The Divorce by Freida McFadden - A Brutally Honest Review!

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Hey you guys, it's Peter and welcome to my channel, Peter Likes Books. And today I am doing a spoiler, brutally honest review of Freda McFaden's newest book.

[00:00:11]It just came out yesterday, The Divorce.

[00:00:14]I think this is the fastest turnaround I have ever done on a book review in my entire life. The [snorts] Divorce by Freedom McFaten came out yesterday. I got it on Audible, I think yesterday, at like 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. I started listening to it before I went to bed last night. I listened to it all day yesterday and I finished it and I was like, I have got to turn around while this book is still in my head and I have got to do my brutally honest review on this. So, before I get into this, I just want to say if you have not read it yet, I know it's brand new out and you plan on reading it, do not watch this video yet. Read it, listen to it, whatever you're going to do, and then come back over here and watch my review. Um, I am probably going to spoil a lot of things for you today. Okay, I'm going to read the synopsis and then I'm going to tell you what I really thought of it. Okay, so strap yourselves in. First of all, I just want to say about Freda McFaden.

[00:01:04]First of all, because whenever I say that I'm reading her books, people are like, "Her books suck. They're so overrated. She's the worst writer. Why does she get so much attention?" I totally agree with all of that. Okay, I think that her characters are flat. I think that her mysteries are so bizarre and they don't really make sense. I think she kind of just throws stuff at the wall to see what sticks. I don't think her thrillers are so great, but they're fast reads. They remind me of like early James Patterson's that I would just like I just devour them in a night. And I think that's why people like them. They're entertaining enough.

[00:01:38]The thrillers, the thrill aspect to it is good. The mysteries are good enough that you can't really figure out.

[00:01:43]There's always some crazy twist at the end that you're like, "Oh, I never would have seen that coming."

[00:01:48]They're predictable, but they're not that predictable, you know? But no, I agree with everybody. I mean, I don't think she's the greatest writer in the world. I don't I mean, I read a lot of books. I think so far this year, I've read like 54 books. I don't think she's the greatest thriller writer in the world, but I do get excited when her new books come out. So far, I think I've read a total of I have not read her entire cannon of literature. I think I've read like eight or nine Freedom McFaten books. I actually just listened to the other day, Death Row, which is a novella that she wrote. It's part of a series that different authors put out.

[00:02:21]Um, and I have to tell you, I ended up giving it four stars. I thought it was fantastic. It's probably I mean, The Housemaid I've listened to the first two housemmaid books and I haven't listened to the third one yet. Um, and I know there's a housemaid's wedding, too.

[00:02:34]That's like short novella. I haven't listened to the third one and that one I haven't listened to. But, um, the death row is about I don't want to ruin it for anybody that hasn't watched it, so I won't spoil it. But, it's about this because I think it if you like Freedom McFaten, you should definitely read it.

[00:02:49]It's like I listened to it like at two times five speed on Audible. I think it was like 40 minutes. It was so good. I did not see it coming at all. It's about this woman that's on death row for killing her husband and then she thinks that she sees her husband visiting somebody else, but there's like a huge twist at the end of it that I never in a million years saw coming. I literally was like laying in bed next to my husband and I was like I had to pause.

[00:03:13]He could care less about my books.

[00:03:14][laughter] I had to pause it. I have to go. I said, "I have to tell somebody what just happened in this book." Um, so anyway, I think because of that, I was real excited to read The Divorce. Plus, everybody, all my friends were like, "The divorce comes out. The divorce comes out." I had actually started that yesterday. I had already started the new Ashley book, which she wrote First Lie Wins, which was um one of Reese Witherspoon's I think it was the January book from a year ago for Reese's book club. So, I have started her newest one, which is called Anatomy of an Alibi. I'm currently listening to it on an Audible right now. It's [clears throat] okay.

[00:03:47]It's very confusing. I like it, but it's very confusing. Lots of characters. So, I actually put that one on pause so that I could listen to The Divorce. And I listened to it in one day. Um, so let me read the synopsis for you before I get into my brutally honest review. Okay.

[00:04:04]What is Happily Ever After really worth? Naomi was living the quintessential love story.

[00:04:14]Boy meets girl. They fall in love, get married, buy a dreamhouse, start a family, then he kicks her out, hires the city's best divorce divorce lawyers, drains their accounts, and takes up with a 20some. It's a brutal end to the story. Naomi should accept defeat, move into a dingy, dingy apartment, get back into the workforce, and piece together the shattering reigns of her life.

[00:04:37]Except why should she? Uh, instead Naomi fixates on her husband's new girlfriend.

[00:04:42]What begins is a cynical curiosity soon twists into obsession and then into something far darker. As Naomi uncover secrets she never imagined, she realizes her own life may be in danger. But if it keeps her a perfect family intact, isn't it worth it? In the divorce, number one New York Times and internationally bestselling author Freedom McFaten delivers a razor sharp subversive thriller where love curdles into vengeance and survival becomes the most dangerous game of all. Now, I ended up giving this book four stars. Okay, but wait a second, cuz there's a reason why I gave it four stars.

[00:05:17][gasps] If you don't want this book ruined for you, stop watching it now.

[00:05:20]Okay, so the reason I gave this book four stars was because I feel like Freda McFaden is [ __ ] with us. Okay, like I really feel like Freda McFaden is at the po point where she's like, I can put out anything and the Freda lovers are going to say, "Oh my god, this is genius."

[00:05:40]This book makes no sense whatsoever. I don't like some of the emotions and things like I guess I could probably relate to. I've gone through breakups. I have friends of mine that went through very similar divorces, but not really. I don't know. It's so out there. The story is so out there. The twist is so out there. The wife is so dumb at the beginning of it. None of it really makes sense. I don't know. So anyway, okay.

[00:06:05]So, it's about this woman Naomi. Okay.

[00:06:07]And she goes, her son Teddy goes to this very elite private school and so and his dad is like this big deal. And his name's Jeremy. So, um, so she is like at school and there's like these other moms and they're like all prim and proper and then there's this other which they don't even finish this woman's storyline at all which kind of pisses me off. I thought she'd had more to the story line but her name is Kora and she's gone through a divorce and they're all like bad bad Kora like you went through a divorce like they don't want to even talk to her because she went through divorce and I think she got a boob job and she wears real cute dresses and stuff. It's really cuz they're afraid that their husbands but she's like married to the divorce lawyer that like did her divorce. Okay. But then like later, Cora shows up at her son's birthday party and she's like, "You betrayed me, Ka." And she's like, "Oh, get over it." Okay. So then Naomi and her son are going home for the day and the garage door doesn't open. This is like at the very beginning. So she like gets out of the car, she finds her keys, she puts her keys in the door, and the door doesn't work. Okay. Now Naomi, at this point, all that we know is that she is a doctor that closed her practice.

[00:07:14]So, the whole book you think she's like this very like educated medical school doctor. Okay. All you know is that she closed her practice to be a stay-at-home mom. Okay. So, her husband Jeremy opens the door and he's like, "Oh, um she's like, "What's what?" Cuz he's changed the locks. And she's he's like, "Oh, I changed the locks because I decided basically while you were at school picking up Teddy that we're going to do a major reconstruction to the house."

[00:07:40]Okay. First of all, like your husband wouldn't talk to you about that. Okay.

[00:07:44]As somebody [clears throat] that has spent years talking about our redoing our condo, that would not be a decision that was made in an hour, all the money invested, the contractors hired and everything without you having a conversation about it. Okay. But she's so dumb. She's so dumb. She's like, "Oh, really? We're going to have the kitchen I always dreamed for?" And he's like, "Yeah." And he's like, "And I already packed all your bags." Cuz you know it's called the divorce. So you know they're getting divorced, right? She don't know that cuz she's in the book. But we all know that, right? And she's like, "A redo on the house? I'm going to have the house in my dreams." And he's like, "Yeah." And she's like, "But why did you change the locks?" And he's like, "Well, I changed the locks because you know that people are going to be working here." And she's like, "But why wouldn't you change the locks afterwards?" He's like, "Don't worry about it. I already packed all your I already packed all your bags for you."

[00:08:31]And he like shows her and he's got like 15 bags of like all of her [ __ ] is packed, okay? Like they're real heavy.

[00:08:37]And he's like, "But you got to go.

[00:08:38][laughter] You got to get out of the house." And she's like, "But where am I staying?" Well, conveniently, his mom and dad have died. And so, they kept this shitty apartment condo. And so, she's going to go stay there. And then she's like, "Okay, Teddy to her son.

[00:08:50]Come." He's like, "Oh, no. We don't want to disrupt Teddy. He has to stay in his bed tonight." I'm like, "Okay, we know they're going to get divorced. He's going to file for divorce. He's going to say she left her family home and she left her son behind and he's going to try to get custody and he's going to try to like stay in the house." Well, all that happens cuz it's his house that she got before she married him 10 years before or something like that. Why she never got her name on anything is beyond me. Okay. As a doctor. That's all we know at this point. So anyway, so she's like, "Oh, I guess Teddy probably should stay in his bedroom." And I'm thinking, "Well, if Teddy can stay in his bedroom, why can't you stay here, too?" And she and he's like, "Well, you have to go and clean the condo out and make sure the condo is presentable for all of us to come live there tomorrow." I'd look at my husband and say, "Fuck no. You can hide. Listen, we are rich folk, okay?

[00:09:36]You can hire somebody to clean that condo out. I am not going over there.

[00:09:40]So, she goes over there and she cleans this whole condo out. Okay? Well, then time goes on and he's getting she's getting emails from his attorney saying, "You better sign this or else from he's already filed for divorce." And she's gotten like 20 emails and he's like she's like, "No, I know he still loves me. We just need to talk." He won't talk to her, okay? He won't see her. He won't come into her apartment to drop Teddy off. So now she's living in this apartment. He's filed for divorce, staying in the family home that she's not even welcome in anymore. And Teddy just comes over there to spend like an hour a night WITH HER. SHE STILL DON'T THINK ANYTHING'S going on. She still is like, no matter how the book ends, okay, the woman is stupid. And when you find out at the end of it how much of a con she is, why she didn't put this kid in a car and go three states away is beyond me. She's a stupid con. Okay. So then she um so then finally she's talking to this Kora, okay, that got divorced. And Cora's like, "You need to get an attorney." So she's like, "Oh, I don't know, but we're still so in love." And I he's so mean to her. And she's like, "But we're still so in love. Like he would never betray me." And Cora's like, "Look, he's [ __ ] somebody else."

[00:10:51]Okay. Her mom even tells her that he's [ __ ] somebody else. So then she finds out that he's [ __ ] this girl. Okay, her name's Ronnie.

[00:11:03]>> [clears throat] >> Veronica, but they call her Ronnie.

[00:11:05]Okay. [laughter] I used to have a friend named Ronnie.

[00:11:08]She worked at the the the bowling alley.

[00:11:10]Anyway, and she smoked reds. But this Ronnie, she don't work at the bowling alley and she don't smoke reds. But Ronnie, she's real pretty. But she comes in and that's all she talks about is how pretty she is. And then she's falling in love with Jeremy. And then Naomi is like, "We're still so in love though."

[00:11:27]And Ronnie's like, "I'm going to be a really good mom to Teddy." and she's LIKE, "WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BE A MOM TO MY SON?" And all this kind of stuff, even though she's living in a shitty condo. And now Ronnie has moved into her house and they're planning a birthday party for her six-year-old son. And she's not even invited. And she's still talking about all I've got to do is get Ronnie out of the picture because my husband still loves me even though he won't even [ __ ] talk to me, okay? Except for through emails through the attorney. So then I was walking the dogs last night when I read this part. I about lost my [ __ ] Okay? So then she goes, Kora gives her her divorce attorney's name. So she goes and she's like, "Unfortunately, I can't represent you." And she's still like, "Why? But we're still so in love, I might not even need a divorce attorney." And she goes, "Well, your husband has already he's already got like the biggest attorney in town." She goes, "He's already um he's already like got a retainer with me, and he also he hired like every divorce attorney in town, so you can't hire any divorce attorney in town." Oh, but he still loves me. I just have to talk to him while she's at home making homemade kombucha.

[00:12:33][clears throat] The book is so SO DUMB.

[00:12:37]OKAY, so then Jeremy has to go out of town for business. She remembers cuz it comes up on her clock. At this point, she's basically stalking Ronnie. And you're done with like three4s of the book, okay? And you hate Ronnie and you feel real bad for Naomi even though you know she's dumb as a box of rocks. Okay.

[00:12:55]Na Naomi is so dumb. Any other woman, if she had any friends whatsoever, would say, "Baby, you got your lawyer up.

[00:13:01]Okay, this man done [ __ ] you. He done got you to move out of the house. He's got his kid living there. You are losing everything." Okay, you are losing everything. And so, oh, she goes to birthday party cuz Teddy, her son, says, "I what mother in her right mind would say, I'm not going to my son's sixth birthday party." Are you kidding me? My parents were separated at that point. My mother would say, "Over my dead [ __ ] body, are you and your girlfriend having a [ __ ] birthday party at my old house?" My mother would be livid. Okay?

[00:13:30]She'd have pulled a Betty Broadick. And I'm telling you right now, that woman that just died, but she killed her ex-husband and his wife. Anyway, my mom was so obsessed with that Betty Broadick. She just died. Did you hear that? That Lifetime movie is so good.

[00:13:41]I'm going to review it for my Lifetime movie. But anyway, so my mother would have said, "Over my dead body." And she's like, "Well, if you don't want me to come, I guess I won't stir waves for Teddy." But then Teddy's like, "No, mom.

[00:13:52]I want you there." So, she shows up to pick him up. So, her husband's constantly playing games with her and saying, "Come and pick him up at 12:00."

[00:13:58]And she shows up at 12:00 AND HE'S LIKE, "I TOLD YOU 1:00, YOU'RE HERE AN HOUR EARLY." OR, "I TOLD YOU 10:00, YOU'RE AN HOUR LATE." SO, she shows up at the birthday party. The birthday party is still going. They got ponies and bounce houses and all kinds of [ __ ] So, she's just sitting there and Ronnie comes out.

[00:14:13]Ronnie's like, "Well, hi Naomi. we're having so much fun at your son's birthday party. And Naomi loses her mind, right? So then her husband comes out and goes, why are YOU HERE? LEAVE THE PROPERTY or I'm calling the police.

[00:14:23]And then Naomi is like, I just want to see my son for my birthday. And then Ronnie's like, oh, just let her in.

[00:14:28]Ronnie's like smoking more 100. She don't though. She's She can't run though. That's how she meets her husband. So anyway, so so then but you feel real bad for Naomi even though she's kind of dumb. You can't not feel bad for her. You're rooting for Naomi, okay? But you can't really figure it out. So anyway, so and none of this makes any sense. Like at this point, you're like, Freedom McFaten must think we're all stupid. That any [clears throat] person in the world don't have one friend or somebody, a coworker that would say, "Goyer the [ __ ] up. This man is [ __ ] you over." Okay, she's intelligent woman. She's not stupid. So then she goes and the police show up because she won't leave. Okay.

[00:15:10]And oh, but anyway, Ronnie says comes out and says that she bought this remote control car for Teddy for his birthday and says that Naomi went and destroyed it. And you're as a reader, you're like, Naomi would never do that. Also, the husband's like, "Oh." Cuz she gives him this elephant and he brings back the elephant to his mom's house. Not Ronnie does. And there's a knife sticking in it and all this kind of stuff. And so the husband says that Naomi is unstable, which you find out she's real unstable.

[00:15:39]Anyway, and so also I just have to say as a drug addict in recovery, this book talks so down to drug addicts, okay? I mean, it's really not a nice book about drug addicts. You can really tell Freedom McFaden don't have high thoughts about drug addicts. Anyway, active or sober. So anyway, um cuz there's a bunch of So anyway, she na there's so much about this book. Anyway, Naomi finds out that Ronnie has past drug charges, okay?

[00:16:05]And that she was a and she's like a heroin addict and stuff like that. So, that's like a big deal. But then at the birthday party, okay, uh she comes, Ronnie's like, "She ruined my birthday present. She crashed it to the floor or something and Naomi is like, "I did not." And then they call the police and the police come like 2 minutes later and the police is like leading her to the car and Naomi goes, "Get off me like that." So then she gets like resisting arrest and she's put in jail and then a real cute attorney, Ezra, she I think his name's Ezra. Ezra.

[00:16:33]Yeah. Anyway, he comes and gets her out.

[00:16:35]He's like, "Oh, Ni, I've had it with you. like I can't deal with you. I told you not to go to the birthday party. He went to the She does everything that everybody tells her not to. She's like, I know, but I just thought if I talked to Jeremy one more time, he'd be in love with me. He don't want her. Okay, he's falling in love with Ronnie. Ronnie is the [ __ ] of the century. Okay, I don't know what that gal is doing, but she's the [ __ ] of the century. And he don't want nothing to do with Naomi anymore.

[00:16:56]Okay, he's done with Naomi. What's real weird about it is at the beginning of the book, it's kind of like Freda forgot the book halfway through. She he she says he would never have married her if it wasn't for Teddy to begin with. So you assume that they got married because and I guess we're not supposed to assume this because when you read a Freedom McFaten book, you know that makes an ass out of you and me. Okay, but I thought they got married because Naomi got pregnant and then they had to get married to have Teddy. Okay, but that's not what happened. Oh, it's even more [ __ ] up than that. So then she goes to jail and she's plotting a revenge against Ronnie. Okay, so then Jeremy goes out of town to Boston for work and Naomi shows up there. She gets inside his house. She wants to talk to Naomi and please just leave my husband. But then she ends up trying to set fire to the house. The whole thing's a mess.

[00:17:49]Then it switches over to Ronnie's side of the story. Okay. Now, I thought I love Naomi, but then you get to hear about Ronnie's side of the story. Now, Ronnie's side of the story is she was 20 and she was a drug addict and she was dating this guy named Carl, I think, or something. And he was older than her by 2 years and they got pregnant and they had a baby at home cuz they didn't take it to no hospital.

[00:18:12]She did at home birth cuz there was NO BIRTH CERTIFICATE. NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE TO ME. WHO LIVES LIKE THIS?

[00:18:19]OKAY. And it's been like eight two months, three months, and they they just didn't think about taking that baby to no hospital, no doctor, no birth certificate. They just didn't think about it. So then one day she, oh my god, she's so tired. She's so tired that she's like had to take a nap. And so Carl said, well, I'll drive the baby around. So he drives around the baby, but he shoots up and he falls asleep.

[00:18:40]Well, he leaves the baby in the car to come inside cuz he's so doped up that he falls asleep in the house. And then Naom or uh Ronnie, she wakes up and she's like, "Where's the baby?" Well, Naomi walked by and she was like, "Oh, some drug addict left their baby in a car. I guess I better just take it." And incidentally, her mom just happened to work for the county register where you can just come up with birth certificates like that, I guess. And so she's like, "Well, whose name do you want on the birth certificate?" She's like, "Well, my ex, apparently." [laughter] So then the mom's the one that concocts the whole story. She's like, "Well, you should tell him the baby's his." And the mom's like, and then Naomi's like, "Well, that's a good idea. I should."

[00:19:20]And so she goes back and she says, "This baby is yours." Okay. But he's like, "You need to get a DNA test." Okay. So then the whole time I thought that Jeremy, the husband, was going to be related to Vanessa or Veronica, Ronnie's, I can't remember their names.

[00:19:39]Ronnie's boyfriend. Like they were brothers or something. No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. So Naomi, she's sick. She is a sick woman.

[00:19:49]Okay. She goes to his dad's house that they introduce in the 11th hour that's got like dementia or something when the mom's out the house doing grocery shopping and she goes and swabs his mouth.

[00:20:03]It's like Freedom McFat is just writing this stuff like they're just going to eat this [ __ ] up and none of it makes sense. Okay. And so she tricked him on the DNA, but then he knew, but Jeremy knew that the baby wasn't Naomi's, but he knew it was his. But Naomi, it just don't make no sense. Okay. So then Naomi's attorney shows up at the house cuz he sees her car out there. So she pushes him down the basement stairs and it's her and uh Felicia, Ronnie, can't [laughter] think of her name. Ronnie and the attorney that's out. And then she lights the whole basement on fire with alcohol. Well, somehow Ronnie gets out and she's trying to get her son because now you know that Veronica's son is actually Teddy that Naomi actually stole. And the only reason why Ronnie ever got with Jeremy, the husband that thinks she's the [ __ ] of the century is so she can get her son back. So now you hate Naomi and you like Ronnie. Okay.

[00:21:02]Well, the house is burning down and she's trying to get her kid out of the room. But he's got this code with his parents about watching videos with monkeys and if she don't say that then he won't open the door and she can't open the door. I'D HAVE BEEN LIKE, "FUCKING OPEN THE DOOR, KID." AND SHE'S LIKE, "TEDDY, TEDDY, please open the door. We're going to die in his fire."

[00:21:19]So, finally he opens the door. They're all saved.

[00:21:22]And then I think I can't remember if they go to jail or whatever, but I think the attorney and Naomi die at the end of it. Jeremy, you find out knows everything, okay? that it wasn't his baby. And he knows that it wasn't his baby. He knew it wasn't Naomi's baby.

[00:21:36]And because Carl Dean, not do Dolly Parton's husband, but Carl, the baby's real dad, showed up. We don't really know how he found him. Okay. I think they explain it the book. I don't remember. But anyway, even though I just read it last night, he shows up at his his [clears throat] office and is like, "That's my baby. Take a DNA test." Oh, that's how he finds out the baby isn't his. cuz he sends in a DNA test. But then he kills Carl.

[00:22:01]So now he's with Felicia. I mean Ronnie, he's with Ronnie and they're going to live happily ever after. And Ronnie's like, "Oh no, but you'll always be in the child's life." And Jeremy's like, "That child's staying with me no matter who has to die." Like, he'll kill Ronnie if he has to to keep the baby. But then in the very end, it ends with him killing Carl, the dad, like months before. And this is why I gave it four stars, okay? There is so much that is [ __ ] up about this book that you're literally reading it and you're like who in the world would ever like she's so dumb and there's so much that doesn't even make sense about this story. Like none of it makes sense about she comes home and like the apartment doors open.

[00:22:41]There's a knife in the sink. The kabucha drugs her and she's like I don't know maybe I took a wrong Tylenol. There's like so much that Freda just expects us.

[00:22:48]She just writes these [ __ ] crazy books now knowing that we're going to read them cuz we have to read the next Freda McFaten book. And I was like, you know what? If this gal has balls of steel that she can write anything and knows that we're going to [ __ ] read it, which I did, baby, for that reason alone, she deserved four stars. I was going to give it three stars CUZ I CAN TELL you right now, yesterday, I could not stop listening to this book. All I wanted to do is listen to this book all day. Yesterday, I was just like, I just want to find out what happens. I want to find out what happens. And it just got nuttier and nuttier and nuttier. But it's just don't make no sense. THE BOOK IS IT'S BAD. IT'S JUST A BAD BOOK. OKAY.

[00:23:23]And so, but I was like, but it was entertaining, so I was going to give it three stars. And then I was like, "No, baby. If she held me till the end with this [ __ ] that don't even make no sense, I'm giving it four stars for that alone." So, it got four stars. Anyway, if you've read it, let me know what you thought about it in the comment section below. And listen, I have not read all the Freas. So, put your favorite Freda McFaden book in the comment section below so that I can read it. Her books are dumb, aren't they? But I can't stop reading them. They're such easy reads.

[00:23:47][laughter] Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments section below. I love you guys and I will see you tomorrow. Bye.