The Teacher is the Sickest Novel I Have Read in 2024

Warning: This book is extremely disturbing, and contains heavy content that occurs in real life.

I have recently been collecting Frieda McFadden’s novels. Her books are so addicting, and I have been falling in love with her over the top hot characters, that are thrown into the worst situations imaginable.

It’s pretty much always a murder mystery scenario, done in a lot of different ways with some love drama thrown in each time.

I was expecting to read something like this in her latest novel, The Teacher, and I assumed it would be about a woman or a man who got involved with some crazy murderous teacher.

My theory was pretty close, but I was totally wrong…in a lot of ways.

The Teacher is by far the most vile book I have read from McFadden. It focuses on what I call ‘reality horror,’ that focuses on the real-life scary stuff that exists in the world.

So, before I begin, I would like to issue one more warning.

This book is pretty heavy, and I understand that some people aren’t comfortable with reading stuff that focus on topics to do with children.

Reader discretion is strongly advised.

Alright…so here is the plot to the story.

The story follows two main characters, named Eve and Addie.

The Teacher focuses on two points of view in the first half of the book, following Eve and Addie’s characters. We already learn in the beginning of the book that both of their lives are miserable.

Eve is a math teacher stuck in a loveless marriage, to a man named Nate. Eve is so unhappy, that she decided to find love elsewhere, with a guy named Jay, a secret affair that her husband has no idea about.

Addie is a student who is sixteen years old, attending the same school where Eve works as a teacher. She became the school gossip after the students and teachers found out that she had a relationship with an older teacher named Art Tuttle, who was immediately fired.

It turned out to be a complete misunderstanding on everyone’s ends. Addie was being looked after Mr. Tuttle like a father figure, after she accidentally killed her father for getting drunk and calling her the worst kind of names.

Addie lost her connection with her best friend, Hudson, who was there when she pushed her father down the stairs. And now she is getting bullied by a girl named Kenzie, making her life hell at the school.

Both Eve and Addie have it rough. It’s not looking good for either of them.

And it only gets much worse from here.

Eve’s husband begins having an affair with Addie.

Poor Addie is taking advantage of when she is groomed into a sick relationship with her English teacher, Eve’s husband, Nate.

She is sixteen years old…and they get together. In a romantic relationship.

I almost put the book down so many times, but damn, I really wanted to see Nate’s downfall so bad. This man was evil in so many ways.

Eve eventually finds out about the affair, and is shocked to see the vile act her husband has committed against a child. Eve confronts her husband about this, but he pretty much gaslights her, and leaves their home.

Eve tells Jay about this, and even he was shocked to find this part out.

Who wouldn’t be??? It’s freaking sick!

While Eve is trying to figure out what to do to divorce her husband, Addie breaks into Eve’s home.

Eve tries to convince her that she is being taking advantage of, but poor Addie can’t accept this reality. In a fit of rage, she knocks out Eve with a frying pan. Then in a panic, she calls Nate over to the house.

This is where the murder mystery plot kicks in.

Nate and Addie work together to get rid of Eve’s body.

While Addie is in a panic state and is trying to help Nate clean up the evidence, Nate freaks out when Eve wakes up. He strangles her, and they wrap her up in a navy sheet to bury her body in.

Nate, being the asshole and monster that he is, abandons Addie to bury the body in the middle of nowhere. Addie panics, and contacts Hudson to come pick her up. He surprisingly shows up, and comes to her aid, telling her that he still cares about their friendship.

This part was so unexpected, and I was so glad to see that Addie is getting some form of goodness in her bleak reality.

Then something else happens that makes my blood boil.

Nate tries to pin the murder on Addie.

We shouldn’t be surprised at this point to learn that Nate was only using Addie to get rid of his wife for good. He had slowly been gathering any form of evidence to use against Addie, to pin everything on her.

Addie is contemplating what to do, until Kenzie makes a surprise visit at her home. Kenzie confesses to Addie that she was bullying her for so long, because she didn’t want to accept that Nate was also dating Addie.

And Kenzie had been with him since she was fourteen years old.

I felt so sick in this part too. Freaking disgusting.

Once Addie learns about this, she decides to confess everything to the police, along with Kenzie’s help. It was powerful moment, knowing that these two victims were going to get the justice that they deserved.

The next part in the book was excellent karma at its finest.

Nate finds out that Eve is still alive.

It turns out that Eve had never died.

She had passed out, and had somehow survived her injuries. She is saved by Jay, and they work together to psychologically torture Nate, to convince him to come back to the crime scene.

When he arrives, Eve and Jay knock him out with a shovel. Then they bury his ass alive, leaving the bastard to die.

Eve then comes forward to the police, not including Addie’s involvement. She wanted to do what she could to protect the poor girl, knowing that Addie was a victim, not a monster.

Then we get another sick twist, revealing that Eve was also a child when Nate and her had met. It explained so much at that moment, why Nate wasn’t in love with her anymore…because she had grown up.

I felt so bad for Eve in that moment…until one last twist was revealed, and I felt dead on the inside after I finished the novel.

Eve’s secret affair was Hudson, Abbie’s best friend.

It turned out that Hudson had a nickname that his football friends called him…Jay.

So…Eve was also a monster too.

I was glad to see that she had moved away, leaving Hudson and Addie to possibly fall for each other. It was a sad, but bittersweet way to end the novel. Both Hudson and Addie had been victims of abuse, but at least they had escaped from their monsters, and would be able to live normal lives.

I couldn’t believe this. I had been rooting for Eve the whole time, and I didn’t notice the hints of Jay being a student. There were a lot of clues, and I missed all of them. I was too concerned about Addie’s situation, not realizing that Eve was another monster in disguise.

It’s a messed-up novel that focuses on ‘reality horror.’ We assume that some people are good, but in reality, there is a dark side to them, and they don’t care how many lives get ruined in the process.

Hudson and Addie were examples of that, of how some people can be taken advantage of, not knowing that the people that are abusing them are secretly monsters.

I think this has to be McFadden’s best novel yet. It’s not a murder mystery cliche like her other novels. It’s a horror story that does happen in real life, and it is terrifying.

I read the book in one day. Let that sink in.

That is how angry and disturbed I was. I had to finish it, because I had to know if Addie was going to be safe. If only I had noticed the signs of what Hudson was going through…

…damn, this book was intense.

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn