. Following a general theme taken from Edgar Allen Poe, the book is a balanced mix of straightforward logic and the macabre. Author Frieda McFadden again incorporates a classic work of literature and takes it to a new dimension (her short story The Gift borrows from O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi).

Husband and wife teachers Nate and Eve Bennett, on the faculty at a high school ,are unhappy in their marriage. Enter a disturbed 16-year old female student in both of their classes who just the year before had been named in a possible teacher/student impropriety incident that cost the teacher his job. When student Addie Severson attaches herself to Nate Bennett, it is clear that this is much more than a teenage infatuation. The diabolical Nate will use this infatuation to his advantage that results in a riveting turn of events.

While the story contains some holes regarding parental involvement and police procedure, this does not deter from the drive for revenge and the ultimate question of whether justice has been served.

I’m usually a huge fan of her writings and while I will say the twists were on par, the rest of the story fell flat. The main plot of the story was a bit lackluster considering the subject matter choice and the double standards were just weird feeling. The twist at the end left some plot holes/questions about the logistics of certain items written into the story. The book is on the longer side which I don’t think it needed to be that way. I felt as though some chapters could have been left out and it would’ve been fine. Overall it’s meh, nothing superb though.

I am so thankful to have been selected to read an ARC of The Teacher. I have read nearly all of Freida McFadden’s psychological thrillers and have loved them all. This one is no different. This book is extremely fast paced and so hard to put down. I did not expect the twist at the very end at all! 4 stars ⭐️

Thank you netgalley for giving me an ARC for an honest review. Wow! Wow! Wow! I’m a huge Freida fan and I love all her books and I love the twist and turns of her books. When I tell you that my mouth fell open a couple times, my freaking mouth fell open a couple times! I did figure out the one part but that ending “Jay” I had no freaking idea! That had my mouth hanging open! This was such a good book. So fast paced and right to the point and it just kept making you want to read page after page without stopping. This was easily a 5 star read! I cannot wait for the rest of the world to read this.

I was so happy to be selected to read this book before it was released! I am a Freida fan and I was very happy with this one. Great twists all the way to the very last page! Definitely recommend!

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press!

Absolutely loved the twists in this book! I totally didn’t see the end coming!! Freida is the best! I have already recommended this book!! Can’t wait for her next one!!