Book Review: The Crash | Freida McFadden

This post is marked safe from spoilers! However, if you were looking for spoilers for The Crash, a summary, commentary, and the ending explained, that can all be found over on the spoiler-review. Over here we keep it clean!

A new Freida McFadden is always an event in the book world. She has such a large fan base and she does a great job on social media engaging with readers and building up buzz. She also has a lot of haters who will also have a lot to say, but as the saying goes, all press is good press, amirite?

Her latest standalone psychological thriller comes less than 6 months after her last one, The Boyfriend. I’ve seen that a lot of people didn’t like that book but I actually thought it was one of her better ones. I guess we all like what we like! I was interested in the premise of The Crash because it sounded different from her other books. In this case, the main character is trapped so it has almost a survivalist feel? Let’s look at the teaser!

What is The Crash about?

The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.

She never arrives at her destination.

Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.

But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet. 

And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.

What did I think?

Sometimes I think the teasers for Freida’s books are too vague and almost misleading for the vibe of the book, but this one is actually pretty accurate! Centering around single and pregnant Tegan, who is 23 years-old and trying to save money to go to nursing school, The Crash got off to a great start. In the first section we learn a lot more about Tegan and her pregnancy and there is so much to unpack there. I won’t spoil what it is though! You can check out the spoilers if you desperately want to know. One bizarre thing that I can note is that Tegan has conversations with her unborn child throughout the book. She calls it “Tuna.” I found this quite strange, but perhaps readers who have been through pregnancy will say this is common!

Towards the end of the first section (after a lot happens) we get to the drive through the blizzard and the crash. Tegan makes some ill-thought-out decisions, but this is a tense sequence of events. Thankfully a local saves her, but Tegan is suspicious of him from the first moment she sees him. Does she have a reason to be? You’ll have to read to find out!

Unfortunately for me, the book flattened out from here. I can’t believe I’d say this about a Freida McFadden book, but this was boring and predictable (definitely not words I have ever used to describe her books!). Its not in the slow burn way, just in a drawn out repetitive way. Tegan is with those strangers for a long time, but not enough happened in my opinion. I almost wonder if some of this could have been set up with flashbacks. The segments at the beginning of the book were to me the most interesting storylines, but they fade to the background for most of the book. I will admit that Tegan is not nearly as unlikable as Freida’s typical character. I didn’t exactly like her, I thought she was dim and leapt to some wild conclusions, she was overdramatic at times. But that said, she was also the most sympathetic lead Freida has had in recent memory (perhaps Millie from The Housemaid aside).

The end also had a bizarre change of pace on how one of the characters is portrayed, and it’s not because of a twist. I think the reader is supposed to have followed an arc of their story that didn’t quite come through for me. I will leave it vague, but I talk about it more on the other review.

Overall a quick read and I think some readers will really enjoy it!