The Intruder by Freida McFadden
⭐⭐⭐ THE INTRUDER by Freida McFadden — A 3-Star Read That Didn’t Quite Intrude on My Emotions ⭐⭐⭐
⚠️ SPOILER WARNING ⚠️
This review contains FULL AND COMPLETE SPOILERS, including the ending. Proceed at your own risk. You’ve been warned. 👀
🚨 Trigger Warnings
Child abuse
Physical abuse
Emotional abuse
Neglect
Hoarding
Bullying
Graphic violence
Substance use
Mental illness
Death
Sexual content
Child abuse
Physical abuse
Emotional abuse
Neglect
Hoarding
Bullying
Graphic violence
Substance use
Mental illness
Death
Sexual content
This book does not play nice with trauma.
🧠 Overview: What Is The Intruder About?
The Intruder is a psychological thriller by Freida McFadden, published in 2025 by Poisoned Pen Press. The novel alternates between two first-person POVs: Casey in the present and Ella in the past.
Casey lives alone in a remote cabin in the New Hampshire woods. One stormy night, she discovers a bloody, emaciated teenage girl hiding in her shed. Meanwhile, Ella’s chapters reveal a childhood shaped by severe neglect, abuse, and survival instincts.
The story explores themes of trauma, trust, abandonment, and chosen family — though not quite in the twist-heavy way McFadden readers might expect.
🤷♀️ My Thoughts: Why This One Didn’t Fully Work for Me
This is a hard book to rate.
It’s not bad — at all.
But it reads very differently from McFadden’s other thrillers.
A lot of readers call the reveals in this book “twists,” but for me, they felt more like information that was intentionally withheld until the end, rather than true jaw-dropping moments.
Instead of pulling the rug out from under me, the story gently lifted it and said, “Here’s what you didn’t know.”
And that’s fine! It just wasn’t what I expected.
This book leans more emotional and reflective than shocking. Almost… feel-good, in a dark, trauma-survivor kind of way. Which is not usually what I reach for when I pick up a Freida McFadden thriller.
Maybe I’ve read too many of her books.
Maybe my shock tolerance is broken.
Maybe my expectations were the real problem. 😅
Either way, I’m settling on 3 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.
📖 Full Plot Summary (ALL the Spoilers, Start to Finish)
🌲 The Present: Casey and the Intruder
Casey lives alone in a secluded cabin in the woods. She likes it that way. During a violent storm, her roof leaks, a tree threatens to fall, and her landlord is predictably useless.
Her neighbor Lee Traynor stops by to check on her. He’s kind, attentive, and clearly concerned — which immediately puts Casey on edge. She sends him away.
That night, things escalate quickly.
Casey sees a face in her window.
Then notices a light on in her shed.
Armed with a gun, she investigates and finds a young girl inside — starved, bruised, and covered in blood.
Against every instinct she has, Casey brings the girl inside.
The girl barely speaks, clutches a knife, and radiates danger. Casey learns her name is Eleanor, engraved on the blade she refuses to let go of.
🧒 The Past: Ella’s Childhood
Ella lives with her abusive, hoarding mother Desiree. Their home is filled with trash and rotting food. Ella is hungry, dirty, and punished brutally for the smallest mistakes.
At school, she’s bullied relentlessly. One of her tormentors is Anton Peterson, a troublemaker with a mean streak — until everything changes.
When Ella saves Anton from being stabbed by another bully, the two form an unlikely bond. Anton becomes her protector. He teaches her how to pick locks so she can escape when Desiree locks her in closets. He feeds her. He defends her. He doesn’t judge her circumstances.
Their relationship becomes the only source of safety in Ella’s life.
🔥 Everything Falls Apart
After Anton violently defends Ella against another bully, he’s sent to juvenile detention. Ella loses the one person who made life bearable.
That night, she makes a catastrophic decision: she sets her house on fire with her mother inside, killing Desiree.
Afterward, child protective services locate Ella’s biological father, and she finally escapes her abusive childhood.
😳 The Identity Reveal
Midway through the book, it’s revealed that Ella from the past is actually Casey as a child.
The girl hiding in the shed is Eleanor, a different teenager with her own traumatic history.
In the present, Casey realizes Eleanor isn’t running from something — she’s running toward someone.
🔪 Eleanor’s Mission
Eleanor believes Lee is her biological father.
She believes he abandoned her, and that belief has fueled years of anger, pain, and resentment. Convinced he chose to leave her, Eleanor plans to kill him.
After threatening Casey at gunpoint and tying her up, Eleanor escapes to carry out her plan.
Casey, realizing what’s about to happen, breaks free and races to Lee’s cabin — desperate to stop Eleanor from making a permanent decision based on a painful misunderstanding.
🧩 The Truth Comes Out
Casey arrives just in time.
Lee explains that Eleanor’s belief is wrong. He isn’t her father — he’s her uncle.
Eleanor’s biological father is Anton, Casey’s childhood friend. Anton never abandoned Eleanor out of indifference. He was incarcerated after killing his abusive father and believed his absence would protect his daughter from his past.
Out of love and circumstance, Anton stayed away — and asked his brother to watch over Casey, his childhood love.
👀 The Final Perspective Shift
In the closing chapters, the narrative shifts to Lee’s point of view.
His real name is Brad — Anton’s younger brother. He changed his name and quietly kept watch over Casey for years. Anton is still alive and still imprisoned, and Lee visits him to ask for his blessing to be with Casey.
By the end, Casey, Lee, and Eleanor form an unconventional but healing family, bound together by shared trauma and long-buried truths.
⭐ Final Verdict
The Intruder is emotionally heavy, well-written, and thoughtfully constructed — but it didn’t deliver the shock factor I expect from Freida McFadden.
Instead of jaw-dropping twists, this felt like a slow reveal of painful truths, wrapped in a surprisingly tender ending.
Not a bad book.
Just not the McFadden book I was expecting.
⭐ 3 out of 5 stars
📚 If You Liked The Intruder, You Might Also Enjoy:
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Never Lie by Freida McFadden
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Never Lie by Freida McFadden
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry
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