The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
This review contains spoilers—please read it at your own risk!
Anytime I pick up a Freida McFadden book, I just know I’m going to devour it. This one was no exception—it was addictive, crazy, and unputdownable! I’m pretty sure I’ve said the same with The Housemaid series, but what does she put into her books because I can’t get enough of her writing!
The Boyfriend includes two narratives, one of which focuses on Tom and Daisy’s history, and the other on the present, where our main protagonist, Sydney, goes on countless dates using the ‘Cynch’ app to find her perfect partner in her mid-thirties. As both narratives unfold, they reveal secrets closely tied to the cast of characters—characters with hidden agendas, goals, and even fake identities. The two timelines come together naturally, with the height of the major plot twists in both complementing each other. Spoiler alert: Present-day Gretchen is actually Daisy, who was responsible for the many deaths we come across in this story.
The pacing in this is unreal; both narratives are suspenseful, with the right amount of intensity and tension. And the ending—I wasn’t expecting it to happen at all! I genuinely thought Tom was the culprit (given his family history and being considered an “outcast” from school), but it was actually Gretchen (under the guise of ‘Daisy’).
McFadden’s books are usually character-driven. We are made to believe the main story centers around Sydney, when in actuality it focuses on Tom and Daisy (sorry, Gretchen!) and how complex their relationship is. Tom loves it when women bleed out (it turns him on, apparently—um what?), and Daisy is obsessed with him because she has found someone who likes blood just as much as she does. Honestly, this relationship is very far-fetched and unrealistic, but it was the biggest plot twist revealed at the end and still made my jaw drop regardless.
The title of the book really throws you off too; many of the male characters are suspects in this story. None of them committed the present-day murders, but they all had things to hide, which made them highly suspicious and at the top of the suspect list. In the end, they were all red herrings luring us to think one of them did it, when in reality, it’s the other way around. Very sneaky, McFadden!
Overall, The Boyfriend was a five-star read for me (especially since I read most of it in one sitting!). If you’re craving a shocking, twisty thriller, definitely give this one a go!
