Turtles, turtles all the way down. That’s the gist of Frieda McFadden’s 2023 novel, The Coworker, about two of the most unlikable people I’ve encountered in a novel in quite some time (and even the minor characters are unlikable, too!). And yet, I devoured the 358-page book (paperback version) in a matter of hours over the course of two days. McFadden’s writing style is fun, breezy, and certainly keeps the story moving along at a fast clip. Plus, she intersperses the first of two parts of the book between a first-person point-of-view and email exchanges. So, the email exchanges certainly keeps the plot moving.
In The Coworker, Natalie is the top dog at her vitamins company, but everything goes awry when her cubicle mate, Dawn, is not on time for work. Dawn, you see, is OCD about punctuality, and not OCD in the colloquial way people use it, but actual OCD about timeliness, cleanliness, colors, and of course, turtles. She loves turtles. Anyhow, Natalie goes searching for Dawn at Dawn’s house, and it turns out, there’s blood, lots of blood and Dawn isn’t anywhere to be seen. Meanwhile, in the throwback emails Dawn is sending to her best friend, Mia, she’s recounting how awful Natalie is to her and how she bullies her at work. I was suspicious of those emails from the get-go because a.) who emails casually like that anymore, albeit, you could argue Dawn’s character would; and most importantly, b.) it was odd how little Mia was responding or being helpful or in any way acting like a real best friend to Dawn. Red flag!
Next, it was a red flag to me that Dawn’s body wasn’t found, and then a body was found, which threw my red flag off, I will admit. However, I think by mid-way through the book, I was hedging my bets that Dawn was still alive, and more brazenly, that Caleb was helping Dawn fabricate her death to frame Natalie for it. Caleb was Natalie’s boyfriend, but when a bloody ceramic turtle turns up in Natalie’s laundry to frame her, I figured Caleb had to be the culprit given his access to her house. And I was right! About both: Dawn was still alive and Caleb was helping her.
Mia, it turns out, is Amelia, the girl Natalie has annually held a 5K charity race in honor of, ostensibly her best friend who died from cerebral palsy. Mia didn’t die from that, but suicide after being bullied in high school by Natalie and another girl. Ever since then, Dawn and later, Caleb, have plotted to ruin Natalie’s life, too, and the frame job for Dawn’s “murder” is the plot they concocted, replete with fake emails between Dawn and Mia.
But, Natalie is still an awful person even if she didn’t kill Dawn, because she did bully Mia to her suicide, she slept with her married boss (and bullied the woman) happily, and then slept with him again while dating Caleb, stole from her company and lied to customers, laughed off side effects of their awful products, and as we learn at the end of the novel, she’s skimming from the money raised for the 5K, because of course.
And I can’t be sympathetic to Dawn because it’s not right to frame someone for murder from a moral standpoint, of course, but also, it’s not normal behavior to be so consumed with rage and revenge fantasies. Also, Dawn did kill someone, the other girl who bullied Mia, so that there would be a body. Even Caleb, who does confess everything to Natalie (who is out on bond for the “murder” of Dawn), isn’t sympathetic because he still went along with the frame job. Nevertheless, Natalie prevents Dawn from killing herself in a bid to provide a body after the other body’s DNA didn’t match Dawn’s, obviously. But that plan made no sense! The “murder weapon” was a ceramic turtle in the shape of a basketball. Her plan to kill herself by jumping into the ocean wouldn’t match the “murder weapon.” And in general, for someone who fashions herself logical and dealing in facts, Dawn should’ve known she wouldn’t get away with framing someone for murder. Then again, she is deluded, clearly, and blinded by revenge.
Dawn and Natalie, the two most awful people I’ve read in a book in some time, end the book in a mutually assured destruction truce to keep each other’s secrets. Good riddance to both of them! If that was the desired emotion McFadden sought to engender in me, then mission accomplished, ha. But seriously, bravo to McFadden for such a fast-paced, fun read, even if the twists and turns didn’t quite surprise me.
Milam's Musings 