The Silent Patient was significantly better than this one and inexplicably introducing a connection between the two books two/thirds of the way through only served to highlight that.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides was a wonderfully done mystery novel, the characters were unique and I was invested in what was going on. It left me excited to read what the author has next.

This was actually a horrendous book. I find Michaelides to be the worst of the non Patterson authors, he's the bottom of my reccomendable

Mariana lost her husband in a tragic accident, and is trying to get over her grief when her niece calls - her niece's best friend has disappeared. As a psychologist, Mariana goes to support her niece, but finds herself investigating a serial killer. I didn't find this quite as enjoyable as Michaelides' first book, The Silent Patient, both because the characters weren't as likable or compelling and because the plot took a long time to get anywhere. Mariana was rather annoying in her insistence on pursuing the killer, when she had no background in criminal investigations and was told by the police to stay away. I also found the inclusion of Greek history and literature to be a bit overly didactic, rather than adding to the story. However, the creepy vibe was definitely exciting to read and made it tough to put this down.

I had really high hopes for this book after The Silent Patient, but in the end The Maidens fell flat for me. To be fair, I'm not someone who's into Greek mythology, but I wanted to give Michaelides sophomore release a chance since I loved his debut so much. What was most frustrating about the Greek mythology aspect was that the Maidens plot line didn't even end up tying into the ending up the book. I appreciated the tie ins with The Silent Patient at the end, but was left underwhelmed by the last line. Just when it felt like we were getting something juicy it was a bit anticlimactic for me. There were definitely still aspects of the book I enjoyed (picking up clues and following along with the crimes unfolding and investigation), so I'll read his third book but am hoping for something that's more of a psychological thriller.

This book tried very hard to replicate the shocking twist we received from The Silent Patient. However it just didn’t live up to the expectations. I found myself waiting and waiting for something shocking to happen, but I was bored. I will say the tidbit that connected this book to The Silent Patient was a very fun Easter egg!

The Maidens- thanks to @netgalley and @celadonbooks for the ARC!

Wow, I really thought I had this one figured out and I DID NOT.

“Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens [an illusive group of young women in a “secret society” run by a suspicious young professor] when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.”

I got into this book really quickly, it was not a slow start by any means. This is an essential for a mystery book, in my opinion, because you have to make me care and want to actually stick it out to know the “whodunit!” There was a lot of focus on psychology (the main character is aa therapist), which I of course cannot speak to the accuracy of.

I will say that I would have loved some more resolution with some of the characters. The book wrapped up quickly and then left us on a sort of cliffhanger. Overall, I did enjoy it and it for sure captivated me!

Unpopular opinion here but I didn’t understand the hype surrounding the Silent Patient at all. I thought it was a solid thriller but I wasn’t wowed and didn’t think it was the greatest thriller of all time. With that being said, I put off reading this one for awhile because I wasn’t sure if it would be a let down or not
.
Thankfully, I really enjoyed this one, probably more than the Silent Patient!

What worked:
• Edward Fosca as a character
• The Cambridge setting
• Elements of Greek tragedy

What didn’t work:
• Fred - just why????
• The ending

Edward Fosca as a character and the creepy theme of Greek tragedy throughout made for a page turner. My only problem was the ending, it felt random and parts of it were unexplained, leaving some major plot holes. Also, I hated Fred and his whole storyline 🤦🏼‍♀️

4 stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

As a big fan of The Silent Patient, I couldn’t wait for the release of The Maidens, but even new Michaelides readers will be drawn in by this striking cover and promise of a dark academia tale of murder and suspense. I loved the set-up of being told who the suspect is from the beginning. As with The Silent Patient, the psychological aspects give so much depth to the characters and encourage you to play detective yourself, stretching your ideas of motive and possibility. There’s also a fun little cameo in there for fans of The Silent Patient.

I can’t believe I forgot to leave my review of this great book. After having read and loved The Silent Patient, I was thrilled to be offered the opportunity by Netgalley and Celadon Books to read and review The Maidens. I loved the gothic feel that the author gives for the setting at Cambridge University. The use of Greek tragedy and a secret society of young women known as The Maidens under the supervision of their professor adds to the drama. I loved this as a truly dark and suspenseful mystery!

Michaelides has the talent of evoking mood long before the story line is divulged. It wraps you in interest and propels you to turn the page. The Maidens is another interesting read with an unexpected delight at the end for fans.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and NetGalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Anyone expecting more of The Silent Patient should put their expectations aside. The Maidens is Michaelides' sophomore novel and is an unexpected turn from his debut novel. It moves at a pace that matches the mood of it's protagonist. There are twist and turns, cameo appearances of other characters, and an ending that left me speechless.

Excellent read, highly recommended. 5 out of 5 stars.

it took me a while to read this book due to life happening, but I finally read it. It took me a while to get into the story and I almost stopped reading it. But I'm so glad I kept going! I thought it was very well written and really enjoyed the short chapters. I could have done without some of the Greek mythology because it's not interesting to me, but the ending surprised me. I enjoyed this one!

This was good mistery that kept me awake in the middle of the night. It will divide opinions, but I recommend this.

Truthfully not for me however plenty of shoppers certainly seek out this creative, murder mystery type of thriller. Fast paced, intelligent, and enjoyable from chapter to chapter. It's an easy link to purchase for anyone remotely gripped by The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It's all there.

4.5 stars rounded up
This is a very well done book, however the red herrings seemed a little too obvious. I wish there was a little more info, or details about the maidens and what was going on there. Maybe a little more development on some of the side characters that seemed to be somewhat important yet lacked any depth. It was definitely a well written book and a page turner, so overall I really enjoyed it. I can easily see this becoming a movie, and it would probably be quite enjoyable if done right.

Read if you 🖤:
>Madeline Miller Books
>The Silent Patient
> Crime Junkie Podcast

Summary 📝 (3.8/5 ⭐️)
Mariana is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on solving the murder of her niece Zoe’s friend. Set in Cambridge, Mariana is convinced she knows who the murderer is, Greek Tragedy professor Edward Fosca. Fosca is said to be the lead of secret society of female students known as The Maidens. But this odd fact is largely overlooked by faculty and staff, as he’s a beloved professor.

Mariana is determined to stop the killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.

My Thoughts:

👍🏻Likes:
> 🔎I really enjoyed this and would recommend it! It’s an interesting, easy slow-burn thriller that I felt invested in the whole time
> 🏛I thought the academia and greek mythology component was unique, and I think anyone that enjoys Madeline Miller books or general mythology would love this inclusion
> 🖤 reading this with @bookswithdans & talking about this today with @shelfie.queen

👎🏻Dislikes:
> I didn’t find myself comparing this to The Silent Patient as much as I thought I would, which is a positive! However, I was expecting an ending with a clever twist, similar to Silent Patient. This ending didn’t have the same mind-blowing twist. It felt out of left field, which I didn’t love.
> There were many non-central side characters added to the storyline that felt unnecessary. I wish there was greater focus on the central characters’ development vs. including some of the side characters that really didn’t contribute much to the story as a whole.

For the second time, I’ve liked the premise of this author’s book more than I enjoyed the book itself, and especially the ultimate conclusion. I like the writing itself and I want to find out what happens just because I always want to find out what happens, but it felt like the big twists in this book were almost too big and random and ultimately didn’t make much sense.

Mariana Andros, a group therapist, is still in shock and mourning from her young husband’s untimely death, when she is summoned to Cambridge University by her niece Zoe whose best friend was found brutally murdered. When Mariana arrives, she is immediately suspicious of Edward Fosca, popular and charming Greek tragedy professor and Zoe’s academic advisor, who surrounds himself with a group of beautiful, wealthy students, which included the murdered girl, and she will do everything she can to make sure he’s held responsible.

The idea of this book was fine, but it was totally unrealistic for Mariana to insert herself into the investigation as she did, and while it made sense that she wanted to protect Zoe, it would have been more practical to insist that she return home with Mariana instead of trying to prove she was so much better than all the professionals who were running the investigation.

I did get excited by the nod to The Silent Patient since it was nice to be part of the inside joke/reference, and I’ll give any book set at Cambridge a chance, but otherwise, I wasn’t really rooting for any of these characters. Mariana, especially, wasn’t very believable. She supposedly graduated from Cambridge and became a successful therapist, but she just doesn’t come across as intelligent or savvy enough to make any of this realistic. And Zoe was just a strange character, as was Edward Fosca, who knew he was being accused of murder, but didn’t really take any of it too seriously, maybe because no one would actually take Mariana’s unfounded allegations seriously anyway.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.

So this one is hard for me to really give it a rating because I both LOVED and hated this book. This is a dark academia story that focuses on a woman who recently lost her husband and is dealing with grief. One day her niece calls her in a panic because someone was murdered at her school and she thinks it was her friend and that a teacher was somehow involved. Our main character then puts her life on hold and goes down to the campus that her niece is at to try and console her and figure out what is happening.

Now this book has some pretty strong dark academia vibes which I loved but it also had some pretty big flaws which really irked me and made me hate the way it ended. Regardless I gave it a high rating because I did really like the vibes and apparently that has weight for me when I am rating books. Some non-spoiler things that bothered me, the main character felt out of place at the campus for most of the book. Why is she investigating, why does she care? She seems to be doing things that are questionable considering her profession. There are long parts of the book that feel very unrelated (although admittedly I enjoyed those parts because the writing was nice). And the ending, although interesting, felt like it could have been tied in better.

That being said I do want to read it again in the future and I am wondering if knowing what I know will make me enjoy it more or hate it more on a second read.

The Maidens is a well written academic mystery set at Cambridge by Alex Michaelides. Released 15th June 2021 by Celadon, it's 337 pages and is available in all formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

I was most impressed by the actual prose in this work. The story flows and engages. The characters aren't always three dimensional and there are some troubling actions, especially from protagonist Mariana which which were so jarring and unethical as to yank me completely out of the story. There were also a few scenes which seemed disjointed and odd and felt as though they'd been inserted for red-herring value and didn't advance the narrative at all.

Despite that, I loved the brooding academic vibe and the story-line steeped in (often literal) theatrical Greek tragedy. The whole had a gravitas which I found compelling and which kept me invested in finding out how it ends. It's not derivative at all, but in some good ways, this standalone reminds me of the Kate Fansler books by Amanda Cross (though they're set in the USA). Just about every other reviewer has commented on the twisty ending. I can't say I foresaw the entire denouement and resolution, but neither was it a complete shock.

The language is mature, not egregiously so, but it's peppered with moderate amounts of profanity. The book's populated by young adults in a university setting, so it's honestly mild by comparison to my experience of university students in real life, but it is there. There are also some explicit sexual elements, so readers might want to be aware and read accordingly. (It's not pornographic, and it's used in context).

Overall, it's a beautifully lyrically written story with loads of atmosphere and the prose is sublime. Michaelides writes very very well.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.