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The Divorce by Freida McFadden | Review, Summary, Tropes and Quotes
Here's the thing -
Freida McFadden could write 1,000 books with the exact same formula of a cheating or vengeful spouse, a body on the floor, and a completely unhinged twist at the end, and I would eat up every single one of them without a single complaint.
At this point, I am starting to feel a deeply bonded, personal connection with Freida. She knows exactly what kind of chaotic trash-fire drama my psychological-thriller-loving brain needs, and she delivers every single time.
Therefore, The Divorce is no different. It is deeply messy, frustrating, yet entirely addictive.
Let's dive in.
Book Overview
Title: The Divorce
Author: Freida McFadden
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Contemporary Thriller, Domestic Suspense
Rating: 4/5
Tropes of The Divorce by Freida McFadden
Domestic thriller
Unreliable narrator
Multiple POVs
Toxic marriage
Marital breakdown
Narcissism and gaslighting
Blurb of The Divorce by Freida McFadden
What is a happily ever after really worth?
Naomi was living the quintessential love story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love, get married, buy a dream house, start a family…
Then he kicks her out, hires the city’s best divorce lawyers, drains their accounts, and takes up with a 20-something.
It’s a brutal end to the story. Naomi should accept defeat: move into a dingy apartment, get back into the workforce, and piece together the shattered remains of her life.
Except, why should she?
Instead, Naomi fixates on her husband’s new girlfriend. What begins as cynical curiosity soon twists into obsession and then into something far darker. As Naomi uncovers secrets she never imagined, she realizes her own life may be in danger.
But if it keeps her perfect family intact, isn’t it worth it?
Summary of The Divorce by Freida McFadden
Naomi thinks she is living a pretty comfortable and normal life. She has a great husband, an adorable son and a really nice house.
So, very obviously, she is left entirely blindsided when her husband decides to divorce her.
And he doesn't just drop the news. He manipulates her into moving out of the house, changes the locks, hires all the good lawyers on retainer and also cleans out her bank accounts.
To top it all off, he also moves in his beautiful young girlfriend, Veronica.
As the story continues, Naomi decides she isn't going to be just a gullible victim. She is going to fight back. So, she manages to hire a quirky but budget-friendly attorney who helps her out more than she could have imagined.
Toward the end, the book dissolves into a fight for financial, legal and physical survival, culminating in blood and murder.
My Review of The Divorce by Freida McFadden
To be honest, this book was messy.
It seemed less like a psychological thriller and more like a divorce gone wrong episode
On the surface, it starts as a classic domestic drama. But the deeper you fall into the story, the more unhinged and chaotic the situation becomes.
Let’s be completely real about Naomi for a second: for a good chunk of this book, I wanted to physically reach through the pages and smack the absolute shit out of her.
Her naive, ridiculously gullible thought process was driving me up the wall. With every chapter, her husband’s toxic behavior was staring her right in the face, yet she kept making excuses and falling for his manipulation.
Like GIRL, GET A GRIP!
I feel like a lot of Naomi's troubles could have been avoided if she has just shut the f*ck up and listened to her lawyer.
And of course, her a**hole husband. Despite his whole toxic aura, I genuinely thought he was innocent. Or just wanting to get a divorce, because the more I read about Naomi, the more I wanted to kick her myself. Not that he was or deserved any better.
You see my dilemma too, right? They both suck.
The Divorce by Freida McFadden is proof that if a formula works well, your readers will ride the wave. No matter how messy and morbidly entertaining that particular wave is.
Quotes from The Divorce by Freida McFadden
“What he wants and what is going to happen are two completely different things.”
“Except why is a voice in the back of my head screaming at me that something is not right?”
"Excuse me for saying so, but your ex is a bit of a shithead.”
“If he says sorry one more time, I am going to beat him to death with his own briefcase.”
“Before I can second-guess myself, I lift it high over my head. And while Veronica is fiddling with her phone, I bring it back down on her skull with all my strength."
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