Chapter summaries The Boyfriend Freida McFadden

The Boyfriend Prologue: Summary and Analysis (Chapter 1)

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The prologue is narrated in the first person by an unnamed man who confesses he is “desperately, painfully, completely, and stupidly in love” with a girl named Daisy. He traces his devotion back to age four, when he saw her feeding sandwiches to squirrels at a playground and instantly became captivated. For years he kept his feelings hidden, convinced that someone as beautiful and kind as Daisy could never return his affection.

Recently, however, Daisy has allowed him to walk her home from school, occasionally lets him hold her hand, and gives him secret smiles that make him weak. He begins to believe she might want him to kiss her. Yet he is paralyzed by multiple fears: that she will reject him, that she will slap him, that she will never let him walk her home again.

But the deepest fear, he admits, is something far darker. He dreads that if Daisy lets him kiss her, becomes his girlfriend, and invites him into her bedroom when her parents are out, then once they are alone, he will wrap his hands around her neck and squeeze the life out of her.

Key Events

  • The narrator recalls first seeing Daisy at age four in a playground, feeding her sandwich to squirrels.
  • He confesses that he has been in love with her ever since that moment.
  • For years he kept his feelings secret, fearing unrequited love.
  • Recently, Daisy has started letting him walk her home and occasionally hold her hand.
  • The narrator interprets her secret smiles as a sign she may welcome a kiss.
  • He lists his fears: rejection, a slap, loss of her company.
  • The final fear: if Daisy reciprocates and they are alone, he will strangle her.

Character Development

  • The Narrator (unnamed): Presented as a seemingly romantic, devoted young man whose feelings are almost poetic. But a chilling fracture appears as the prologue progresses: his love is intertwined with a violent impulse he cannot explain or control. The reader is left questioning his reliability and the nature of his obsession.
  • Daisy Driscoll: So far a passive figure, described only through the narrator’s adoring lens—golden hair, pale blue eyes, kind acts. Her true personality is unknown, making her a symbol of innocence or of the narrator’s fantasy.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • Obsession vs. Love: The narrator conflates childhood infatuation with a dangerous fixation. His “love” is possessive and includes a predictable urge to destroy.
  • Innocence and Danger: The childhood setting (playground, squirrels, hand-holding) is starkly contrasted with the threat of murder, emphasizing how easily innocence can hide monstrosity.
  • The Monster Within: The narrator’s self-awareness of his homicidal impulse—he explicitly names it—creates a psychological tension. He is both the romantic hero and the potential villain.
  • The Act of Strangling: The image of hands around a neck becomes a motif for control and possessiveness, linking sex and death.

Why This Chapter Matters

  • The prologue establishes the psychological thriller genre by revealing a disturbing inner life from the very first page.
  • It introduces the central dramatic question: Will the narrator act on his violent urge?
  • The chapter immediately makes the reader suspicious of the narrator, even as he presents himself as lovestruck.
  • It sets up a dual timeline (the prologue is marked “BEFORE TOM”) and promises a story about the past leading to a future event.
  • By giving the narrator’s perspective first, the author forces us to inhabit the mind of a potential killer and challenges our trust in first-person narration.

Study Questions & Answers

  1. What does the narrator claim he is most afraid of, and why is this revelation shocking?
    He is most afraid that if he succeeds in being alone with Daisy, he will strangle her. The shock lies in the shift from a seemingly harmless crush to a confession of homicidal desire, revealing the narrator’s dangerous instability.

  2. How does the author use contrast between innocence and violence in the prologue?
    The opening describes a sweet childhood meeting at a playground with squirrels, and later moments such as holding hands and secret smiles. These wholesome images clash violently with the final image of the narrator wrapping his hands around Daisy’s neck, highlighting the hidden darkness beneath normalcy.

  3. What can we infer about the narrator’s reliability from this chapter?
    The narrator is unreliable because he presents himself as deeply in love and vulnerable, yet he acknowledges a murderous impulse without explaining its origin or expressing remorse. Readers cannot trust that his version of events or his feelings are genuine or complete; his perspective is filtered through obsession.

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