The Maidens by Alex Michaelides is a spellbinding tale of psychological suspense that will captivate readers who delight in dark academia, mythology, and thrilling mysteries, and are eager to unravel the tangled threads of obsession, murder, and ancient secrets that lie beneath the idyllic surface of Cambridge University.

I think I'm just not going to love this author's books. This was perfectly fine, which was my reaction to their previous hit, but never really grabbed me.

Man, Alex Michaelides really writes about the worst therapists in the world.

I liked this, though, even more than I liked The Silent Patient. The university setting was appropriate for the story, and I really didn't see the twists coming.

Another great book with a twist!
Mariana reminisces about her late husband and their memories as she tries to hang onto him a little longer. She’s a group therapist and has one patient she and the group struggle with, Henry. Henry has anger issues and was overcoming the extreme childhood abuse inflicted by his father until he began college. Then college overwhelmed him. Marina has a niece, Zoe, who’s attending Cambridge and calls Mariana when her friend Tara goes missing. As Mariana is traveling on a train to meet Zoe, she encounters Fred, a young man who kindly insists that they will meet again. After Mariana arrives at the college, she’s pulled into a belief that a professor is a murderer and she wants to prove it and goes to great lengths to do so as young women are murdered. The story alternates with the background of an abused victim and eventually the reader learns who it is. Another great book with a twist from Alex Michaelides, 5 stars!

Once again, I love a dark twisty thriller that is set on a British college campus. Sign me up. This one was gripping, but had some issues. There were so many suspicious characters introduced to throw off the reader that I had a hard time keeping up. Mainly I kept forgetting who Henry was and had to be like …wait who is this? Every time he showed up. Because of all of these unnecessary characters it felt like it was left with a lot of loose ends. The ending also really didn’t make a lot of sense to me and just made me sad?? Also the epilogue ended WAY too abruptly and am annoyed that I don’t get to see any more of this play out. That part just felt lazy.

This one just did not work for me. I liked the Silent Patient so requested this one asap but either it wasn't my taste or the book itself didn't gel, but hard for me to recommend it.

I was so excited for this book after reading the Silent Patient. This book had such a different energy and pace to it than I was expecting, and I think that kept me from enjoying it as much as I could have. I really enjoyed the storyline.

Wow. Wow. Wow. If you loved Michaelides’s first novel, you are going to adore this one. It kept me hooked from page one, and the giant plot twist at the end had my jaw on the floor! New auto-buy author, for sure! 🙌🏼

Before Reading:
One of my most anticipated books of the year! So excited I was approved for an ARC!

Overall, The Maidens is a well-written psychological thriller that keeps the reader engaged with its twists and turns. The setting of Cambridge University adds an intriguing atmosphere to the story, and the exploration of Greek mythology adds an interesting layer to the plot. The characters are complex and flawed, which adds to the tension and suspense. However, at times the pacing of the story can be slow, and some of the plot twists feel predictable. While it may not be a groundbreaking novel in the genre, it is still a decent read for fans of psychological thrillers

I was looking forward to this, but then I read the Silent Patient. I did not like it at all and that soured me on reading another book by this author.

This has been on my TBR since it’s release. Michaelides debut The Silent Patient has remained one of my favourite thrillers so I was really anticipating The Maidens and then all the mixed reviews were coming in and I decided to wait so here we are.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗲:
-I still very much love the style in which Michaelides writes, there is a haunting quality to it
-The audio was excellent, I think listening to it left me more in the dark on certain aspects of the plot because unlike many of you I did not guess who the killer was
-Little tie in from The Silent Patient was a clever touch
-The parallels to Greek mythology and the murders was brilliant
-The dark academia setting amongst the beautiful backdrop of Cambridge

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗲:
-Way too many red herrings, it absolutely was unnecessary to have this many tied in and I got a bit frustrated in the second half of the book
-Mariana the MC was a psychotherapist but she seemed to toss all her training out the window as she continued to break boundary after boundary professionally and personally
-I would of liked a bit more of Zoe’s character story she felt a bit flat for me

Overall I really did enjoy this I will continue to read anything Michaelides writes and I highly suggest listening to this one on audio as I think it will make for a more solid reading experience.

An engaging read, moving along at a comfortably quick pace. I really enjoyed the overall tone created by the setting and uneasy relationships between most characters. Also enjoyed that there were so many plausible routes the plot could have gone in, keeping me guessing until the end. Would recommend.

This was a slow burn book for me. I found I was unable to connect with the shallow characters. I might re read this in the future when I'm in a calmer mood.

I thought this was awful. The character were incredibly shallow and all of the men were absolute creeps. Our main character is truly pathetic about her extreme need for her late husband, has *daddy issues,* and is a terrible judge of character. Fosca is so obviously not the killer for the entire book and all of the red herring characters are so obvious.

Then, the ending twist isn't something we could have seen coming under any circumstances which is always such a cop out and it uses some really unsavory things as plot devices.

When a young girl is found brutally murdered, Mariana is convinced that a professor at her niece Zoe's school is responsible. The girl was a member of group of young women "the Maidens" who follow and adore the professor in an apparent unnatural way. When a second girl is found murdered, Marianna becomes obsessed with proving this to be true; but is it as obvious as that? Other suspects appear in the twisty story right up to the disturbing end.

Sadly, this book took forever to get into. I didn't finish it. I definitely liked The Silent Patient better.

I read and really enjoyed SIlent Patient, so I was so excited to see this book come up. Unfortunately, this one did fall a bit short for me, I couldn't get into the various plot points and didn't feel connected to any of the characters.

However, there are connections to Greek mythology which I thought was a new perspective for a thriller. It is an entertaining read if you are looking for a quick thriller.

Like most readers, I loved the twists and turns of The Silent Patient when it debuted. So much so, that I couldn’t wait to read the second book by this author, The Maidens.

Intertwined with Greek mythology, The Maidens opens with Mariana, a group therapist, recovering from her husbands sudden death. When her niece Zoe calls from university with news of her friends murder, Mariana goes running to her. She quickly fixates on professor Edward Fosca as the culprit and begins her own investigation in earnest.

I appreciated the mystery of this story as well as the twist I knew was coming - just didn’t know what it was. I also loved the minor tie in with The Silent Patient - so creative when authors use this element. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

I found this novel predictable and boring. The characters were a mess and made poor decisions that made little sense in dangerous situations. It was not nearly as dark academia or Greek-focused as described, and I would truly like to know the word count on how many times the author mentioned Cambridge. I almost forgot where it took place. Add in the detestable actions of Mariana’s fiancé and it made for an icky situation. The twist felt incredibly forced and the 600 red herrings implausible.

My feelings on this read were a bit mixed. I enjoyed it very much and, as always, enjoy Michaelides' writing style, but just really felt unsatisfied and confused by the end/ending. I appreciated the nods to The Silent Patient but all in all, even though I loved reading it, this wasn't as strong a book for me. I had to suspend my disbelief and was ok with that but I think that I had the most difficult time with some of the themes of the treatment of younger women and the older/younger dating in the storyline. Instead of some of the behaviours feeling problematic, I found myself felling that their existence in multiple storylines made me uncomfortable with those themes.

This was one of those reads where I overthought much of the book, expecting wild conclusions and plot twists but perhaps that is on me for reading too many wild stories! All in all, this was still a 4 star read for me and I really enjoyed it, I was just left with some questions and negative thoughts at the end.