Spoilers!
Absurd in every conceivable way, and yet. That’s my gut reaction walking away from Freida McFadden’s 2022 book, The Inmate. I didn’t even particularly like the main character — barring one particular character attribute, I found her lacking — and the plot, if I thought about it for more than a glancing second, was sort of eye-rolling. Buuut, as I always argue, if you make me read your book, feverishly, to figure out what’s going on, I’m not going to shy away from a five star, gushing review anyhow. I may not necessarily recommend McFadden to others, as I’d reserve my book recommendations for different books, but I did not necessarily regret reading it. To put it more succinctly, I consider McFadden in the Jeneva Rose and Colleen Hoover category: authors who have become wildly popular through BookTok and Bookgram, which I do not begrudge in the slightest since they’re getting people to read, and who offer fun and harmless popcorn reads (or beach reads, if you prefer that cliche).
In The Inmate, Brooke returns to her hometown 11 years after her high school boyfriend, Shane, tried to kill her and was also convicted of attempting to kill another teenager, her lifelong friend, Tim, and for killing at least three other teenagers. Brooke also returns to the town with her son, Josh. Shane is the father, impregnating her on the night of the attempted murder no less. Moreover, because the prison is inept or desperate, they hire Brooke as a nurse, despite her knowing an inmate, Shane, and likewise, Brooke is desperate enough, apparently, for a “fresh start,” that she … steps back into her past by risking an encounter with the man who tried to kill her by applying for and accepting a job at the prison.
Through the course of the book, two things happen with Brooke: a.) she rekindles her friendship, which becomes a romance, with Tim, who is still living in the town as an assistant principal at the same school Josh is going to (and it takes only a handful of months for the “I love yous” to come out), and Josh likes having a father figure around the house; and b.) Brooke begins doubting her own account of the night 11 years ago, which McFadden jumps back to alternate with the present story. This leads Brooke to, incidentally, become skeptical of Tim! As we learn from the party at Shane’s house 11 years previously, there could only have been two (seeming) options for the killer: Shane or Tim. My brain went to thinking they did it together in a Scream-like way, replete with Tim stabbing himself to add authenticity to it. Ultimately, this is also what Brooke is led to believe until something changes that later.
The aforementioned character attribute I did like in Brooke is her genuine concern for and humanitarian treatment of the inmates in contrast to the security guard and the head nurse. Good on you, Brooke! Not so good on you to jump back and forth between Tim and Shane, where the two literally flip their, uh, living arrangements, with Shane improbably being released from prison and Tim going to jail on murder charges. As it turns out, the babysitter, who was actually Shane’s mother, conspired to frame Tim and helped Shane conceal a prior murder and to murder and/or attempt to murder everyone 11 years ago. The motive was that Brooke’s father slept with Shane’s mother, and then left her and Shane high and dry. Although, if Tim’s story is true, then, he really did intervene to save Brooke’s life from Shane and suffered a knife wound to the gut for his troubles. This, all while the mom was upstairs killing Chelsea. 1.) Why didn’t the mom come back downstairs before the police arrived to finish Tim off since he could implicate Shane? and 2.) I think the police would have been able, surely, to ascertain that two different killers were inside the house. But I can overlook the latter.
Brooke is only able to survive this ordeal with Shane and his mother (whose real name is Pamela, which feels like an ode to the original Friday the 13th!) because of what at first seems like a deus ex machina. Pamela is distracted by a noise, which allows Brooke to get the upper hand on her, leading to her being shot, and then Shane is killed by falling ice from a tree while with Josh. Thankfully, McFadden cleans up that seeming convenient turn of events by explaining that Josh — who learned about Shane from Tim and the threat he posed to Brooke — stabbed Shane repeatedly with the icicle; Shane calling out in surprise distracted Pamela. I think stabbing someone with an icicle likely would have looked like stabbing someone with an icicle as opposed to an icicle accidentally falling on you, but nonetheless, it’s better than a deus ex machina.
Aaaand Tim is back out of prison, cleared of all charges, and back with Brooke and Josh. A happy ending all around, save for the epilogue that hints at Josh willing to kill for his mother.
The reason I found Brooke lacking wasn’t even because of her actions 11 years prior, where she inexplicably suspects her own best friend, Chelsea, of committing the murders, or because she’s repeatedly shown as jealous of Tim and the girl he’s with, despite having a boyfriend herself and claiming she’s just friends with him, or because, obviously, she goes back and forth on who is culpable for the events of 11 years ago, Tim or Shane, sleeps with both, brings both around her son, and generally doesn’t seem as cautious as she ought to be. No, what I found lacking from Brooke was that didn’t particularly seem close with Josh! I get that McFadden wanted to set up the babysitter twist, and that Brooke was preoccupied with her job and Tim, but moving back to her hometown was for her and Josh to have a fresh start, and she’s hardly around him. She doesn’t even take interest in whether he’s being bullied anymore like he previously was. I just didn’t get a sense that they had a strong, loving relationship, at least from Brooke’s side. Obviously, given his actions, Josh loved her in his way!
Like I said, I walked away thinking how absurd everything was — mostly, I’m skeptical of everything related to the criminal justice side of the book, with the lone exception of Brooke advocating for treating the prisoners more humanely — while also being pleased to read something fun and escapist for the prior two days. And hey, I didn’t see Pamela’s turn coming!
Milam's Musings 