If you hadn’t guessed already, I’ve been reading quite a bit of McFadden recently. As I state in most of my reviews, this isn’t because I’m the biggest fan (not to suggest I’m not a fan either) but simply because I know exactly what I’m getting when I read a McFadden book – relatively short, simple and fast-paced. And whenever I picked up a McFadden this is exactly what I want. The Teacher is no different in this aspect but I would argue is one of my preferred books from her.
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In The Teacher we follow the two stories of Eve and Addie. Eve is the wife of a popular high-school teacher who she’s paranoid about due to his good looks and the amount of young women that seem to admire him at work. Addie is a student at the school with a past suggesting she may have lured a previous teacher into an inappropriate relationship. You can, therefore, likely see where this is going.
The Teacher plot – 4.25/5
My favourite books from McFadden when what feels like the ending happens about halfway through the book. It reaches a climax that makes you think “surely this is the end, what else is there to write about” but then something happens that causes you to rethink ad understand what’s really happening here. This happens in The Teacher and happens in such a way that, like The Housemaid, I was left quite impressed.
The pacing, writing and plot style are all very similar to other McFadden books – this isn’t Ernest Hemingway by any means but then you shouldn’t expect anything of the sort coming into a 300-page modern-day thriller. The pacing is fast, the writing is simple and the plot keeps you hooked with mini cliff-hangers at the end of chapters and constant suggestions there is much more yet to revealed.
There were some parts of this book that felt uncomfortable and others than felt unrealistic, but I think you have to forget your sense of realism with any McFadden book really if you’re truly going to enjoy it.
The Teacher characters – 4/5
In a lot of thrillers, the protagonists’ personalities can suffer from a lack of diversity as they serve merely as a vessel to move the plot along. However, McFadden does often manage to get enough personality into her characters to make the story more believable and also to make them people you vouch for and want to see what happens to them.
Addie and Eve and the husband Nate all sit within this bank. Whether they are deep or well-written I’m not sure exactly sure, but I am sure that I found myself able to visualise these characters and picture how they might react and respond to different situations and McFadden kept these consistent (one of the harder elements of writing characters).
I think having big and believable characters is all you can ask from a modern day thriller and you’ll get that in The Teacher.
The Teacher final rating – 4.25/5
After my recent experience with McFadden books, I’m so glad that I’ve once again found the joy I had in reading the likes of The Housemaid and Never Lie. The Teacher ticks all of the McFadden boxes I like whilst also giving me a twist that rather impressed me, a storyline that constantly had me wanting to know more and a set of characters that do just enough to be put into any modern thriller. I’ve seen a couple of people say The Teacher is the worst book they’ve ever read, but that’s the great thing about reading – you can form your own opinion – and if you enjoyed Never Lie and The Housemaid, I’d suggest you give this a go and do that.
