Book 38 - Freida McFadden "The Teacher"
Jun. 9th, 2026 07:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveFreida McFadden "The Teacher" (Poisoned Pen Press)
Addie, a high school junior, has some problems. Her dad had died last year, and when a teacher tried to console and help her, some parents got the wrong idea that something nefarious was going on. It wasn’t, but the teacher was forced to leave the school. This year, Addie is shunned by her peers and treated warily by teachers. All except for her English teacher, Nate, who just happens to be married to her math teacher, Eve. Eve and Nate are not the happily married couple they appear to be to others.
They each find happiness outside their marriage, Eve with her expensive shoes and handsome shoe salesman, and Nate with the adoring young Addie. In this tale, the youth are capable of great evil, and the adults who should protect and nurture instead corrupt and destroy. This book is repulsive on so many levels: adultery, pedophilia, murder, obsessions, complicity to commit murder, unlawful entry, and concealing crimes. Secrets, of course, are plentiful in this tale. It is a fairly quick read, and compelling in its suspense. The ending, though, was so contrived that even after reading it, I thought that the author couldn’t possibly have meant that. But she did. Are there any likable characters in this book? Maybe the principal who barely makes an appearance and Addie’s mother, a hard-working nurse who is seldom in the story. If you like thrillers just for the suspense without much else, this book may appeal to you. But if you need to have at least one character that you could admire, this is a book you should skip.
Addie, a high school junior, has some problems. Her dad had died last year, and when a teacher tried to console and help her, some parents got the wrong idea that something nefarious was going on. It wasn’t, but the teacher was forced to leave the school. This year, Addie is shunned by her peers and treated warily by teachers. All except for her English teacher, Nate, who just happens to be married to her math teacher, Eve. Eve and Nate are not the happily married couple they appear to be to others.
They each find happiness outside their marriage, Eve with her expensive shoes and handsome shoe salesman, and Nate with the adoring young Addie. In this tale, the youth are capable of great evil, and the adults who should protect and nurture instead corrupt and destroy. This book is repulsive on so many levels: adultery, pedophilia, murder, obsessions, complicity to commit murder, unlawful entry, and concealing crimes. Secrets, of course, are plentiful in this tale. It is a fairly quick read, and compelling in its suspense. The ending, though, was so contrived that even after reading it, I thought that the author couldn’t possibly have meant that. But she did. Are there any likable characters in this book? Maybe the principal who barely makes an appearance and Addie’s mother, a hard-working nurse who is seldom in the story. If you like thrillers just for the suspense without much else, this book may appeal to you. But if you need to have at least one character that you could admire, this is a book you should skip.
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