Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new edition of Lil Red’s Book Club! In a spoiler free setting, as always, we will be discussing a thriller by Freida McFadden called Ward D. Freida McFadden’s books have always fell under my “just okay” category. They are quick reads and twisty but are they mind blowing? No. Are they far fetched? Always! However, Ward D was probably one of the best books that I have read by her and landed under my “pretty good” ranking. Honestly, it’s quite a boost! Before we begin our discussion, I will be placing a trigger warning on Ward D for mental health, child abuse, disturbing content, and graphic violence. Now, let’s get to it:

Amy is a medical student and tonight she is scheduled to work and learn in Ward D, the mental health unit of the local hospital. It’s not that she’s nervous or anything. More like terrified. It will be the night shift in a locked ward with people who are potentially dangerous. Her biggest fear, though? Being mistaken for a patient as Amy has had her own share of mental health issues too. It’s safe to say that Amy has no interest in studying psychiatry further, but it’s just for one night. All she needs to do is make it through.

After being buzzed into the locked ward, Amy gets the lay of the land from Dr. Beck and nurse Ramona. It would be a relatively quiet night in Ward D but there is a glaring issue. A dangerous patient is in one of the seclusion rooms and will be transferred to a more secure setting in the morning. All of the other patients are fearful of him and have made this perfectly clear to Amy with claims that he is going to kill all of them this very night. Dr. Beck’s advice? Stay far away.

The atmosphere in Ward D is tense with patients acting out and it only gets worse. There is a ghost of Amy’s past who is also a patient tonight. Her name is Jade and she was Amy’s best friend in the world until the girls turned sixteen. Jade went from a good girl to an absolute wild child in a matter of years and put Amy into a lot of problematic situations. Some would result in a grounding or possibly a suspension from school. Others would put both girls behind bars. Since then, Amy has turned her life around and is fulfilling her dream of becoming a doctor. Jade, on the other hand, has been in and out of mental health wards for the past eight years.

Between the stress of the patients and the fear that Jade might reveal Amy’s darkest secret, her own mental health begins to deteriorate swiftly. Amy begins seeing shadows, hearing animal like noises from the seclusion room, and even seeing blood on the floor. Is she hallucinating or is something far more sinister happening on Ward D? As the night continues, coworkers and patients alike seem to have simply disappeared. Amy no longer has to get through the night but survive it. Will she evade the man in the seclusion room? Or is this just all in her head? Read Ward D to find out!

One of my biggest qualms with Freida McFadden books are their lack of originality. They all read like plots of thriller books that I have read before with sloppy twists that feel like an afterthought. This, combined with the far fetched nature of her plots has always made her books lackluster for me. Ward D, however, actually read like something new and made for an unputdownable experience. I finished the book in a day! Although I figured out all of the twists and turns in Ward D, is was still a refreshing read with a plot that I was actually interested in that took place in a unique setting.

Ward D was definitely a page turner and I really liked that it all transpired in the course of one night shift. It made the situation at hand feel so much more dire because you just knew that something major was going to happen as the hours counted down. This book also flip flopped to eight years prior which gave a chance to learn more about Amy and Jade’s friendship as well as the hallucinations that Amy suffered from. These flashbacks made Amy shift into an unreliable narrator to the point that it was hard to tell what was real at all. I would never call myself a huge McFadden fan but she was onto something with Ward D!

Overall, I am going to rate Ward D with a six out of ten stars. This is the highest I have ranked any of McFadden’s work since reading The Housemaid series and I have no problems with recommending this book!

What is your favorite Frieda McFadden book? What is your favorite thriller novel? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah