2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Inmate by Freida McFadden.

Pages: 388 pages

Length: 1 month (November)

Participants: Ela, Dominique, Jannene, Allison

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Well, poo. I was so sure this was for December that I had to go back through the posts and look. Not sure I’ll get this in time for November.

Allison, i am willing to wait until December and I am sure Dom won't mind. Ela can you wait?

I can wait

That’s very sweet of you! No worries though if any of you are itching to read it now….I have all month to find it after all.

No problem for December.

You guys are awesome!

I love McFadden's books, so I'll join this one, too. Probably won't get to it this month, so glad it's up for 2 months!

I’m a new fan of Freida Mc Fadden and I’m excited to start this new read this month or next month. Which ever the group chooses.

I've decided to prioritize this for November because I need the "I" title for another challenge I'm doing. 🎉

:)

Finished this morning. I found this to be one of McFadden's weaker stories.

(view spoiler)[All the back-and-forth with Brooke trying to figure out who the murder was got annoying for me. I mean, it's what I tend to do in my mind as I'm reading a mystery... go through every possible permutation of guilty parties and motives and see what makes the most sense. But I really don't want to the author doing that as part of the plot. And obviously, when she "realized" Tim was guilty with 25% of the book still to go, it was obvious he wasn't going to really be the murderer. The revelation about the mom, and Brooke's parentage, and then Josh's epilogue... it felt like there was way too much trying to get shoehorned in at the end of the story. All that said, McFadden is still one of my favorite twisty mystery writers, and I'll pick up a book of hers anytime. (hide spoiler)]

Oh no.

This book was definitely not like the others. I didn't care for it. (view spoiler)[I didn't like Brooke. She was just to stupid. She didn't obey the rules and now she causes more issues for her.

She sleeps with a guy she thought tried to kill her several years later right after he gets let out. She lets him near her son near him and she didn’t know anything about him. I kept thinking she was going to get her son kidnapped.

She does the same with her friend, Tim. She doesn't seem to mind sending her friend to prison without hearing his side of the story.

Margie the maid is Shane's mom. Now we know why her parents kept trying to protect her. The mother and son killing people. Brooke is such a terrible judge of character. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Finished.. Was not the best.

(view spoiler)[ I felt it was repetitive and Brooke was written like she was just not all there. I agree with Beth, the back and forth was way too much and became annoying. The Grandmother angle was great and the part that I liked was the Epilogue with Josh, didn't expect him to be more like his father without him knowing that he just killed him (hide spoiler)]

This has been moved to the December folder

My hold ended up coming in over the weekend and I just finished it!

I agree with all of your spoilers (view spoiler)[especially with the son….the babysitter I didn’t fully put together but I knew she had to be there for a reason (hide spoiler)].

Brooke was just soooo stupid. FM has a way of writing her female characters that way though. Maybe it was a situation of “right book, right time” but I actually did really enjoy this one after the awful so thank you for choosing it as a buddy read. I wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise and I haven’t read a book in months (other than audiobooks) due to real life issues going on this year. The reading bug this book sparked has made me pick up 2 other books!

Yay! Glad to hear you are out of the slump.

I didn't like this book. I don't read many thrillers, but I thought that this was predictable, especially since the "twists" were written in a way that made them obvious. The only thing I wasn't expecting was the epilogue, but it wasn't the first time I've read something like that. Also, I hated Brooke's character and her dismissal of everything that didn't fit with what she already believed. (view spoiler)[ The necklace from Tim but she forgets about it and continues dating him. Shane not being bothered at all and even seeming to be excited to get back to the farmhouse and she lets him convince her to go too, and take their son too! (hide spoiler)]

I agree with Beth about the ending and I thought that the story could have been shorter overall. Also, I didn't like the flashbacks so it felt like they were dragging the story out.

Definitely agree with Jannene, Dominique and Allison about Beth's stupidity. (view spoiler)[One of the first things she's told is not to reveal personal information and yet she seems to talk freely with the prisoners. That kind of felt like it was added as an afterthought because it was only mentioned for the information to get back to Shane.

I couldn't believe that she slept with him right after he was let out of prison either.

I didn't know what to expect when I saw Josh's perspective in the epilogue but I wasn't expecting to see him kill Shane with no emotion. The line about him doing anything for his mother (I think Shane said the same thing, or something similar) was a bit much for me and it could have been left out.
(hide spoiler)]