Hello beautiful people! Welcome to a new review! For this review, I dive into another Freida McFadden book, The Ex. While The Ex isn’t my favourite of hers that I have checked out, I still found it to be a fun, quick, thrilling read. Based around relationships soaked in jealousy and insecurity, it’s an interesting read for sure.
Main Characters:
Cassie: A sweet but insecure bookstore owner who has struggled with her romantic life for some time is thrown for a loop when she starts dating Joel, a too-good-to-be-true doctor, after finding out about Joel’s ex gets thrown into a world of jealousy and what-ifs
Joel: Cassie’s new boyfriend and a successful doctor, now in this new relationship, we see that Joel hasn’t had the greatest track record with his past relationships, and the past starts to spill into the present
Francesca: Joel’s ex and a very successful restaurant owner, Cassie is held to her standard as she tries to get in with Joel’s friends, who were also Francesca’s, but her relationship with Joel may not have been as rosy as everyone seems to think
Anna: A mutual friend of Joel and Francesca, plays a larger role as the book goes on
My Review
With The Ex, Freida McFadden delivers a tangled, psychological thriller that nails modern obsession, jealousy, and the dangerous power of secrets, but it doesn’t quite stick the landing. It’s a wild ride that kept me turning pages, though I ended with a fair bit of “okay, that was something” rather than full satisfaction. I think this one was just a little bit too confusing for me, and I had a hard time keeping up with what was going on. In an attempt to not spoil anything, I can’t go much into it, but I think there were aspects to the book where the twists made things harder to understand rather than clearing things up. It all becomes clear by the end, but I just struggled to get as pulled into this one, so I gave it a 6.5/10 rating.
The story begins with Cassie, owner of a struggling little bookstore named Bookland. She’s trying to make ends meet and keep the business afloat. Then she meets Joel, a handsome doctor, kind, romantic, and seemingly the answer to her prayers. Everything about him seems right, and for a while, Cassie allows herself to fall, to believe maybe she’s finally met someone worth trusting. But lurking in the shadows is the spectre of Joel’s past, Francesca, his ex-girlfriend. Francesca is brilliant, beautiful, and beloved by all his friends. Cassie knows of Francesca’s existence and assumes the past is behind them, but McFadden is quick to show us that old flames don’t ever quite die. From multiple viewpoints, “The New Girl” (Cassie) and “The Ex” (Francesca, and later other POVs), tension builds. At first, you root for Cassie; you want this to be her second chance at love. But as strange incidents pile up, vandalism, threats, haunting suspicion that someone is following her, and secrets in her own closet, the cozy romance unravels.
McFadden does what she does best: she uses jealousy, heartbreak, and obsession to fuel the unravelling. Themes of envy, insecurity, and the destructive aftermath of breakups haunt almost every scene. The narrative structure, shifting perspectives, and alternating timelines build a sense of disorientation. Just when you think you know who to trust, the POV changes and everything shifts. For a while, that unpredictability is thrilling, and I was invested, wanting to know who was behind the stalking and what secrets everyone was keeping. I wish that this aspect had stayed strong and clear throughout the book, but I felt like this aspect got lost as we went along in the book. If it had, it might have kept my attention a bit better throughout the book.
True to McFadden’s signature style, The Ex tries for big twists. The reveal near the end is something. At first, I admit I was confused. I had to reread a few passages to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. Then suddenly, all the pieces, the weird phone calls, the creepy vandalism, all the stray suspicious actions, landed. It’s that kind of twist that is equal parts clever and frustrating. Because while it gives the story a vicious jolt, it also makes you question earlier motivations and character arcs. Some of the emotional setups feel undermined by the reveal; relationships that felt like they were building were suddenly recast in a different light.
While I have my fair share of criticisms of the book, what worked for me was the emotional tension, jealousy, heartbreak, and insecurity, McFadden captures in a way that feels raw and human. Cassie’s hope, her doubt, her fear, it’s all relatable. The suspense, for large stretches, I was genuinely nervous about what was or was not going on in this relationship. It was thrilling but spine-tingling to be on the outside of a relationship that seems to the reader to be rocky, but to those involved, they aren’t seeing the same things. This isn’t a safe romance or a fluffy thriller. The novel doesn’t shy away from emotional cruelty, manipulation, and the messiness of broken relationships and lies. Where it fell short for me was the shifting POVs and multiple threads, sometimes leaving things messy. After the twist, some character motivations felt murky. There were moments when I wondered, “Wait why did she do that again?” or “Which secret was that?” I think the book overreached a little in its complexity. The reveal, while dramatic, also demands a level of suspension of disbelief. Some coincidences feel sharp and uncomfortable. The build-up is strong, but the payoff doesn’t land cleanly for me the way it could have. Emotional investment is uneven. There are characters I cared about, but others felt like plot devices. After everything unfolded, I wasn’t sure I believed in everyone’s arc or how much trauma or redemption they truly earned.
The Ex is a messy, jagged trip through jealousy, obsession, and the subtle horror of relationships gone wrong. It’s not pretty, and it doesn’t pretend to be. But when it works, when McFadden leans into the fear, the doubt, the betrayals, it’s compelling. When it doesn’t, when the plot twists begin to twist onto themselves, it frustrates. If you like psychological thrillers that don’t play nice, that push characters (and readers) to question trust and love and loyalty, The Ex is worth the read. Just go in ready for some discomfort, some confusion, and a ride that doesn’t always tie itself up neatly.
*** Don’t go any further if you don’t want to read any spoilers ***
So, I am going to try to explain the ending the best I can, but be open to the fact that I could be wrong because the ending was arguably super confusing, and I am not 100% certain I have all the facts straight.
Throughout the book, we believe that the ex-Cassie is having issues with Francesca. When the vandalism and weird things start happening to Cassie as she is dating Joel, we, the reader, are led to think that Francesca is doing it. While Francesca is presented as being this perfect, successful ex, it is clear she wasn’t all she was made up to be, but she wasn’t as big a problem as we are led to think.
Now here is where I am a bit confused. Now it’s exposed that Francesca isn’t the problem ex. Cassie isn’t who she seems to be. Cassie is actually Anna the whole time. Joel is dating a new girl, and I think it is actually Cassie, but when we think Cassie is narrating, it’s actually Anna in the past with her relationship with Joel… I think. I have looked at other people’s views, and it’s genuinely all over the place, so I am really not sure that I am right on this. I think Anna wanted to be Cassie because Cassie was getting Joel in the ways she wanted. Now, Anna and Joel were actually in a relationship, but this was before Francesca. She became obsessed with all the new relationships Joel is in. I think Lydia, another mutual friend of Joel and Francesca, was actually stalking like the real Cassie, but I really am not 100% on that. If I remember right, it’s also exposed that Joel isn’t the great guy that he seems, but that really didn’t matter much when trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the rest. I would love to know how others interpreted the ending and what went on because it confused the hell out of me. I think there was a way to expose this all that wasn’t so confusing, and I probably would have enjoyed the book a little better.
I hope you enjoyed this review! Thank you for checking it out! Feel free to subscribe to the page to be one of the first to know when I release a new review!
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