The Inmate

I really wanted to DNF this book. I've heard a lot about Freida McFadden and her books and was excited to ready a mystery. The first couple chapters were okay and I like that there were flashbacks from the incident. After that it was one dumb decision after another. Brooke made lots of questionable choices, especially involving her child. I don't think she would win mother of the year award.

“Sometimes people do exactly what you think they're going to do, and they still manage to disappoint you.”

I have been wanting to read a book by Freida McFadden for the longest time because I have always heard so many good things about her books.

The Inmate was a fast-paced, suspenseful mystery that had me hooked from the very first page. There were never-ending twists and turns from beginning to end. It was fantastic.

What I think I loved the most was that the main character annoyed me. Let me explain this so it makes sense... have you ever watched a slasher or a horror movie and screamed at your television that the character is stupid because they keep making dumb decisions? That's what I mean by this. It made me feel like I was watching a slasher film and I loved that.

This has me excited to check out her other books!

⭐️⭐️.5
2.5 Stars= It was an okay read

TRIGGER WARNING: VIOLENCE & MURDER

POV: Singular, first-personSeries/Standalone: StandalonePart of an interconnected series: NoSafe or Dark: Dark (see trigger warning above)

First and foremost, the main female character, Brooke Sullivan, gave me a migraine. She was almost too stupid to live. It was painful. For a nurse practitioner, she seriously lacked intelligence.


I wanted to love this book so bad. So many people raved about how it was an amazing read. I wanted it to live up to the hype so badly. Sadly, it just didn't. It starts out strong. It had so much potential, and I was so excited to see where things went. But as the story went on, the plot got stupider and stupider. I just wanted the pain to stop.

Please allow me to list the issues I had with this story:


1) How Brooke was able to get into the prison system to begin with. She was intimately related to Shane Nelson. He had tried to murder her ten years before she got the job as a nurse practitioner at the prison he was incarcerated in. Her testimony helped land him a life sentence there. The judicial system would have had all the information to link the two. Any average person could have searched for the names Brooke Sullivan and Shane Nelson on the internet and would have seen the entire story. That would have been a huge red flag right away. There is absolutely no way a prison would allow someone who has a link to a prisoner to land a job at that institution, no matter how desperate they are.

2) The way Brooke second-guessed herself more than I did when taking a high school algebra test, and we had to hear her unbearable wishy-washy thoughts. Seriously, every two seconds, she was trying to decide if it was her ex-boyfriend Shane who tried to kill her that fateful night many years ago or her estranged best friend Tim Reese. I get it. There were factors that played a part in her mind, possibly playing tricks on her. BUT COME ON! One second, it might have been Shane, and the next, it might have been Tim.

3) The way Brooke practically swooned over Shane the moment she saw him for the first time since the night of her attempted murder. She has supposedly had nightmares about that night for the past ten years. Yet she isn't repulsed by the sight of Shane as soon as he steps into her exam room. Instead, she remarks on how he is still rather attractive (I believe she used the word hot to describe him). Maybe even more so than he was at eighteen. She also starts to divulge personal information to him. It comes out like a barf. She even worries about what happened to him and his wellbeing, and not just as a healthcare provider to the inmates. It made no sense.

4) The whole “I lope you” nonsense. That is all. What the hell was that? It was such an ick.


5) Brooke's son, Josh, got bullied at his old school because his dad wasn't in his life and was essentially a “bastard.” What year is this? 1955?


6) The whole babysitter thing. I don't want to give too much away, so, that's all I'm going to say.

7)Josh was such a young ten-year-old. Brooke sheltered and coddled him. So, what he ended up doing in the epilogue was just not believable. There is no way he would be capable of doing that. He just didn't seem mature enough. It just wasn't believable. At all.

The author did a nice job of making us, as the readers, second guess ourselves when it came to the who-done-it (not nearly as much as Brooke, though). Once, I thought I had it all figured out, but I was wrong. The story flowed nicely between the past and the present. The two timelines were pieced together nicely. She also made it very clear that Shane was a walking red flag from the jump, while Tim was a green (although at times yellow) one.

This was the first book I have read by Freida McFadden, and even though it wasn't a great first impression, I will check out her other books in the future.

Rating: 2.66 leaves out of 5-Characters: 3/5 -Cover: 3/5-Story: 2.75/5-Writing: 3/5Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller-Psychological Thriller: 2/5-Suspense: 2.5/5-Mystery: 3/5-Thriller: 2/5Type: EbookWorth?: EhhhHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked Really Liked LovedWant to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.I have recently gotten into Freida and from the books I have read I liked but this one may be my least favorite so far, not that I will stop reading her books though! This one just felt very immature, even at an older age. There were parts I gasped at and other parts I was asking why.

I really enjoyed this one! Frieda McFadden always hooks me from page #1! This plot follows a new Nurse Practitioner working at a men's penitentiary. Brooke ends up treating her long-ago boyfriend, Shane, who she sent to prison 11 years earlier for attempted murder. As the plot develops, Brooke starts to question Shane and if he was the real perpetrator. Rode this one along for twist after twist, leading up the greater plot twist toward the last few pages. McFadden always brings the reader righhhht to the very last page with her surprises and boy, did she deliver. Again, a very fast-paced thriller that I binged in a day.

I typically do not write reviews but Ms. Freida. Most of the time I can guess who the killer or suspect is in a book. This time I went back and forth multiple times and was not correct at all lol. The character development was spot on. There was also a curve ball at the end as well. This is a must read.

I mainly did not enjoy this one because I felt like the ending was all over the place and it wasn't a story that was well put together the main character was super insufferable with how “trusting” she was after experiencing horrible things couldn't wait to finish it tho the ending was a crazy touch it wasn't enough for me.

Oh man... Were to begin...

So this was a fun read. Twisty and fast paced. All the while though, since you see everything from the MC head, you're just thinking... Girl.. For real?? I mean half of what happens in this book is a product of her sheer stupidity and we get to follow that thought process...i mean man... Her inner monologue as she gets to one dumb conclusion after the other... You're screaming at her NOOO! I mean she asks you, right? And you're like nope, absolutely not. I mean, how she has survived this long... Still, the crazy plot works because of her musings... So yea, fun ride, twisty turny scream at the MC sort of fun.