Publisher’s Description
There’s no place like home…
Blake Porter is riding high, until he’s not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he’s desperate to make ends meet.
Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She’s exactly what Blake’s looking for. Or is she?
Because something isn’t quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets…
Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it’ll be far too late. The trap is already set.
The Tenant Book Review by Thrilling Reads Book Reviews
Freida McFadden’s The Tenant welcomes readers into a Brooklyn brownstone where every creak hints at conspiracy. Blake Porter—freshly fired VP, mortgage-poor, and desperate—thinks he has solved his cash-flow crisis when the radiant, perfectly vetted Whitney rents a spare room. The novel’s first act tracks Blake’s slow humiliation in measured, almost placid beats; like Blake, we keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
When it finally does, McFadden stomps on the gas. A metallic stench seeps from the walls, curious neighbors turn hostile, and midnight thumps rattle Blake awake. From that moment, trademark McFadden twists erupt one after another, revealing that no character is exactly who—or what—they seemed. Red herrings planted in innocuous conversations blossom into full-blown detonations, transforming the brownstone into a claustrophobic fun-house of fractured identities and dangerous secrets.
Blake himself isn’t a plucky everyman but a man cushioned by privilege who has long ignored his own moral fissures; watching him scramble for control as his curated life crumbles is perversely satisfying. Whitney shifts from dream tenant to enigmatic adversary in a heartbeat, weaponizing charm and vulnerability with unnerving precision. Alongside the thrills, McFadden slips in pointed commentary on class, performative success, and the brittle façades we maintain to impress strangers.
Yes, the opening chapters tread water a bit too long, but once the gears lock, the narrative hurtles toward a finale that lands like a wrecking ball—messy, brutal, and impossible to look away from. Fans of The Housemaid and Never Lie will relish the labyrinth of reveals, while newcomers will learn why “A Freida Twist” has become its own subgenre of gasp-inducing suspense.
The Tenant is a thoroughly enjoyable psychological thriller—slow-burn start, five-alarm payoff. Four blood-stained stars from Thrilling Reads. You may never look at a spare bedroom key the same way again.
Exclusive Author Interview
Check out Thrilling Reads podcast “Meet the Thriller Author” where I interviewed Freida McFadden!
