Mariana's niece Zoe calls from Cambridge afraid that her closest friend Tara has been murdered. Mariana rushes to her beloved Cambridge to support Zoe who reveals that Tara had been afraid of their Greek Tragedy professor and is sure he is the murderer. Much like "The Silent Patient" we are treated to twists and turns at an amazing rate.The reader suspects everyone as back stories are revealed and tension mounts. In my opinion a better read than "The Silent Patient" a cannot put down read that I had to finish in one sitting. Great read for those who love mystery and psychological thrillers.Thanks to Net Galley and MacMillan/Celadon for the electronic ARC.
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The Maidens is a tense new thriller with touches of The Secret History -- one by one, the students of a brilliant, charismatic Cambridge classics professor are found dead. Grieving therapist Mariana receives a panicked call from her niece Zoe, whose friend and classmate is the first to show up brutally murdered in the woods off campus. Rushing to Cambridge -- a place imbued with memories, as she recalls meeting her recently deceased husband when they were young students there -- Mariana comforts Zoe and starts to pick apart the threads of the mystery unraveling before her.

I enjoyed The Maidens more than Michaelides' first novel, The Silent Patient. The atmosphere was spooky and evocative, and I felt uneasy the entire time with anticipation for a pay-off. I was enjoying it until the conclusion, which fell flat for me. But overall, it is a quick and exciting read with a strong sense of place.

3.5/5: I couldn't put it down while reading! However, once the dust settled, I was disappointed by some of the one-dimensional characters (everyone was so blatantly suspicious!) and the ending. I think fans of his first book will definitely want to read this one, as there is a slight crossover (the books are set in the same universe/social sphere), but anyone new to Michaelides' work can read this as a standalone with ease. Anyone who loves the new trend of dark academia will want to read this!

I liked Mr Michaelides’ previous novel, The Silent Patient, but not nearly as much as many people did - apparently it was the biggest selling debut novel in the world in 2020, though maybe that says more about the marketing than the novel? I also liked this second novel and I’m sure it will be equally successful but, for me, it didn’t distinguish itself from the pack of psychological twisty thrillers that I’ve read this year.

Mariana is still grieving from the death of her husband over a year ago, but she keeps on with her work as a group therapist despite a rather threatening and obsessive patient called Henry. When her niece Zoe, a student at Cambridge, calls one night after Zoe’s close friend Tara has been murdered, Mariana races up there to support her.

Zoe is suspicious of a charismatic American classics lecturer who has a close-knit inner circle of students, all beautiful young women, called the Maidens which Tara was a member of. As Mariana delves into the psychology of the murderer and a variety of suspects show up, a second narrative from the murderer is woven in with hints and clues about his identity. But though I was caught out by the author’s wily twist in The Silent Patient (and there’s a nifty shout out to that novel in this one), I wasn’t so gullible this time.

There is a peculiar stiff quality about the writing which made the novel feel a little amateurish - I’m not sure if this is meant to be a deliberate reflection of the Greek tragedies that are often referenced or if it’s just stilted. I felt many of the characters were so broadly sketched as to be virtually caricatures: their delivery of information and behavior all seem designed to give us as many suspects as possible and it feels clunky rather than subtle.

I didn’t feel I’d wasted my time reading The Maidens, but wouldn’t suggest you need to do anything more than wait for it to be available at your local library.

Thanks to Celadon and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

"The Maidens" was a good mystery/suspense thriller, however after reading so many in the genre, it was pretty easy to see the "twist" coming quite a bit ahead of the big reveal.

4.5 stars

It starts, as all good mysteries, with a murder. A body is discovered on the grounds of Cambridge University. After conducting her group therapy, Mariana Andros receives a call from her niece, Zoe, fearing the worst: that the body found belongs to her best friend, Tara. Mariana goes to visit her niece, but when the body is identified as Tara’s, Mariana gets drawn into a rabbit hole of secret societies and duplicitous players. No matter where she looks, the same questions afflict her: Could Tara’s professor, Edward Tosca, be the murderer? And what is she to make of The Maidens, a group of young female students who seem to accompany the professor wherever he goes? Mariana is certain that, in pursuing these questions, she will find the answers she is seeking.

With the massive success of The Silent Patient in 2019, it’s a wonder that this is my first encounter with Michaelides’ writing. A fan of all things Greek myth, I adored the nods to Persephone and Demeter (among others) woven through the story. Coming from an academic background, this book was very easy to love: with ample references, a university setting, and the atmospheric descriptions of England and Greece, I felt very much immersed in Mariana’s world and struggle. Once I finished I was motivated to do some researching, which is always a sign of good writing for me.

The accessible pace coupled with the intrigue of this story propelled me to start and finish this novel in a day, not a common feat for me! I’m not the most frequent mystery-thriller reader, but the short chapters seemed like an appropriate choice and were hugely encouraging throughout, even in the less climactic turns. Although there were a few debatable misses (loose-end/superfluous characters), I definitely felt more of the strengths in this novel, particularly the care Michaelides puts in to lead the reader to certain conclusions, only for the ending to be quite impactful in it’s reveal. The nuances of the main characters’ histories were also very well considered and informative to their motivations from start to end.

All in all, Michaelides’ most recent endeavour was well worth the read, and has definitely inspired me to give The Silent Patient a read in the near future. I will definitely be recommending this book when it comes out this summer.

Thank you to Netgalley Celadon Books for this engrossing read.

Alex Michaelides follow up book to <i>The Silent Patient</i> has set him apart, setting him up to be the Stephen King of the mystery/thriller genre. This truly is a deliciously, dark, completely compulsive read with one heck of a twist at the end! Michaelides had the gift of an elegant wordsmith, weaving a tale with an unlikeable narrator and plenty of red herrings along the journey. This is one you don’t want to pass up!

I will be posting a full review on June 15, 2021 when this tantalizing thriller will be released. That means you have a few months to preorder this gem... save your money... call in an early Christmas wish or birthday blessing, but whatever you do... get yours! You’ll be thrilled you did.

So many thanks to #NetGalley, #CeladonBooks, and of course the amazingly talented Alex Michaelides for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

My full reviews can be found at http://OceansOfBooks.com , Amazon, Goodreads, Twitter, Instagram, and Barnes and Noble.

I wish I could say this was just as good as Michaelides tour de force "The Silent Patient" but I just can't. Despite being beautifully written, Michaelides is an absolute wordsmith of the highest order, with all the tension and dread of its predecessor the novels weak ending wrecked it for me.

Part of the genuine shock of "The Silent Patient" is derived from how insanely well plotted it is. The solution to its mystifying puzzle is staring you in the face the whole time but you simply don't see it. I suspect that Michaelides was hoping to achieve something similar this time around but it just doesn't happen. We're handed red herrings galore and some really great scenes between heroine Marianna and the person she suspects of committing some truly barbaric murders. There are deep and painful meditations on grief and loss. There's some heartbreaking and frightening journal entries from an unknown person breaking up the chapters that absolutely will have you flipping the pages just to find who who their author is. Then the twist comes and instead of marveling at another great success in pulling the wool over my eyes I found myself going "hang on what? how the heck does that work?"

I just didn't buy it. And more painfully I wasn't really ever given a reason to. "The Silent Patient" was like a literary "Sixth Sense" where you could go back to the beginning and look at every single moment you were essentially told what was going on but missed every single clue. That just doesn't happen here. In fact there are some genuine holes in the narrative that left me wondering if Michaelides himself changed his mind about the murderers identity at some point.

I also got bogged down in the idea that this takes place in the same world as "The Silent Patient." The "reveal" of Theo, the "hero" of "The Silent Patient" was more confusing then anything else.

Ugh I was so prepared to just adore this and in some ways I did but I felt so let down by the resolution.

I am usually not a fan of unreliable narrators but this book had me won over with Cambridge and the academic setting. I love anything Dark Academia. I guess the only sticking point for me Mariana. They set her up as so fragile and broken and that made everything she said and though suspect. I just dislike the device of making the female narrator fragile and broken to add tension and misdirection. While Mariana isn't necessarily a fragile flower, we are given enough information to question whether or not she is thinking clearly or if the grief over the loss of her husband is enough to distort her reliability. Using this as a force to drive your plot is always uncomfortable for me.
Given the popularity of books like this I have no doubt that this book will be a good seller and will get people talking.

After having read Alex Michaelides first book, The Silent Patient, I was eagerly awaiting this book.

Mariana is a grieving widow who is struggling to find her footing after the recent death of the love of her life, Sebastian. When her only living relative, her niece Zoe, is calling from Cambridge because her best friend Tara has been murdered, Mariana immediately comes to her aid. The hunt for the killer becomes an obsession for Mariana and tests her relationships with her niece and friends.
There is also some overlap with the characters from The Silent Patient, which in my point of view was entirely unnecessary. All in all I found the story a bit messy and unsatisfactory - maybe because I had so high hopes and expectations for this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book in advance.

This is a good book that I'd recommend to folks who want a fast-paced murder mystery with hints of Greek mythology & secret society at uni vibes. Three stars for the following, without giving too much away: 1. Mariana is 36? She reads older to me. 2. I wanted more of the Maidens / mythology from the start. 3. That group therapy session with the Maidens was goofy. I couldn't imagine it happening in real life without major consequences, and it took me out of the story. 4. Maybe it's just me, but the stalking & abuse by men seem like poorly thought out plot and decoy devices. Idk, maybe I'm just sick of that narrative. 5. I guessed who-done-it from the beginning, but can admit that twist at the end got me. I liked the hints at The Silent Patient, and have added it to my to-read list. Thanks for the ARC!

From page one I was sucked into this fast-paced psychological thriller. Mariana receives a call from her niece, telling her that her best friend at college is missing. When this friend's brutally murdered body is discovered, Mariana heads to Cambridge to help Zoe through this terrible time. There are more murders, lots of twists and turns and an ending that will make you want to go back to the beginning and start over.

I raced through The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and The Maidens was no different! This novel is visceral and brought to mind Jack the Ripper. The fresh take of Greek mythology mixed in with a modern thriller was captivating and made this novel hard to put down.

Alex Michaelides has another winner....beautifully written. An added bonus was tiny tie in to The Silent Patient! A slow build to an ending I didn’t see coming in the least. And lovely bits of Greek mythology thrown in!

This book had me hooked from the first few chapters, and it never let up. I was always intrigued to see what would happen next, and found myself contemplating who the killer was with each new character who was introduced. Dotting the story with sparse excerpts from a second narrator was a masterful approach to keep the reader guessing, who done it? I find myself wishing for more as the novel wraps up, wanting to hear more about the outcomes of the relationships with Mariana, but I couldn't have asked for a more enjoyable read. Looking forward to recommending this title once it is released!

Alex Michaelides approaches his novel, The Maidens, with the skillful hand and eye for the mystery / thriller novel while expertly intertwining dark academia and psychological influences. This is one that will keep you invested until the very end.

After reading Michaelides' The Silent Patient, I expected a surprise twist at the end of The Maidens, and there was one. I'm just not sure it was worth the read. I found the plot far-fetched and the red herrings obvious. I think this story will do better as a movie.

I wanted to like the book more than I actually did. Mariana, the main character, is a group therapist and a good one at that. I valued and believed her opinions and statements. But she does some really dangerous things that didn't complement her sound judgment. There certainly was a surprise ending that I didn't see coming.

The Maidens is a twisty psychological thriller that leans heavily on Greek mythology. It was highly readable but in some ways, needlessly complicated. There are many characters and potential red herrings to keep up with and the book keeps you guessing until the end.

This was a mystery that kept me guessing until the very end, which is the best kind. I loved The Silent Patient and this doesn't top that, but I really enjoyed this one too. The complex characters, lovely setting and twisty mystery kept me hooked.

This is a good, twisty novel, which reminded me in some ways of The Secret History (though not quite at the level of that book, one of my all-time favorites). The story starts rather slowly, but keeps building to a page-turning pace and an ending which I did not see coming. I loved the references to The Silent Patient, too! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.