The Twisted Mind of Freida McFadden

I can't tell you exactly how I discovered my first Freida McFadden; it was either an ad scrolling through social media, or, more likely, a suggestion from Kindle "based upon books you've previously read".

The title of the first book, The Housemaid, is what caught my attention; possibly because I'm drawn to short titles. For whatever reason though, I clicked to read the synopsis. It did seem like something I'd enjoy, so I added it to my library.

Next to that was another book, The Inmate, by the same author. Short title and inmatey--definitely gonna give this a read, I thought. Click. Added to my library.

When I was done with whatever I'd been reading, I contemplated what to read next. As anyone who loves to read knows, you have a million TBRs and two million decisions to make, to include all the books you don't currently possess!

I contemplated heftily between the two books. I figured I would like The Inmate better so I saved it for next. I actually ended up liking The Housemaid better, though did not dislike The Inmate by ANY stretch. (Also, between you and me, when I got to the end of The Housemaid I may have squealed to discover there would be a sequel released in February 2023!)

All of the Freida McFadden books I've read so far have been dubbed psychological thrillers (though she does have just a few others that are not).

Kindle says I downloaded that first book to my library on October 22, 2022. As of this writing, that was 35 days ago. To date, I have fully read 7 Freida McFadden books, and have read nothing else since (except Matthew Perry's memoir, of which I'm still trying to write a review that will do it justice; but I mean, it's Matthew Perry. How could you not pause for him?!).

Three books in, it was clear that in every Freida McFadden psychological thriller you are going to get:

1. Stories written in first person.
2. A dead body.
3. Mind-blowing twists that you likely won't see coming! (when I read a thriller, I try to figure out the ending as I go. I cannot shut off this function of my brain so if you have any solutions, I would be happy to hear them!)

It took a while to get used to stories written in first person. I don't know if it's the new norm; it seems like books used to be written in third-person, but nearly every book I download now is written in the first. You do have to pay attention to the chapters or you might think the male is the female and things won't add up for a minute (or maybe I'm the only one who doesn't pay attention to chapter indicators?).

The twists in these books are absolutely wild. Sometimes I can kind of figure out where the story is going, but I'm never, ever 100% right.

I will soon be starting my eighth Freida McFadden. I can't seem to put them down! Immediately after finishing The Housemaid, I looked up Ms. McFadden's anthology and copied down every title. After The Inmate, I started at her oldest book that wasn't in a series, and have been reading through. The series sets I'll read together.

To say I'm obsessed with these books is a mild understatement. They're easy to read and follow, but the thing I really enjoy is: the cursing is minimal and any sex scenes are breezed over. Instead of an entire chapter written, it's just a sentence or two. Nothing graphic, but you know what happened.

If you're a fan of psychological thrillers, I cannot recommend Freida McFadden highly enough. So far, my absolute favorites have been The Housemaid, The Ex, and The Wife Upstairs; but again, I have yet to read one I didn't like!