Review: The Intruder by Freida McFadden
Who knows what the storm will blow in…
Casey’s cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she’s a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window.
She’s young. She’s alone. And she’s covered in blood.
The girl won’t explain where she came from or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse.
The girl has a dark secret. One she’ll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.
In this taut, deadly tale of survival and desperation, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden explores how far one girl will go to save herself.
I GOT THE BOOK ON KINDLE UNLIMITED
CW/TW – child abuse
Review:
Dear Freida McFadden,
Your book is an upcoming selection for one of the bookclubs I belong to. Let me be very clear, I am not really a reader of the genre. I do not like to be scared, so I avoid horror. I understand that a thriller is not necessary a horror, but it could be one in part and long story short I started to avoid them at some point long time ago and have avoided them ever since.
Several of the book club members love works by this writer and I was curious enough to try this one too, because I do want to participate in the discussion.
I was very engaged by the book, I read in two days and found it a very easy read. I was also strangely underwhelmed in the horror and suspense department. Not that I am complaining mind you. The blurb both gives you a nice set up and misleads you, in this case I imagine it is misleading because it is supposed to be. There are several surprising reveals in the story and of course we are not supposed to learn about those reveals from the blurb.
The story does have some hard to read moments as the trigger warning hopefully lets you know, but overall the story was giving young adult vibes to me and as I said for some reason it did not scare me much. Even when the girl described in the blurb was indeed covered in blood I was thinking about kids horror stories my niece loved to read when she was ten. I am not sure why I was having that flashback.
Casey narrates the story and we get a pretty clear idea of who she was as a “person”, because we are in her head all the time. I pitied her, but I did not like her much. Not because of the secret that was revealed about her past but because of something she does in the present. I did hope for a happier life for her after the story concluded.
Grade: C+
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I read one book by McFadden a couple of years ago and found it very mid. I was surprised after to see her become one of the top suspense authors. Part of me feels like I should give her another try, but I don’t really want to.
@Jennie: And I am even less likely to do so :).
I just read The Intruder by Freida McFadden and I find hard to understand is how Anton could have been the father of the 13 year old girl in the story when he has been imprisoned for life since he was 17 years old…no mention of any previous love interest other than his love of Casey as a youth?
I re read the last chapter for clues.What did I miss?