Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
‘Dear Debbie’ follows Debbie, part-time columnist at a local newspaper, full-time mom to two moody teenagers, and a loving wife to a devoted accountant husband. On the surface, Debbie lives a near perfect life, but the family is struggling to pay their mortgage, the teens barely talk to her, husband Cooper has started to keep secrets, and her neighbors keep accusing Debbie of doing vengefully nasty things.
This novel by Freida McFadden is told through multiple POVs (point of views), while the primary focus remains on how Debbie spirals out of control, going vigilante mode on everybody around her. Well not everybody, but anybody who commits the mistake of pissing her off. Which includes her unsuspecting book-club members. But what is really wrong with her and what is her ultimate game-plan? Well, we get to know that in the climactic events.
Having read ‘The Housemaid’ by Freida McFadden, I could quickly see a very similar pattern of storytelling in ‘Dear Debbie’, which isn’t a problem, except that this novel was a lot more straightforward, and un-interesting. Although, you know for a fact that something about the POVs is probably misleading. Most chapters are told through Debbie’s POV, although the other narrators include her husband, and a friend.
Almost every chapter of ‘Dear Debbie’ is interspersed with drafts from Debbie’s advice column, where she offers guidance to women. Each entry begins with anonymous wives writing in about problems with their husbands, followed by Debbie’s response, which always ends with her suggesting that they kill their spouse.
The first two drafts were amusing, but after that, they get plain boring and do nothing to drive the plot forward. For instance, one woman complains about how her man doesn’t wear a scarf she got him, so dear Debbie suggests the woman tightly tie it around his neck. Not very novel, is it? We get it, Debbie is losing it, so she keeps fantasizing about murder, and deaths. Best not to cross Debbie.
Anyway, I couldn’t get myself to like Debbie at all, and only those who find themselves rooting for her conveniently lucky character (even though the author wants to believe it’s her high IQ that enables her to accomplish several sinister acts with ease), will enjoy this novel.
There are far too many contrived co-incidences throughout ‘Dear Debbie’, some characters just do dumb things, and the climax ends with twists that are unexpected. So the ending does have a clever turn of events, but they are also constructed in a way that it won’t be surprising to those who’ve read Freida’s past works.
Overall, ‘Dear Debbie’ is an underwhelming read. The only reason I am going with 2 on 5 stars is because the novel is short and easy to follow. If you are in a reading slump and don’t mind reading a low-stakes thriller about a scheming house-wife who starts to target everybody that causes her any in-convenience, give this a go.
Rating: 2 on 5 stars. ‘Dear Debbie’ is also on Kindle Unlimited.
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