The Coworker Paperback – August 29, 2023

Rating: ⭐️⭐️😜😰🤩TLDR; I read this with my mom and we could not put it down. This was a fun, quick, and suspenseful read. Gotta love Freida's twists. I always wonder how she does it but she does. If you are in a reading slump, need a break from a larger series or just trying to get back into reading - read this or start with one of Freida's books.This review is for fun and hope its entertaining in some way - enjoy and read this book.In the cold, sterile halls of Vixed, where nutritional supplements are crafted, secrets fester like an unspoken toxin. Freida McFadden's "The Coworker" beckons readers into the enigmatic world of Dawn Schiff, the peculiar accountant who vanished, leaving behind a whirlwind of suspicion and a twisted game that not even the office's queen bee, Natalie Farrell, can escape.🕰️ A Game of Shadows:As the clock ticks towards 8:45 a.m., the strangeness of Dawn Schiff unfurls like a shadowy dance. McFadden paints Dawn as an enigma, an outsider harboring mysteries that elude the prying eyes of the Vixed coworkers. The suspense tightens when Dawn vanishes, leaving Natalie ensnared in a web of questions with no easy answers.😂 Office Humor Meets Dark Secrets:In the monotony of office life, McFadden injects doses of humor (she's good at it), transforming the mundane into a comedic escapade. The quirks of office culture find a place amidst the suspense, creating a narrative that oscillates between chuckles and gasps. It's a rollercoaster of emotions, where laughter and tension intertwine in an unusual office tango. Just when you think you got it figured out someone else pops up.🔍 Twists That Tease:McFadden's trademark twists take center stage, beckoning readers into a maze of uncertainty. The anonymous phone call becomes a siren's song, luring Natalie into a labyrinth where the distinction between victim and perpetrator blurs. With each revelation, the plot tightens its grip, leaving readers guessing until the final, gasp-inducing twist.👥 Cat and Mouse:Caught in a twisted game of cat and mouse, Natalie grapples with her connection to Dawn. The lines between alliances and betrayals blur as she navigates the treacherous terrain of office politics turned deadly. McFadden expertly weaves a tale of suspicion and mistrust, leaving readers to wonder who's pulling the strings.💀 Echoes of the Past:The echoes of Dawn's mysterious past reverberate through the present, casting shadows that stretch far beyond the office walls. McFadden, a maestro of suspense, explores the sinister ways in which the past can claw its way into the present, leaving a trail of deadly consequences.In "The Coworker," Freida McFadden concocts a potion of humor, suspense, and office intrigue that proves irresistible. A page-turner that entices you into the labyrinth of secrets lurking beneath the veneer of Vixed, it's a thriller that echoes long after the final revelation. Will you uncover the truth, or will the shadows of the office swallow you whole? 🕵️‍♀️🔍🕰️

I'm going to be honest. I love Frieda McFadden books. Even my least favorite of her books I will give a good review just because of the ease of reading them. They are what I consider "easy reads" in that I find them easy to get into. There is just something about the way she writes that keeps you interested enough till you get into the twists. It's like watching a movie that has something at the beginning that grabs you right away and gets you interested enough to see where it goes.I had read other reviews that said they were annoyed by the turtles and talk of turtles. Honestly...I found it a perfect depiction of a person on the spectrum. My son is on the spectrum. He is high functioning and most don't realize it until he stems or starts doing some of the very things that Dawn does in the book. He gets stuck on certain things. Dawn seems obsessed with turtles. My son would get stuck on something but then would move on after a while to something else...but he struggled making friends because of his quirkiness and his inability to stray from his black and white style of thinking.So in saying all of this...I found it spot on.I felt like there were enough twists and even tho I know to never make snap judgements in her stories....I still found myself saying "OMG" at some of the revelations. I had figured out some of it by the end...but there were some things that still surprised me.I took off one star only because I did figure part of it out and I only give 5 stars for my absolute favorite books. BUT, it is definitely worth reading! I read it in one day, in my spare time at work, lunch time, doctor's office and then finished up after dinner before bedtime.It's definitely one that you can finish in one go if you have a lazy day where you can just read!

Natalie is the most successful salesperson at her health and beauty products company. She is beautiful and charismatic. She hosts a yearly 5K run for cerebral palsy, in honor of her childhood friend Amelia who died of it.The story starts with her strange cubical mate Dawn who obsessively loves turtles, missing from her desk. As she is also obsessively punctual, Natalie is shocked to not see her there. Dawn’s phone rings and Natalie answers it to hear a weak cry for help, then the line goes dead. Could that be Dawn? She encounters her new office boy friend, Caleb, on her way to ask her boss, Seth, if Dawn called in sick. Caleb hasn’t seen Dawn, and Seth hasn’t heard from her either.Natalie finds a ceramic turtle on her desk that wasn’t there before, encrusted in a dried russet substance. Is someone messing with her? What does it mean?As the story unfolds, we start to see Natalie in a different light than she presents herself. She see’s herself and her motives in a more generous way than reality. We also see Dawn through her emails to her friend Mia, which paints a much different picture of Natalie, though Dawn is naive in her perceptions of Natalie-assuming a friendship and kindness that we are starting to see aren’t real.The police are starting to see Dawn as a potential murder victim, and things are pointing to Natalie as the murderer as the detective starts to investigate these emails and other pieces of evidence occurring.All of the characters involved coalesce into the finale with plenty of twists and strange surprising motives. It’s worth reading, but I gave it 3 stars instead of 4 because the motives of the characters keep changing, even at the very end. You start to root for a character, then there’s an abrupt change that is interesting but at the same time implausible. It ends with a prescient self awareness that was bleak, even when some characters get a “happy ending.”

This book definitely keeps things interesting. Just when you think you have things figured out, it twists all your ideas around. Very good read