The Inmate by Freida McFadden

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Dates Read: 7/5/23 - 7/5/23

    Brooke Sullivan is a nurse practitioner, as well as a single mother. She has just moved her and her son back to her hometown, and the only job she could find was at a men's maximum-security prison.

    There are three rules she must follow.

        1. Treat all prisoners with respect.

        2. Never reveal any personal information.

        3. Never ever become too friendly with the inmates.

    But none of the staff knows Brooke already has an intimate connection with one of the inmates because she's the one who put him there.

    I needed a new audiobook to listen to at work, and I can usually get a Freida McFadden book without having to wait for a hold. I picked one I hadn't read, and went in blind. I think that definitely made a difference in how much I enjoyed this.

    This is a novel that you basically need to turn your brain off in order to read. I say this because our main character, Brooke, essentially doesn't have one. She's supposed to be a grown woman, a mother, a NURSE PRACTICIONER, and yet she rarely ever stops to reflect on her decisions and who she trusts. For someone who can't decide who to trust, she had barely any reservations about letting these people around her child. However, I appreciated the fact that it seemed like a true character trait. In so many of these books, we have characters who are portrayed as otherwise clever or competent, but who make dumb decisions simply to help the plot along.

    Overall, I enjoyed this. The twist was similar to one of my favorite movies, but I felt like the very last twist was a bit unnecessary. I thought it was clever to an extent, but after the whiplash of the ending, it was almost not needed.