The Teacher | Freida McFadden

 

The Teacher

Freida McFadden

My Rating: ★★★★★
 
 

프리다 맥파든의 책은 작년에 처음 읽고 난 이후로, 푹 빠져서 이번이 아마 여섯 번째 작품인 것 같다. 이번에 읽은 The Teacher는 가장 최근에 나온 작품으로, 나는 프리오더를 미리 신청해서 한화로 약 5,800원 정도에 구매했다. (Paperback은 약 16,000원 정도에 구할 수 있다.) 지금까지 프리다의 작품 중 가장 마음에 들었던 책은, Never Lie인데 이 책도 너무 좋았다. 둘 중에 어떤 것이 가장 마음에 든다고 고르기 어려울 정도로 스토리의 전개나 반전이 적절하게 이루어져 있어서 더욱 마음에 들었던 것 같다. 보통 프리다의 책들이 조금은 자극적이고 Instant Ecstasy를 주는 듯한 느낌이 어느 정도는 있는데, (그렇기 때문에 더 많은 인기를 얻는 것이라고 생각) 이번 작품은 초반 전개부터 마지막 결말까지 연결이 부적절하게 느껴지는 부분이 없었다.

 
 

작년에 HBO 드라마인 유포리아를 봐서 그런가, 다른 인물들은 다 내가 임의적으로 생각하는 이미지가 읽으면서 떠올랐는데 Kenzie Montgomery는 계속 Maddy가 떠올랐다. (물론 생김새 설명은 둘이 전혀 다르다, 단지 행동이나 성격이 Maddy와 거의 Identical해서 이미지가 교차되어 보였던 것 같음) 주인공 중 한 명인, Addie의 행동이나 말들이 정말 그 상황에 처해있는 사람이 할 법해서 내용에 몰입하는 데 도움을 더 많이 준 것 같다. 한편으로는 답답하기도 하면서도 Addie의 상황을 보면 또 그렇게 생각하는 것이 전혀 이해가 되지 않는 것도 아니었다.
 
Character Flaw가 있는 인물들끼리의 갈등이나 사건 진행이 이루어져서 여러 관점에서 바라볼 수 있는 것도 좋았다. (물론 Nate가 정말 말도 안 되는 Asshole, Pervert, Bastard인 것은 전혀 변함이 없다) 그리고 주목하지 못했던 인물인 Jay, 스토리상 Eve와의 관계를 통해 충분히 중요한 캐릭터라는 것은 인지하였으나 그에 비해 등장하는 횟수가 적어서 의아했는데, 그에 걸맞은 반전을 프리다가 이번에도 독자들에게 잘 전달해 준 것 같다. 아무튼 정말 마음에 드는 책이었고, 올해 기회가 된다면 읽고 싶었던 프리다의 작품을 모두 읽어볼 생각이다.
 
 

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Spoiler Alert 🚨

 

First things first, I was so thrilled when this book was released on the Amazon Kindle Store. I knew this book was going to be released on Feb 6th, so I did purchase this book already via pre-order service which was very convenient. But this month I had a lot of things (still have some important things to focus on) to do, likewise at that time, I was trying to finish the book Irom Flame. Anyway, I’m so glad that I finally got to read this book which made me feel excited the whole time.
 
Starting with the characters and the storyline, I feel like this story is completely happenable in our real lives. Nothing seems like fake or too much novel-ish which I found genuinely creative. The title is ‘The Teacher’, so I could easily find out that either Eve or Nate will be related to something suspicious crime. In the beginning, I thought Eve was the one who was kinda malign and snarky towards pretty much everybody. Nate was (clearly the opposite form of Eve) a generous and handsome English teacher who’s been getting every student’s love and respect. Not going to lie, If I were a student at this high school, I would also fall in love with Nate for sure. (He is so fine) Fast forward, there was also Addie Severson, one of the main characters in this book. I didn’t get her personality that well by a first glance, seemingly she was giving a nerd energy or more like a bookish person. At the same time, she seemed quite antithetical and naïve which were usually not great words to be described.
 
And don’t forget about Kenzie Montgomery who was always being a total bitch to Addie. And Hudson Jankowski who was a best friend with Addie but after helping Addie kill her dad (He was not a good dad to her though), seemed kinda off. With that being said, the parts that I found horrendously repulsive were until Kenzie shared her story with Nate to Addie, Addie was being a dumb person which I understood where it was coming from tho. That pissed me off all the time. The other part was the author Freida deliberately made readers think Nate was a safe person which was not true. He was a complete asshole and pervert at the same time. Kenzie was only 14 years old when he tried to hit on her and even sexually assaulted her. On top of that, now he was doing the same thing to Addie who is only 16 years old girl. I’m utterly sick of his behavior and the fact that he was even trying to manipulate Addie and Eve simultaneously made me want to puke really badly.
 
I’m elated that Nate got the repercussions of his past pathetic behaviors. And after that, there was a huge plot twist at the end of the story and I found that the author Freida’s talent was so brilliant. During the whole time, Hudson secretly helped Addie and Jay did the same thing for Eve which didn’t seem suspicious at all. But Freida hinted the readers make sure they realize Jay is a nickname of Hudson’s last name. Probably every reader who finished this book thought those were two different people but it was not true. To me, that was an unexpected factor that made me thoroughly love this book even more.

 

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