#dear debbie

[bookpaula]

Dear Debbie

New download

[melodysbookhaven]

"You can’t reason someone out of a mindset they didn’t reason themselves into.”

― Freida McFadden, Dear Debbie

[renee561]

I can't recall who recommended me the book but the likely suspects are @austennerdita2533 @albatrossisland @vaticanomenon or @wauryd it finally came to be my turn! If it was someone else I apologize my memory is bad but thank you! 🫶

[jeahreading]

I broke my reading slump with this book and finished it in two days, point blank.

from the description of this book -

Sometimes, enough is enough… Debbie Mullen is losing it. For years, she has compiled all of her best advice into her column, Dear Debbie, where the wives of New England come for sympathy and neighborly advice. Through her work, Debbie has heard from countless women who are ignored, belittled, or even abused by their husbands. And Debbie does her best to guide them in the right direction.  Or at least, she did.  These days, Debbie’s life seems to be spiraling out of control. She just lost her job. Something strange is happening with her teenage daughters. And her husband is keeping secrets, according to the tracking app she installed on his phone. Now, Debbie’s done being the bigger person. She’s done being reasonable and practical. It’s time to take her own advice.  And now it’s time for payback against all the people in her life who deserve it the most.

I'd give this book a solid 9/10. The only negative I can think of is that the beginning drags just a little bit and that the teens are kind of overexaggerated in their stereotypes.

Now for the good part, I've read a TON of books from Freida, and I know it will never disappoint. I think some people dislike the fast, the whiplash hits, and others just don't like it when the women finally turn out to be cleverer than men.

Despite certain bad reviews, her housemaid series is impeccable, and not once did I feel that she was milking the series, regardless of what others said. It seemed like a perfectly fine progression. I'd still say "Never lie" is and will forever be my favourite.

Back to this book. Spoilers ahead,

Debbie is a very ordinary Housewife, who goes to the gym three times a week, has two kids and a loving husband and occasionally poisons her book club mates.

Seems fine enough, a cut fuse boxes and a little poisoned rose garden can't possibly mean anything more than it implies. But Debbie isn't ordinary, if the above deeds said anything.

"Dear Debbie", an advice column in the local newspaper, Hingham Household, was just a way to earn a little money on the side and help housewives get stains out of their clothes and make quick meals. But the drafts that never see the light of day, the ones that tell the women to divorce, mutilate and kill their husbands? They tell a different story. Undetectable poisons and needlework that deafens are among a few ways Debbie has almost instructed women to "tame" their husbands.

On the day that everything goes south, the day she loses her job as the columnist and her soft-spoken, gentle husband gets fired, on the day she is humiliated by her book club mates, and the day she finds that her younger daughter's soccer coach is a sexist creep. On the day her older daughter's boyfriend threatens to leak her daughter's nudes.

That day, is when she decides that she has just about had enough. The book takes us on a riveting journey that starts with a simple enough case of food poisoning in an avocado sandwich and a little bug issue in her rival's garden, through the coach's arrest and ends with a bullet in two people's brains and the broken spine of her daughter's ex-boyfriend.

But all's well that ends well...right?

[bookpaula]

Current Listen

[writingfanficsfan]

Book 24 of 2026

I loved this book! I love Debbie and she can't do anything wrong.

She is smart, she is funny, she is fed up and I am so here for that. You go girl! I liked the little plot twist and how it all ended.

I checked out the other books by Frieda and I would like to read a couple of them for sure. She writes easy and the chapters aren't too long.

(and yes, my 'reviews' are not in order because I am distracted.)

[writingfanficsfan]

Currently reading

You go Debbie!

[ravens-cove]

Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️