The Inmate Review

The Albatross
Sep 8, 2025
2 min read

“‘I love you, Brooke.’

That was what he said to me just a few hours before he tried to kill me.”

The Inmate by Freida McFadden

Rating:

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐

Spice: 👼🏻

Tropes & themes: Secret past, love triangle, redemption arc, plot twists

reference my rating system here

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: ——

Plot: "There are three rules Brooke Sullivan must follow as a new nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum-security prison.

But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary’s most notorious and dangerous inmates, was Brooke’s high school sweetheart—the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Or that Brooke's testimony was what put him there.”

Read if you like: Other Freida McFadden, The Silent Patient, Local Woman Missing

The cover of the book the inmate by fredia mcfadden

The Vibe:

Scream meets Friday the thirteenth + every slasher trope you can think of wrapped up in a decade old love triangle.

What I liked:

She did have me questioning if the inmate was a good person or not, it was hard to get a read on him because our narrator is so unreliable. But that made it work for me.
The vibesssss were very classic slasher, not in a scary way really more just in a vibes way?
I lived for the flashbacks, I needed to know what happened that night!!!
The plot itself was entertaining

What didn't work for me:

Extremely predictable—I guessed ALL the twists :/
FMC is kind of…dumb? idk no sane woman would make a lot of the calls she did.
There is a semi “fake” reveal and it’s so lackluster that it doesn’t for a moment feel real so it’s easy to see right through as a red herring…felt like there were a lot of moments like this

Thoughts:

This is my first Freida McFadden book and I’m glad I checked Goodreads after reading it otherwise I don’t think I’d pick up another of hers.

However it seems like the general consensus is this is her “worst” book and unlike the rest of them which gives me hope.

It’s not that this was bad per say it just felt a bit shallow and unpredictable, like those Netflix recommended horror movies that you throw on just to have something on and it’s lowkey terrible but you’re invested now and the remote is too far away.

Was I entertained? Yes. Was I satisfied? No

Would I recommend it?

Definitely if you’re looking for something quick and surface level. If you enjoy bad acting and predictable storylines (which no shame I do too sometimes) then this is perfect.