The Coworker by Frieda McFadden [Book Review]

Did you guys read my post a few months ago about auto-buy publishers? Well, one of my favorite publishers, Inkubator Books, sends out emails with pub day sales. Now, if you remember, I’ve talked before about my dislike for authors making their regular book prices 99 cents, but for sales? I’m all about that. So, when Inkubator sends their emails, it’s a rare thing that I can resist the book, so I usually only open the emails when I know I can spend the money. I’ve not found a book in one of Inkubator’s emails yet that I haven’t loved, and The Coworker by Freida McFadden is definitely one of them.

Side Note, if you’re interested in supporting The Picky Bookworm, you can visit my Work With Me page. I have tons of book promotion services, as well as editing and proofreading. I also have affiliate links in most of my posts and pages, so click on any of those and make a purchase. I am so grateful for all the support I’ve received over the years.

Now, back to my review…

Synopsis of The Coworker

Dawn Schiff is punctual. She is so punctual, in fact, that her coworker Natalie is sure that if all clocks on earth died, they could still keep time based on Dawn’s bathroom habits alone. So, when Natalie arrives at work one morning, and Dawn isn’t at her desk, Natalie is immediately worried. No one else seems to be, though, until Natalie answers Dawn’s desk phone, and hears what she thinks is Dawn’s voice… “help me.”

Dawn may be strange, and she may not be well liked, but one thing is certain. Someone truly hates her.

My Thoughts on The Coworker

I’m not kidding when I say I read The Coworker in 4 hours. Saturday afternoon, my husband is playing his new video game, and despite his numerous interruptions to ask if I’m still ok with him playing, and we can watch tv if I want, I tell him every time that he’s perfectly fine playing his game, because my book is really good.

Not kidding. Four Hours. The Coworker is that good.

Frieda’s Writing Style

It’s rare for me to read a book in one day. I tell people that’s my #lifegoals, because of this website, and how I’d love to be able to read all the time and get paid for it. But, at the same time, I have other stuff I gotta do, and while a lot of that stuff is for the website, not all of it is reading. With that said, The Coworker was un-put-downable. Seriously. The reviews I saw on Amazon said the same thing, but I always take those with a grain of salt, because of course publishers are going to put the best reviews up so people will want to buy the book.

But, seriously, it’s that good. Did I mention I read it in four hours? I couldn’t put it down. I HAD to find out what happened. I credit a lot of that to how Frieda writes. She created such fun characters, and created such an air of mystery around what happened, that I kept turning pages, even when I was hungry, and even when my husband offered to give up the television. And now that I’ve finished the book, I find myself still thinking about it, and wondering what I would do in certain situations. I would have handled some things differently, but others? Probably the same way Natalie did. I’ll leave you to question which ones were which. Leave a comment with what you think.

Characters

What book would be this good without the amazing characters to fill it out? Natalie and Dawn are the two main points of view we see from, with Natalie being the main POV. You’ll probably see me mention Caleb and Seth a couple times, but I didn’t find them as central to the story until later, so their parts are more spoilery. Sorry.

Dawn

Dawn’s point of view is shown through emails between her and her close friend Mia. Those emails were really fun for me to read, especially the ones about the turtles. You’ll see. Dawn’s personality is strange, but I knew from the beginning that it was supposed to be. We were supposed to find her just a little strange. It was the perfect antithesis to Natalie’s entitled popularity.

Natalie

Natalie is the star salesperson at Vixed. She’s described as being able to sell sand in the desert. She kind of strikes me as the person who sees her popularity as her “due.” She deserves it for being such an awesome person. Which, sadly to say, I really didn’t see. I didn’t think she deserved everything that happened to her, but as for being the amazingly awesome person she showed everyone? I just didn’t see it. She didn’t really strike me as being completely scrupulous in her sales pitches either. I wouldn’t say she outright lied, but I couldn’t say she always told the full truth either. Salespeople like her make me wary about buying products I haven’t actually found out about through word of mouth.

Natalie is dating Caleb, and she really cares about him. She actually mentions a couple times that he might be “The One.” Yet, when her mom calls to invite her over for Sunday dinner, Natalie doesn’t tell her mom she’s bringing Caleb with her. Caleb is the one, yet Natalie still tries to keep him at arm’s length. I never really understood why until later.

[Small side note: my husband and I keep seeing billboards for a new tattoo parlor in our city. My husband said something about wanting to check them out, whereas I’m leery about tattoo places that dump a bunch of billboards around. My thought is, “if you’re so worried about not getting word of mouth business that you have to spend a bunch of money on billboards, how good are your tattoos?” When choosing something permanent like a tattoo, I’m going to go somewhere that someone I trust has gone, and has had a good experience. I mean, the tattoo artist who did mine? He tattooed HIMSELF. If he’s willing to practice something permanent on himself, he’s going to take even more care with someone else. And you know what? Over 10 years later, and my three tattoos still look amazing. I’d recommend him to anyone. I think the same thing about something like Vixed. If their products are so great, why do they need salespeople to make cold calls and cold visits? Why not depend on word of mouth?]

But I digress… you’ll see what I mean when you read the book.

My Biggest Takeaway

Through some of Dawn’s emails to her friend Mia, the reader learns that Natalie wasn’t the nicest to Dawn. One could even say she bullied her. It’s never made clear whether that’s really the case or not, because of course we’re getting two different sides to the story. Dawn says one thing, while Natalie is saying something different. But, I think the theme in the book, overall, would be that despite people’s quirks, and despite differing personalities, we should always be as kind as we can to others. You never know what they’re going through, and you never know what an awesome person someone could be until you try to make friends with them.

I knew someone in tech school once, who I thought was awful. She rarely smiled, she hardly ever spoke, and when she did, it was in short sentences. I tried to make friends with her a couple times, but after a bit just kind of gave up and decided she was a bitch. We had two different classes together, and in the second one, we got teamed up together on a project. We ended up talking, and she mentioned that she was afraid to try to be friends with me because she thought I was a bitch. I laughed at that, and told her I had thought the same thing. Turns out, we were both just shy, and had trouble actually making friends.

She turned out to be an absolutely amazing, sweet, lovely person, and we were friends for years before we lost touch. Last I knew, she was studying to be a nurse, was married, and had a couple kids. Still just as sweet as ever. So, unless you try, you’ll never know what kind of amazing friends you can make. In The Coworker, Natalie would state that she had tried to make friends with Dawn, and in Dawn’s emails to Mia, she stated that she had tried to do the same with Natalie, but that Natalie rebuffed Dawn’s attempts, and actually bullied her in return for her attempts. Now, we don’t actually get the full story, so it’s really left to the reader to decide which is the true side, but I’m curious what you think. Are you team Natalie or team Dawn? Or team neither? Leave a comment!

Lightning Round

In this section, instead of giving lots of feedback on various questions, like in the “My Thoughts” section, you’re getting one or two word, no context answers. Some of the answers you might have expected from reading my thoughts, but some might be a surprise. Some, in fact, you’ll have to read the book for them to make any sense at all.

And that’s kind of the point.

• Caleb or Seth: Seth

• Natalie or Dawn: Natalie

• How many different people did you suspect? Three

• Did you like the end? Yep!

• Did you root for the main character? No

• Was the book satisfying or disappointing? Satisfying

• Was The Coworker Predictable or Unexpected? Both

• Will you read more Frieda McFadden Books? Yep!

• Describe the book in two words: Thrilling, Engrossing

• Which character would you most like to meet? Dawn

• Describe the author in two words: Paternally Graceful (Read the book all the way through the acknowledgements for this little inside joke)

• Are you glad you read The Coworker? Yes

My Recommendation

I advise you to run, probably with your fingers instead of your legs, to your nearest bookstore, and purchase The Coworker by Frieda McFadden. Then, when you’re finished reading in four hours like me, I advise you to come back here and tell me how much you loved it. If you didn’t love it, I really want to know why. I think if you enjoy thrillers, whodunit mysteries, or a mix of the two, you’ll love The Coworker. I really can’t say too much about the genre and theme of book I’d put this into, because that could give stuff away. Kill Bill does come to mind, though, in a weird sort of ADHD connected way. Not gonna tell you why. You’ll just have to read and find out for yourself.

The Coworker is available in these stores

Final Thoughts

So, I hope you enjoyed my review of The Coworker by Frieda McFadden. I definitely plan on reading more books by this amazing author, so you can expect more reviews. Who knows? You’ll probably hear more about my reading a book in 4 hours. It’s been so long since I’ve read a book in such a short time that it still baffles me. Just goes to show how good the book was, though, so I hope you take that as an indication that you need to read it. 

If you enjoyed today’s review, please share with your friends! Especially if you have a friend who likes thrillers with plenty of twists and turns. I also hope you subscribe to my newsletter, because I set it up to send out an email every time I publish a new post, so you won’t have to miss anything. I promise I don’t spam.

I’ll be discussing another new author in a few days, so watch for my review of The Adopted Daughter. I’m looking forward to writing it, and I really hope you enjoy it. 

Until Next Time, Friends!

More Book Reviews by The Picky Bookworm

• The Blame Game by Sandie Jones

• Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

• You Should Smile More by Anastasia Ryan