The Maidens

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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 was still in love with him—that was the problem. Even though she knew she’d never see Sebastian again—even though he was gone for good—she was still in love and didn’t know what to do with all this love of hers. There was so much of it, and it was so messy: leaking, spilling, tumbling out of her, like stuffing falling out of an old rag doll that was coming apart at the seams. Let’s talk about the ending. The Sebastian thing definitely felt a little out-of-the-blue. The clues that point towards the reveal at the end are somewhat…sparse and pretty vague. (I’ve listed all the ones I could identify in the Explanation section at the end. If there’s something I’m missing, please let me know!)

I found The Maidens to be an inverse of The Silent Patient. With The Silent Patient, I thought the ending was fantastic, but the writing and narrative arcs left something to be desired. With the Maidens, I thought the writing and overall story arcs were much more solid, but the ending was just okay. The greatest campus novel since The Secret History by Donna Tartt … with a climatic twist that you will NEVER see coming.’ 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 a character who acted completely normal for the whole book suddenly pulls out a knife and turns "here's Johnny!" on us.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. 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." Sebastian knows there is a part of him that is calm and sane and a part of him that is bloodthirsty. However, there are two specific mentions of feeling “split in two” and then faced with a “horrible yellow light”, at two separate points in his life. My theory is that this occurs after he has killed someone. 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 ....

Michaelides’ stage-setting skills are as masterful here, as they were in The Silent Patient (2019); another tense, cleverly twisted winner." Something beautiful, something holy, had died. All that remained were the books he read, the clothes he wore, the things he touched. She could still smell him on them, still taste him on the tip of her tongue. 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 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.I did not understand what compelled the main character to play detective. There was nothing in it for her. Yes, I disappointed! Yes, I was truly expecting something earth shattering, soul crushing, mind bending, grey cell fryer, unputdownable! 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. For me, this deliberation of each character is one of the most entertaining parts of reading a murder mystery.

Mariana is determined to outwit the Professor, to protect Zoe, but this may be her biggest challenge yet. oooh, goodreads choice awards finalist for best mystery & thriller 2021! WHAT WILL HAPPEN LET’S FIND OUT! So many thanks to Macmillan Reading Insiders club for providing me this readers’ advance copy in exchange my honest opinions.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. However, Mariana is able to overpower Zoe (with help from Fred, a guy who has a crush on Mariana), and Zoe ends up injured and being arrested. 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.