Hello, beautiful people! Welcome to a new review! For this review, I get into another of my favourite author of mine The Coworker by Freida McFadden. A classic Freida twisty thriller, The Coworker follows Natalie a woman whose life is turned upside down when her coworker is found murdered and even though she had nothing to do with it, all signs are pointing to her for committing the crime.
Main Characters:
Natalie Farrell: A top performing sales rep at a major company trying to hold her own against the men around her, is constantly trying to stay on top and will often go to not great lengths to do so, has her life turned upside down when her coworker is found murdered and while she wasn’t exactly nice to her isn’t sure why she is being placed at the blame of her death
Dawn Schiff: An accountant at the same company as Natalie, and her hard work often goes unnoticed and unappreciated, starts to notice some strange things amongst the company and then shows up dead, meaning all fingers are pointing at her coworkers
Seth Hoffman: Natalie and Dawn’s boss, whose successful company is threatened when his employee is murdered and the fingers are pointing back at his own people, is forced to look at those around him and question the lengths people would go for their work and lives
My Review
As mentioned before, I’ve read quite a few of Freida McFadden’s books at this point, and I have enjoyed most of her books that I have read. Some definitely stand out from others in terms of the thrill and the mystery in front of us, along with the build of the different characters we see. I thought The Coworker was definitely a great read, and when it comes to some of her other reads, defiantly stands out as a top one. I found the mystery to be great and just kept getting surprised by the next crazy twist that was revealed. Given that there are so many twists in this book, you can see a few coming, but I definitely did not see the big ones coming and was shocked when they were exposed. I gave the book an 8/10 rating overall, and if you have checked out other of Freida’s books, I would definitely recommend adding this one to the list.
The Coworker follows Natalie Farrell, a woman trying to make it in a man’s corporate world. Working at a top-selling company, Natalie is constantly battling to stay on top and prove her worth. However, her methods may not always be the greatest or the most moral. Dawn Schiff is Natalie’s coworker, however, she works in the accounting section of the company but does not work directly with Natalie’s department, running their numbers for them. Dawn soon learns that most of her coworkers Natalie included are cutthroat and will stop at nothing to impress their boss, Seth. Natalie’s treatment of Dawn can only be described as that of a girl who peaked in high school and stayed a bully as an adult. It’s genuinely sad to see their interactions. What Natalie does not expect, however, is that her quiet, nobody coworker will soon turn up dead, and all of their lives will become worse for it. Dawn’s death raises major suspicions at her workplace when it becomes clear that the office is filled with lies, deceit, and deception. When Natalie gets thrown at the head of the suspect list and most signs are pointing to her involvement in some way Natalie is forced to try to clear her name and why someone would try to frame her for the death of a coworker she was a bitch to sometimes.
The Coworker is a dark, twisty office thriller that is one of those stories that hooks you fast. We are introduced to a seemingly simple premise, a missing woman who turns up dead, a questionable coworker, and an office full of secrets. As the layers peel back, you’re left second-guessing every character, every motive, and honestly, your own judgment.
What stood out most to me was the bold choice to center the story around Natalie, a character who is, frankly, kind of awful. She’s sharp, ambitious, and thriving in a male-dominated company, sure, but she’s also mean, manipulative, and constantly punching down. You want to root for her at moments (especially when she’s navigating misogynistic nonsense at work), but then she turns around and cruelly bullies Dawn, the socially awkward, endearing accountant who just wants to do her job and take care of her turtles. It’s jarring. And it’s intentional.
That narrative tension, being inside the mind of someone who might be the villain is what makes the mystery so compelling. When Dawn disappears, it feels obvious that Natalie could have done it. But she’s also our narrator, and swears she didn’t. So we’re caught in this push and pull, is she lying to us? Or to herself? Or is something even darker going on?
Dawn, by contrast, is easy to like, soft, odd, and quietly resilient. A lot of readers will see pieces of themselves in her, the one who gets overlooked, underestimated, or straight-up mocked for being different. The way Natalie treats her is, sadly, something many of us have witnessed or experienced, women who weaponize their insecurities instead of working together.
As the story unfolds, The Coworker throws out twist after twist. Just when you think you know where it’s headed, McFadden flips the script. Some of the turns are wild, but never without payoff, and by the time the full picture comes into focus, you’re left thinking, okay, that was smart. In the end, this is a book about toxic workplaces, blurred moral lines, and the dark places ambition can take you. It’s a good read for anyone who enjoys unreliable narrators, ethically murky characters, and a plot that keeps you on edge. Nobody comes out clean, and that’s what makes it fun.
*** Don’t keep reading if you don’t want to read any spoilers ***
Alright, people, hold on to your hats, there is a lot to get into here.
I guess the first thing we should get into is that before Dawn’s death, it gets exposed that Dawn had found out that Natalie, along with sleeping with both Seth, had also been falsifying records for the company. Dawn threatens to expose her, and this makes the reader think that, for sure, Natalie must have killed her. Well, it would be really hard for Natalie to have killed her, considering she was never really dead in the first place.
Now, why would Dawn fake her death? This is where it gets complicated. Natalie’s bullying ways are not exactly a new thing for her in her adulthood. It turns out that Dawn used to have a best friend, Mia. Her connection to Mia is what links her and Natalie. In her youth, Natalie and her best friend Tara used to bully Mia. They did so to the point of Mia killing herself. Since Mia’s death, Dawn has been plotting her revenge, and she chose the long game route. Dawn isn’t the only one, however, who was destroyed over Mia’s death. Mia’s half-brother Caleb was also crushed when she died. Caleb, like Dawn, wants nothing more than to see Natalie and Tara suffer. Caleb and Dawn are together, but for the plan, he starts to date Natalie and actively helps put the blame on her by exposing how she treated Dawn.
The ending for me fell off a tiny bit, and was why I didn’t rate it a little higher. It’s exposed that the dead body that was originally thought to be Dawn was Tara, and that Dawn killed her. Natalie, with the help of Seth, can figure out what Dawn and Caleb are doing and work to stop them. Dawn attempts to kill herself, and Natalie saves her. The book ends with Natalie agreeing to keep Dawn’s secret of killing Tara if she keeps her secret of stealing from the company. The two agree and create this like marathon for suicide awareness, which was just like, well, okay then! It was just an unexpected ending, but I guess, given all the craziness above, it makes sense that it ended in an equally weird way.
I hope you enjoyed this review! Thank you for checking it out! Feel free to subscribe at the bottom of the page to get an email when I release a new review!
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