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Title: The Maidens ISBN: 9781250304452
· Hardcover 337 pages
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Adult, Fantasy, Mythology, Contemporary, Suspense, Crime

The Maidens

Published June 15th 2021 by Celadon Books (first published June 3rd 2021), Hardcover 337 pages

Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?

When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.

User Reviews

karen

Rating: really liked it
oooh, goodreads choice awards finalist for best mystery & thriller 2021! WHAT WILL HAPPEN LET’S FIND OUT!

i have put off writing this review since reading the ARC back in MARCH because i didn't want to poop on anyone else's pre-release anticipation with my less-than-glowing reaction, but now that it's been out for a bit, i'm gonna let my poop out, too. stand back.

i didn't get around to reading The Silent Patient until The Great Lockdown of 2020, and it was just the twistyfun distraction i needed from the world, so when i heard that his follow-up was going to be a campus thriller involving seeeeecret societies, classical mythology, and a sinister professor, my The Secret History-loving self was SO EXCITED, and the marketing campaign leading up to its release kindled alla my dark delicious anticipation.

and yet.

it's just...look, i hate being that guy, but it's just not very good. i'm pretty reasonable about managing my expectations when it comes to summertime psych-suspense thrillery books; they don't gotta be art, they just need to hold my interest and maybe throw a surprise or two my way.

escapist entertainment is fine, but i don't like being insulted, and that's what this felt like.

QUICKPLOT: mariana is a psychotherapist specializing in group therapy who is still hard-grieving the drowning-death of her beloved husband the previous year. she reluctantly returns to the memory-saturated college campus where their love story began to console her niece/adopted daughter-figure zoe after her best friend tara is found murdered. zoe suspects one of the professors of killing tara, and, encouraged by her former mentor, mariana decides to stick around and do some amateur sleuthing, during which time more girls are murdered. meanwhile, mariana is being low-key stalked by one of her patients from back home, and she meets a younger man who claims to be psychic and is convinced they have a romantic future together, because visions.

my first gripe was with the structure. each chapter is about three pages long, which speeds up the pace and prevents the reader from becoming fully immersed in the story—we're just skimmed along through the plot points at a pace seemingly designed to camouflage the fact that there's no development happening; that this is more like an outline of a mystery novel than one fully-realized.

the immersion problem is made worse by the frequent insertions of psych-stuff; these clinical asides breaking up the flow:

Accompanying the housekeeper on shopping trips to the crowded and frenetic market in the center of Athens always made Mariana nervous. And she was relieved, and a little surprised, to return home unscathed. Large groups continued to intimidate her as she grew older. At school, she found herself on the sidelines, feeling as if she din't fit in with her classmates. And this feeling of not fitting in was hard to shake. Years later, in therapy, she came to understand that the schoolyard was simply a macrocosm of the family unit: meaning her uneasiness was less about the here and now—less about the schoolyard itself, or the market in Athens, or any other group in which she might find herself—and more to do with the family in which she grew up, and the lonely house she grew up in.


on the very next page:

Mariana grew up with a keen awareness of [her mother's] loss. As a therapist, she knew a baby's first sense of self comes through its parents' gaze. We are born being watched—our parents' expressions, what we see reflected in the mirror of their eyes, determines how we see ourselves. Mariana had lost her mother's gaze—and her father, well, he found it hard to look at her directly.


i have a problem with that inserted "well," voice-wise, but the bigger problem is the decision to develop a character thru psych 101 notes. it's...inelegant. i understand that she's a therapist and what she does is bound to inform who she is (which again opens up that whole can of worms re: voice), but these details just don't work in chapters this short; they're not well-integrated into the story, they distance the reader from the character and there's no opportunity to settle back in before we're off to the next chapter.

in fact, a lot of this book feels like the author is shoehorning in details from his own personal cache of 'stuff he knows about,' without regard for their narrative utility: psychotherapy, the beauty of the greek islands, greek mythology, the greek language. these recurring motifs take up a lot of real estate at the expense of other story elements, like character development, and they don't do much to enhance the larger story.

because here's what's not in his personal cache of 'stuff he knows about:' creating believable characters.

NONE of the characters are believable, every interaction is fraught, written as though accompanied by a very intense and cheesy b-movie musical score, everyone all sticky with malice and foreboding.

suspend all disbelief, ye who enter here.

so. zoe believes professor edward fosca killed tara, claiming that they were having an affair and that, when tara threatened to expose their relationship, fosca threatened her right back and hours later, she turned up dead.

edward fosca is a byronically handsome american professor specializing in greek tragedies (natch) who seems to only teach the prettiest girls on campus; several confident, intelligent girls known as the maidens who have formed a tight-knit little secret society based on the persephone myth, and whose education is frequently conducted by fosca in private sessions featuring drugs and alcohol and wild parties but it's not a harem at all, oh no, he's just the light these 20-year-old girlmoths collectively named after virginal ingenues gravitate towards and it's all perfectly normal academia. tara was one of the maidens, but neither fosca nor any of the other young women except zoe seem especially broken up over her death. to contrast grief-responses: mariana is clutching and weeping over her dead spouse's sneakers fourteen months after his death, but an inner-circle maiden dies and the next day these ladies are just fine and dandy, cool and snarky.

now, you may well ask yourself why no one would give a little wait, what? about a female-student-collecting prof drinking behind closed doors with all these pretty little maidens, or find the optics of professor mcdreamy striding across campus trailed by an entourage of girls in flowy white dresses on their way to a memorial service...ill-advised?

no objections at all, because on this campus, *shrug*, that's just how students learn. when mariana was matriculating, she developed a relationship with her (female) advisor that continues to the present-day, but began with the same kind of boundary-blurring:

Most of the teaching...was done on a one-to-one basis, between fellow and student, usually taking place in the fellow's rooms. At any time after midday, or even earlier, at the discretion of the fellow concerned, alcohol was invariably served...providing an education in drinking as well as literature.

It also meant that tutorials took on a more personal flavor, and lines between teacher and pupil became blurred—confidences were given, and intimacies exchanged.


speaking of exchanged intimacies, (view spoiler)

mariana may understand that sometimes teachers and students drink together in private rooms and that's a totally normal part of the education process, but she trusts zoe's instincts about fosca's guilt, and he's certainly not acting unshady.

cue dialogue:

"I can see you have cast me as the villain—a predator preying on my vulnerable students. Except now you're met these young ladies, you can see there's nothing vulnerable about them. Nothing untoward happens at these meetings—it's just a small study group, discussing poetry, enjoying wine and intellectual debate."

"Except now one of those girls is dead."

Professor Fosca frowned. There was an unmistakable flash of anger in his eyes. He stared at her. "Do you think you can see inside my soul?"

Mariana looked away, embarrassed by the question. "No, of course not. I didn't mean—"

"Forget it." He took another drag of his cigarette, all anger apparently gone. "The word 'psychotherapist,' as you know, comes from the Greek 'psyche,', meaning 'soul,' and 'therapeia,' meaning 'healing.' Are you a healer of souls? Will you heal mine?"

"No. Only you can do that."

Fosca dropped his cigarette onto the path. He ground it into the earth with his foot. "You're determined to dislike me. I don't know why."


i am determined to dislike them both because of how poorly they are written. that dialogue—yeesh. it's contrived and melodramatic and just bad. "Do you think you can see inside my soul?" really, michaelides? and then the old tonal switcheroo from melodrama to etymological mansplaining her profession to her? you can practically see the red-pen arrow promising "authentic dialogue TK."

mariana is why we can't have nice things in the 'strong female character' department. i get that she's raw and marinating in grief, borderline hysterical with nostalgia and (figurative) ghosts, but she's impossible to root for. she does not come across as the intelligent, educated woman we are assured she is. while she's able to spew chonks of textbook psych-evaluations about those around her, they come across as reflexive; knee-jerk assessments without any real insight into human behavior. she's in a perma-fog, she responds emotionally in every situation, she misreads every room. she's a poorly drawn caricature: the grieving widow/meddling sleuth that all the men fall for even though it wasn't until sebaaaaastian that she ever felt beautiful blah blah blah.

anyway, the guy she thinks is a murderer invites her to dinner at his place and she accepts:

Fosca smiled. "Good...My rooms, at eight? And one more thing—"

Before she could stop him, he leaned forward—

And he kissed her on the lips.

It only lasted a second. By the time Mariana could react, he had already pulled back.

Fosca turned and went through the open gate. Mariana heard him whistling as he walked away.

She brushed away the kiss with her fist.

How dare he?

She felt as if she had been assaulted—attacked; and that he had won somehow, succeeded in wrong-footing, intimidating her.


what on earth was that? that And one more thing— like he's a predatory columbo.



it's a power move out of a gothic melodrama, complete with the wilting female victim, and whistling? really? that whole scene is so...silly.

okay, that covers structure and characters, so i guess plot is next?

mariana's involvement in this investigation beggars belief. she is asked by her former advisor to assist in the investigation because 1) she is a group therapist, and the school is like a group, and 2) she used to go to the school. neither of these are qualifications for murder-solving, an elderly professor has no authority to deputize her onto the case, and mariana has a conflict of interest cluttering up her tunnel-vision, but no matter—she agrees and begins conducting her own interviews with various parties, slipping into the deceased's room and pawing through her stuff, hiding in shadows and spying on students and tagging zoe in on her amateur sleuthery, against the protestations of the actual police, whose case she is most definitely compromising. in fact, on page 73 the chief inspector attached to the case tells her to keep out of the investigation, which warning comes before she's even begun her actual snooping. mariana's dubious contributions to the investigation are superfluous—the authorities have already called in a renowned forensic psychologist to consult—a man with whom mariana is acquainted, who light-flirts with her and allows her to sit in on his suspect interviews. because all of this is how things work.

i suppose we're meant to see this ignoring-police-mandates stance as plucky? determined? but she stumbles over clues and evidence on her merrily misguided crusade without looping in the people who actually know what they're doing until you just wanna shake her.

where i lost my mind was when mariana is led to the location of the murder weapon by a non-police person, and it doesn't even occur to her to object when they remove it from its hidey-hole. i know she's not a professional with a responsibility to preserve evidence, but oh we just allow people to grab murder weapons now, do we? mariana? COME ON, MARIANA!

but the real issue i had was with the reveal of whodunnit and why. the motive is dumb, the whole unfurled scope of the murder plot even dumber; an overcomplicated rube goldberg machine built on interlocking assumptions, wishful predictions, and magical thinking from a wholly unqualified strategist. there are at least five things about it that MAKE NO SENSE and the whole thing left me spluttering with outrage.

seriously, ____ (proper noun) killed ___(pronoun) ______ (all-caps noun, two words) even though the whole reason for the murder was moot? you don't countermand that plan and find a different way?

and ____ (proper noun) didn't recognize ANYTHING from ____'s (proper noun) life in that ___ (noun)? presumably, before ____ (proper noun) went all ______ (disparaging slang), they'd ______ (verb, past tense) about their _____ (noun, plural)?? no?

and ____ (proper noun) waited _____ (period of time) before deciding to get ____(adjective)? and ____(verb, past tense) _______ (proper noun) for (noun)? even though _____ (series of facts we are told at the beginning that contradict motive and some math that may or may not be accurate?????????????)

and don't get me started on the psychic love-interest.

"I have a gift for that sort of thing, you know—runs in my family—foresight, premonitions. I see things others do not."


so, he's psychic enough to see the future when it involves cartoon bubble-hearts, but he doesn't see ____ (proper noun) ___ (gerund) on the ____ (noun) as he ____ (verb, present tense) by, either IRL or in a vision? a psychic character is silly enough, a psychic character with so many blind-spots is narratively purposeless.

and THEN—there's a nice little The Silent Patient connection, but he ruins the moment by bashing the reader over the head with it a couple more times to make sure we noticed, lessening the effect of the shared world, and it left me with the same bad-taste reaction as the similarly-shaped ending of Split, which tie-in-reveal is the only cool thing in an otherwise terrible film.

the idea of a group therapist investigating a man who has nurtured a little cultlike group around him is rich with possibility, and the juxtaposition between fosca's ladygroup with henry in mariana's therapy group was so promising:
As soon as any group establishes itself, it always arouses envy and attack—and not just from forces on the outside, those excluded from the group, but also from dark and dangerous forces within the group itself.


but the execution is so weak—subplots fizzle out, lackluster red herrings (henry-ings?) are dropped unexplored in order to deliver the most ridiculous explanation of all time with no regard for the tradition of fair play in mystery novels.

i could do this all day—i haven't even touched upon the postcards, or the on-the-nose focus on revenge tragedies, but i've already gone on so long here that i'm running out of review-space, despite cutting out so many tirade-tangents i don't even know if what's left of the review makes sense anymore, and i've spent so much time rereading chunks of the book to make sure i'm not missing anything that makes the book make sense, and i'm just getting hot and cranky and i want this to be over.

this book is getting a lot of positive reviews, and i'm happy for those readers who enjoyed it, but i can't help wondering if maybe the ARC-version i read went through extensive revisions before its final draft because what i read doesn't feel like the product of a three-years-writing-and-revising follow-up to a runaway-success debut novel.

The Secret History? more like weak-ret history.



*********************************
got a postcard in the mail yesterday...



directing me to a website with this message:



and i cannot wait. three cheers for intriguing marketing strategies!!!

come to my blog!


megs_bookrack

Rating: really liked it
Mariana Andros is a dedicated Group Therapist who knows first-hand how difficult recovering from trauma can be. Therefore, she exhibits a great deal of empathy towards her many clients.

Due to a large inheritance, Mariana doesn't need to work, however she continues her practice because she enjoys helping others.



Sadly, Mariana has lost almost everyone she has ever loved. In fact, the only family she has left is her niece, Zoe, currently a student at Cambridge University.

That's why when Zoe calls her one night, extremely distraught, Mariana boards a train as soon as she can the next morning; she must go help.



Arriving in Cambridge stirs up a lot of memories for Mariana. She attended school there as well and wasn't prepared for the emotional repercussions of being back on campus.

Mariana tries to push her emotions aside, however, to focus on Zoe. Apparently, the dead body found the previous evening has been identified as Zoe's good friend. It is obvious the girl has been murdered.



After lengthy conversations with Zoe, Mariana begins to suspect that Edward Fosca, a popular and captivating Greek Tragedy Professor, may in fact be the culprit.



He has an alibi, but not one that Mariana considers to be reliable; his secret society of young women students, known as The Maidens, could easily lie to protect him.

Mariana successfully inserts herself into the investigation, putting herself on a collision course with the undeniably charming, Professor Fosca.



The Maidens is compulsively readable. Once I started, I could not put it down!

I loved how Michaelides wove together all of the different aspects of this story. I thought it was wonderfully-crafted and it absolutely kept me engaged throughout. I had to remind myself to come up for air!



The setting of Cambridge was extremely vivid. It starts as this beautiful, pristine and exclusive place. Then over the course of the narrative, a dark underbelly becomes exposed as Mariana digs further into the mystery.

I loved that. So is life, am I right? You never know what's hiding under the surface.



Additionally, Mariana had such depth. I loved learning about her and watching her try to push past her own anxieties in order to help Zoe.

She became laser-focused in her search for the truth and I was cheering her on the whole way. I wouldn't say she is overly likable, in the traditional sense, but I certainly found her to be believable.



I could swoon about this book for days, but I will spare you that and wrap up by saying, I loved this!

I thought it was so fun, super entertaining and memorable. The setting, the characters, the twists and turns; it is WICKED!!!



I actually think I enjoyed this more than The Silent Patient, and that's saying a lot. I cannot wait to see what Michaelides comes up with next.

Thank you so, so, so much to the publisher, Celadon Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I appreciate it more than I can say. This was one of my most anticipated books of the year!!!



Nilufer Ozmekik

Rating: really liked it
2.5 stars: ta ta ta ta here comes my unpopular review alert!

Yes, I disappointed! Yes, I was truly expecting something earth shattering, soul crushing, mind bending, grey cell fryer, unputdownable!

What went so wrong with me?
-one dimensional, very dislikable characterization
-too many plot holes bigger than the cracks in my head!
-Slow, flat, boring beginning
-Too much unnecessary misdirection about the identity of the murder even though it’s so obvious from the beginning
-Meeting with the one of the most useless and miserable investigation team who are always three steps behind a psychiatrist who knows nothing about murder investigation

The things I liked:
Short, easy to read chapters

Returning back to same universe where Silent Patient’s story executed( could third book be a crossover! Fingers crossed!)

Academic murder mystery premise with Greek mythology vibes

Delicious Cambridge atmosphere, detailed depictions about the surroundings which takes us virtual vacation to this epic, historical place!

Some parts of the final revelation is also well executed even though there are still so many questions in my head which are still not satisfyingly answered!

Storyline: when I read the blurb which informs us this is claustrophobic, enigmatic, mythology, dark murder mystery about young women students who were brutally killed as a part of a ritual, I was so excited about this interesting premise.

But our meeting with a group of women students called Maidens which is conducted by their narcissistic, flirting professor Edward Fosca took too long! We lost so much time with inner turmoil of heroine: her sadness, grief, her depression etc.

After being introduced to our sad, grieving heroine Mariana Andros, we observed one of her group session and met with her obsessed passion Henry who might be watching and stalking her day and night. Then we learn her tragic past: She lost everyone in her life: including her parents, sister and her beloved husband which makes her think she’s punished by the gods of wrath!

Her niece Zoe who is her only family member, a student At Cambridge calls her to inform her close friend might be missing. When Mariana decides to check on her niece by taking a trip to the university where she has been also a student and met her husband, she realizes there’s a murder investigation and her niece is right. Her close friend Tara is brutally murder.

Mariana decides to console her niece, spending more time at the place by conducting her own investigation. Her number one suspect is professor Edward Fonseca who might be the lover of the victim and he’s also finder of mysterious Maidens group. Tara was also the member of this group and unfortunately she was not the only one brutally killed! Somebody is after the maidens and he/ she is adamant to finish what he/she started!

Overall: I’m rounding up 2.5 stars to 3 not so satisfied, it could be so much better, but there’s still interesting and intriguing premise of the story made me finish it stars!

I wish I was one of the admirers of this book but I missed the author’s claustrophobic, intense, brilliant mind games, psychological, distorted, smart twists and gripping writing style he performed at Silent Patient!

Third one is the charm! I think his next work will be so much better!

So many thanks to Macmillan Reading Insiders club for providing me this readers’ advance copy in exchange my honest opinions.

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Emily May

Rating: really liked it
I need to start by saying Michaelides's The Silent Patient was totally my thing a couple of years back. I know the author didn't exactly do anything unique with that book, but I found it an impossible-to-put-down kind of psychological thriller. The writing kept me on the edge of my seat and I enjoyed the twists and turns.

And, to be fair, for a while The Maidens gave me a similar feeling. Maybe not quite as compelling as the author's debut, but I've discovered I really like the way Michaelides weaves just the right amount of literature, art, and Greek tragedy references into his murder mysteries. For me, it's more Dan Brown level hidden messages and puzzle-solving than, say, The Secret History, but if you're looking for a pageturner, that's hardly a bad thing.

This one sees Mariana Andros going back to Cambridge, her alma mater, when a friend of her niece is murdered on campus. Initially going for support, Mariana stumbles into an isolated world of charismatic professors, exclusive groups of beautiful students, and a whole lot of tragedy. The general kind, as well as the Greek.

I liked Mariana, who was dealing with her own grief behind the scenes. What I didn't like was the direction the book took in the later chapters. For one thing, I was fairly convinced early on that I had figured out the culprit, and I was right. But more than this, what came out as the reason behind everything was so baffling and out of left field that I was disappointed by it. I also just really dislike when (view spoiler)

I'll still read whatever the author writes next, but this one wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped.


Felicia

Rating: really liked it
5/30/2019

This could literally be IKEA assembly instructions written in Swahili using the Vivaldi font and I'd still read it.


Natalie

Rating: really liked it
Where do I begin....

It may only be April, but put this down as the biggest letdown of the year for me. This simply did not work for me almost from the get-go and features so many problems that I'm shocked this is coming from the same author as The Silent Patient. While this will no doubt be a bestseller due to TSP's momentum and fandom, proceed with caution and severely tempered expectations if you're diving into this one.

The premise of a secret society of Maidens was intriguing. The intersection between psychology and Greek mythology and tragedy is definitely alluring and could have been wickedly addicting and darkly entertaining, but alas, Michaelides took things in a different direction entirely.

Given Michaelides' familiarity with the psychology and psychotherapy fields, I found his use of psychology and group therapy in this book incredibly troubling, bordering on disrespectful, and downright dangerous in its perpetuation of the myth that psychopaths are made in childhood. Specifically, that a lack of warmth, love, and validation combine to create those we see as monsters capable of brutal violence, often towards women. This is a point greatly discussed and contended within the psychology field and comes rife with assumptions and judgment, often toward female caregivers. And yet, while making that statement, our MC, Mariana, finds herself with moments of deep compassion and empathy for the murderer, even going so far as blaming the victim he murdered as "provoking" him and making excuses for this violence by characterizing it as the actions of "a terrified child inside [who just] lashed out; and reached for a knife." The characterization of the murder itself continues the dialogue that women are responsible for the behaviors of men and that men, when acting out in violence, are reacting to a provocation. As children, they cannot be held accountable.

Instances like these make it very clear this is a male author attempting to write female characters and fundamentally lacking any insight into the truths and fears of women. It is glaringly apparent Michaelides struggled to truly understand women and how they think and behave; their fears and motivators, and relegated them to orbiting around men and their influence.

Other aspects where psychology was done a disservice include Mariana's treatment of her group therapy clients, the lack of boundaries between herself and her clients, and the violation of ethics in failing to report or provide counsel and resources when one of her patients exhibits self-harm and violent tendencies and behaviors that clearly illustrate mental health issues and a deteriorating condition. This included stalking, emotional outbursts, and threats to continue self-harming or harm Mariana. Mariana also uses her psychotherapy credentials to lie her way into an active crime investigation where seemingly the cops are all too willing to look the other way? It's a gross violation of her privileges and during her violation of the investigation, she fails time and again to provide any psychotherapy help or resources to individuals she encounters who clearly need mental health assistance, are in danger themselves or exhibit potentially harmful behavior towards her (i.e. more stalking). And again, Mariana is a group therapist - she doesn't work and isn't licensed as an individual therapist, so I wasn't able to suspend my belief that she would even be helpful to the investigation anyway.

Those troubling aspects aside, from a fundamental development level, the plot never felt fully fleshed out and the characters felt like caricatures. The characters were monstrously overworked yet somehow super forgettable. I had trouble remembering each male character and often forget about them until Mariana ran into them and they gave her creepy serial killer vibes all over again. Seemingly every man introduced seemed to scream I AM A CREEP, SUSPECT ME. They all make her uncomfortable, they're all trying too hard to be close to her, several actually STALK her (which we never discuss???), and yet somehow we're to believe Mariana has got this all handled and has no concerns over all the suspicious men circling her. Honestly, the ploy to make them all red herrings was so obvious it was cringey. Zoe never really felt like her own character, rather it felt like her purpose was just to be a convenient person for Mariana to walk around campus with and sometimes talk to instead of trying to 'solve' the crime through her own rambling internal monologues.

The ending is where every flaw, loose end, and half-baked idea truly shows.

(view spoiler)

For the blatant disrespectful handling of psychology, mental health, pedophilia, rape, and grooming, this is not a book I would feel comfortable recommending.

Thank you Celadon books for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.


Yun

Rating: really liked it
When I'm reading a mystery, there is no feeling more satisfying than having the wool pulled over my eyes. I'm always looking for that special story to misdirect me, throw red herrings my way, make me feel confident that I've got it all figured out, and then prove me dead wrong. And The Maidens did exactly that.

Mariana is called to Cambridge when her niece Zoe's closest friend is brutally murdered. Mariana soon realizes that this idyllic campus of higher learning conceals something sinister lurking beneath the surface. The dead girl was a member of The Maidens, a secret society of beautiful female students led by the charismatic Professor Fosca. Mariana immediately suspects Fosca and becomes obsessed with proving his guilt, in the hopes that she can stop him before more innocent lives are lost.

This story feels unusual and intriguing right off the bat. Its drawing upon of Greek mythology adds this creepy and almost otherworldly atmosphere to the tale. There is this ominous foreboding, as if misfortune will befall any moment, that permeates the pages. It made for a most unsettling and delicious read.

We are introduced to a small but interesting cast of characters, all harboring secrets and puttering around in their own suspicious behaviors. As the story progresses, I can't help but take each person, mull over their actions and try to suss out their true intentions. And for me, this deliberation of each character, is one of the most entertaining parts of reading a murder mystery.

It did take me a while to warm up to this story at first. I think it's because I found its initial buildup to be a little slow. There was a fair amount of background information to introduce, and also a lot of references to Greek mythology and psychotherapy, which I'm not super familiar with. But once it got going, the pacing tightened up and I was hooked, all the way until the very end.

I read so many mysteries that it's not often one manages to completely surprise me. Yet, Michaelides has successfully done so to me, twice now. After loving his debut book, I went into this with so much sheer excitement and immense expectations, I was afraid it couldn't live up to it. And while this book didn't quite slay me the way The Silent Patient did, it still took me by surprise in all the best ways, and I can't wait to read more from Michaelides.

My heartfelt thanks for the advance copy that was provided for my honest and unbiased review.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
See also, my thoughts on:
The Silent Patient
~~~~~~~~~~~~



jessica

Rating: really liked it
i see dark academia and i come running.

this is one of my most anticipated releases for the year and im so relieved it didnt let me down. i honestly inhaled this. AM is the master of short chapters. he truly understands how to get readers to say, ‘just one more and then i will go to bed.’ and then all of the sudden the story is over in the blink of an eye - thats how much the content and pacing hooked me. i loved the greek mythology and poetry, i loved the old-fashioned cambridge vibes, and i loved how those created the most compelling of mysteries.

also, holy crap. when theo from ‘the silent patient’ appeared, i screamed. i absolutely love when authors have characters from their other books have cameos. it makes the reading experience so much more fun and totally has me wanting to pick up ‘the silent patient’ again.

the only thing that really bothered me about this book, though, are the interactions between the MC and men. honestly, there are four separate male characters who throw themselves at her. but of course, she ‘doesnt know how beautiful she is (this is mentioned more than once - major eye roll),’ so she declines their advances and they either A) get very angry and offended by it, or B) they wont take no for an answer and consistently pester her. not to mention all of these interactions could be removed from the book with no consequence - i have no idea what purpose they serve. one time i could overlook, but multiple occurrences is just very poor characterisation and bad writing.

putting that aside, this book truly does deserve the hype its getting. with intriguing ritualistic murders to engaging literary influences, this is a great sophomore novel for AM.

↠ 4 stars


Warda

Rating: really liked it
No thriller novel has a right to be this boring.

I enjoyed The Silent Patient. God knows what happened with this book though.

There was nothing compelling about this story even though it tried to be. There were no thrilling aspect. The mystery was boring. I could not care less that these women were dying nor did I want to figure out who the killer was.
The characters in here felt contrived and stereotypical. Basically, you can tell a man wrote it.
I did not understand what compelled the main character to play detective. There was nothing in it for her.

I wish the Greek mythological elements were expanded upon. Or maybe they were and I won’t know since I stopped halfway.
As well as the group therapy element Mariana was supposedly heavily involved in. The come-about of the Maidens. Mariana’s relationship with Zoe. The trauma she’s suffered from her husbands death.

The actual damn mystery itself.

I enjoyed the writing style but even that was ruined for me.
It was trying to do too much. The book lost its focus and so did I.

I’m annoyed. 😑

DNF at pg. 227.


Ashleigh (a frolic through fiction)

Rating: really liked it
I’ve felt more tension between me and a ringing phone. It really took the “thrill” out of thriller and left me just with “…errr…?”


Gabby

Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars
I’m so glad this lived up to the hype! 😍

https://youtu.be/-Vgds8Hv5mM


MarilynW

Rating: really liked it
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Holy mackerel with a huge pile of red herrings!  The Maidens is set in the same world as The Silent Patient, even allowing us to see a couple of The Silent Patient's characters. Whereas the big twist in The Silent Patient got me, which is very hard to do, The Maidens throws so many suspicious people our way that I suspected everyone of being a murderer. Still, this was an enjoyable story, even as I rolled my eyes throughout the book, as the main character made one irrational decision after another. 

Mariana Andros is a group therapist, still grieving over the death of her husband. She seems to have trouble setting boundaries for herself and her patients. One patient harrasses and stalks her and she quickly meets several men at her old university that scare her yet she puts herself in close proximity to them, even allowing them to pour her drinks that take her past her tipsy limit. She is back at Cambridge University because her niece's good friend has been murdered and she wants to give her niece the support she needs to get through this sad time. 

But once on campus, things are even more dire than the murder of one university student. A popular professor, Edward Fosca, seems to be up to no good, with his followers made up of a secret society of female students. Mariana's niece seems to know a lot more than she will admit to Mariana and soon is Mariana dangerously poking her nose in places that will get her in trouble. She claims she is being careful, when in reality, she is anything but careful or subtle. The story has such a dreamlike, misty quality to it and Mariana is still so damaged by the death of her husband, that her lack of clear thinking seems to fit in with the atmosphere of the story. 

There was no way I could guess who the murderer was because every man seems to have something that might point to him. Everyone speaks in circles and there is a sense of foreboding, as if more is going to happen (and it does). I suspect that there will be more of this world, where The Silent Patient and The Maidens intersect in a third book and I look forward to reading that story. 

Publication: June 15, 2021

Thank you to Macmillan Publishers/Celadon Books and NetGalley for this ARC.


Chelsea Humphrey

Rating: really liked it
"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear."
-C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

I've decided to round my rating up a star, if for no reason other than I cannot stop thinking about this book and it got me out of a major reading slump. I wasn't as dazzled by The Silent Patient as most readers, yet as a debut it was undeniably entertaining and well crafted. The author has completely changed courses with his sophomore novel, The Maidens, and traded the world of flashy psychological thrillers for a literary murder mystery. Make no mistake, although this book has a quiet power, its short chapters and oppressive atmosphere are gripping. Academia and crime fiction go together like peanut butter and chocolate, so I think Michaelides has found a sweet spot in this particular sub-genre of suspense.

Was this book perfect? No, but how many of them are, honestly? Yes, it will be too slow of a burn for some readers, especially those expecting a Silent Patient 2.0 type of read, but if you're willing to go into this one with an open mind and a fresh palate, and you enjoy the literary side of crime fiction, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the author's versatility in writing. Here we have a limited third person view, told strictly from Mariana's POV, and this is where I think most of my hesitance in giving the book 5 stars stems from. Third POV has a way of keeping the reader at a distance if we can't experience the story from multiple viewpoints, and I think seeing things play out from various character's experiences would have allowed me to get a little closer to the story and connect on a deeper level to the characters, rather than feeling like we were getting a condensed version of the tale shortened for time's sake.

You will have to suspend your need for a believable, realistic investigation, as Mariana does things in ways that would never fly in real life. However, this made for a constant sense of moving from one scene to the next, which really ramped up the addictive factor for myself as a reader. The culprit might not come as a surprise to many seasoned suspense readers, although I will say it took me longer to figure out this reveal than it did in TSP, and even so I didn't have all the "hows" and "whys" just right, which is exciting. Overall, a quick read, and one that felt as if it brought me back to my original love of UK crime fiction.

*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.


Susan's Reviews

Rating: really liked it
Wow: I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook version of The Maidens, read by Louise Brealey and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. Brealey's dramatic reading tone injected a mesmerizing sense of dread and suspense into the narrative, and Holdbrook-Smith's husky tone did an excellent job of creeping me out!



Mariana Andros is in deep mourning: her beloved husband, Sebastian, died a year ago while they were on vacation in Greece.



We watch as Mariana struggles to move on with her life, but one day she receives a panicked call from her niece, Zoe, her only living relative. Zoe is a student at Cambridge, and one of her school friends, Tara, has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Zoe's fears are confirmed that very evening when Tara's body is found: she had been brutally murdered.





When Mariana arrives at Zoe's college the next day, she is disturbed to discover that the charismatic Professor Edward Fosca has seduced the entire college.



Mariana immediately suspects that Edward Fosca is behind the deaths of several of The Maidens - six young female students who are Fosca's adoring and devoted acolytes. Zoe's friend Tara had been one of those Maidens. Then, almost the very next day, another Maiden is murdered ....



As you would expect from a thriller, there were a ton of red herrings and loads of misdirection in this novel - as well as the potential for two unreliable narrators. The story is told from two alternate points of view: Mariana, in the third person, and a mysterious psychopath who regales us with harrowing recollections of his abusive childhood. (That poor dog, and what it revealed about his family dynamic! That was a jaw dropper.)



I have to say, my most favourite character in this novel was young Fred: he just cracked me up and I was rooting for him all the way (but don't count him out as a suspect - just saying!) I'm still chortling with laughter at all of his "moves"- I'd take an apple from him each and every time!



I did briefly suspect the culprit/s - no spoilers here - but I was still gasping with horror and applauding with delight at that action-packed ending.

And despite other Goodreads reviewers' lower ratings for this one, I have to confess that I prefer The Maidens over The Silent Patient. I am not fond of dry, emotionless thrillers. I like stories with messy relationships and the potential for a fresh start. I enjoyed Michaelides's sense of humour and playfulness in this book: Fred's scenes with Mariana introduced a lighter tone in an otherwise fraught and gloomy atmosphere. (I suspect that die-hard thriller fans frowned at this. My Eternally Hopeful/Sentimental Self just cheered instead!!)



Fate and Nature were also given character roles in this story. Fred's uncanny premonitions, the staring swan, Mariana's repeated supplications to the implacable Demeter, and the sudden storm that erased Sebastian from her life - it was as if man and Nature were in battle with one another, and for once, although Mariana would not have believed it, the Gods were on her side.



I'm rating this one a 5 out of 5 because I was truly entertained.
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
(P.S. I have now listened to the audio version of the The Silent Patient. I had to increase my rating for that one because the audiobook was so well done, but I still prefer The Maidens! I suspect that if more reviewers had listened to the audiobook, The Maidens would have a much higher rating. This would make a great movie! )
P.P.S: Just read an online interview Michaelides did recently: The Maidens has in fact been optioned for a movie! I, for one, will definitely be in line to watch it! The audiobook was spellbinding, so imagine what the movie will do to me! Plus, I can't wait to see who plays Fred - I loved that guy!)


Lisa of Troy

Rating: really liked it
This could possibly be my last book review ever....

This book review is being written from a bed at Mayo Clinic. If you follow me, I have been plagued with a mysterious condition this last year and finally have discovered that I have a very dangerous heart problem. The excellent medical team here at Mayo Clinic is struggling to control my erratic heart rhythm, and I experienced a very serious cardiac incident tonight where the red lights were flashing, the alarm was blaring, and every medical professional was urgently paged to my room. There was a heavy ominous, clanging sound approaching my door, the crash cart arriving. It is true what they say about the white light (or maybe that is because I have been exceptionally good in my life). Although I am stable for now, the crash cart is being left outside my door. So with that please don't be upset if I don't respond right away with likes and comments. I promise that I am still as committed as ever about reading and books. These books have been an escape from my sorry excuse for a body.

Alright, end melodrama.

The Maidens was the second book that I read by Alex Michaelides with The Silent Patient being my first. I do agree with other reviewers that The Maidens was not as good as The Silent Patient. It did not have the same page turning quality. However, I very much did enjoy it and probably would have considered rating it 5 stars except for the ending. What did I enjoy? Michaelides does have a strong command of the mystery/thriller genre, and the short chapters kept me especially interested. His use of psychology interwoven with the book gave it an extra depth, a little treat to savor.

Why did I hate the ending so passionately? Well I had to read the last page 3 times to understand what happened. 3 times. Talk about a let down. This is one of the most disappointing endings in my book history. I'm completely OK with open endings, and I actually prefer them in most cases but a confusing ending is not forgivable. I'm utterly gobsmacked that an author as talented as Michaelides would create an ending this horrible.

Well, my friends, it has been my pleasure to have you through this last year. The compassion and kindness of the book community has meant the world to me and carried me through some very dark times. If I do find myself with a pinecone, please continue to be the light out into the world. If not, please leave your list of books you would read if you only had one week left to live. I no longer have the patience for 3-star or less books. And if all else fails, know that I will be thinking warm thoughts for you either in this dimension or the next.