Book Summary and Reviews of Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

Dear Debbie

by Freida McFadden

  • Readers' Rating (5):
  • Published:
  • Jan 2026, 336 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A brand new twisted thriller that will have you cheering "good for her!" from the #1 New York Times bestselling and global sensation Freida McFadden, author of The Housemaid!

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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"An exciting yarn...McFadden is an expert at keeping the pages turning and misdirecting her audience, ensuring several surprises. The same readers who fell in love with Millie from McFadden's most popular outing, The Housemaid (2022), and its sequels will also be rooting for Debbie." ―Booklist (starred review)

"Debbie's dark but consistent moral code makes her easy to root for...this darkly funny thriller will put a wicked smile on readers' faces." ―Publishers Weekly

"Plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages...gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction." ―Kirkus Reviews

"A perfectly plotted, diabolically fun revenge story. Debbie is such an endearing psychopath―I couldn't stop reading!" ―Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

This information about Dear Debbie was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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M. Locke

Interesting, but a little bit out there in left field.
The book starts out introducing Debbie, her husband Cooper and their 2 teenage daughters. Debbie makes a nice breakfast but the teenagers are sassy and rude to their mother. Cooper just sits there listening. But, after the rather unpleasant and disrespectful morning, Debbie starts preparing for the news photographer who plans to photograph the beautiful garden, including poppies, she discovers a neighbor has hijacked the photographer so that she will be featured. After this things get weird. There are some twisty turns and surprises as Debbie seeks revenge on a variety of people who have wronged her or her family. This gets weird as Debbie carries out her plans. You can’t help liking her, she is protecting her family and herself, but the story is just not believable and her tactics are extreme. It is fun following this supposedly mild mannered suburban woman as she seeks revenge to right the wrongs she has suffered. You can’t help but root for her. But the husband is strange, and makes a confession at the end that makes no sense. He does this in order to set the marriage back on track.

The girls get better attitudes and quit their ugly tirades against their parents. It was fun reading, but there are lots of things that don’t make sense. For example, a character gets fired from their job, but heads to work the next day. This never ever happens as the fired person could do all sorts of things to wreak havoc on his soon to be former employer. But it is funny, a little nutty, and a lot unbelievable, but I think that’s what the author intended. I couldn’t help but like Debbie.

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More Information

#1 New York Times, #1 Sunday Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and internationally bestselling author Freida McFadden is a physician who lives in Boston with her family. Freida is the winner of both the International Thriller Writer Award for Best Paperback Original and the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Thriller. Her novels have been translated into more than forty languages.

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