The Maidens is a creepy, edge of your seat, psychological thriller. The book revolves around Mariana who is grieving the loss of her husband and finds herself immersed in the murder of a girl at her niece's university. "A creature born from myth" preys on the campus and Michaelides shocks readers once again with a surprising ending. I enjoyed the story, but enjoyed the narration even more.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Mariana is a group therapist, and former student at Cambridge University. Where, her niece Zoe now attends. When she comes to find out one of her nieces friends were murdered she gets wrapped up in all the secrets and questions involving the crime. A professor named Edward Fosca, a group known as the maidens, greek myth obsessions and a sinister feel hovering over Cambridge; Mariana is determined to uncover it all even while putting herself in extreme danger.

I was so excited to get the opportunity to dive into this dark story before the release. I did really enjoy it and thought it was an entertaining book but there was a few parts of the story I felt dragged and were kind of repetitive. The setting was perfectly written and this would have been such a great book to read during spooky season! I would recommend this book but it definitely wasn't my absolute favorite and although I didn't guess the twist in anyway, it still didn't really shock me for some reason and leave me thinking about it days later.

The Silent Patient is one of my favorite psychological thrillers so I – unfairly - anticipated the same twisted energy in The Maidens. While I enjoyed it, I was a bit disappointed. I took some time to think about just what it was about The Maidens that fell a bit flat for me and what I enjoyed about it.

Here’s what I liked about the story:

• The setting is dreamy! Academic settings are my jam. Add in a dash of gothic mystery and murder and I’m sold.
• The interspersion of Greek Mythology throughout the book is magical and I loved it!
• The nods to The Silent Patient and seeing Theo again! It’s been too long, Theo, my friend!
• The narrators are the bomb-diggity! Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Louise Brealey are amazing and made this an absolute joy to listen to!
• I listened to this in just over a day, so it is compelling & engrossing! I had a burning need to know who the murderer was and what was their motivation!

Here’s what I didn’t like:

• The characters. I believe there’s a certain amount of naivete needed for some characters to get to the gist of a story but it felt a bit overdone. I didn’t feel like I got to know any of the characters very well.
• How does a college professor at a prestigious school get away with draping himself with gorgeous young students, meeting in his rooms for *private* tutoring, etc. … and it doesn’t raise an eyebrow? With anyone?
• Red-herrings: There were so many distraction/misdirection characters that were saying “look here, it’s obvious, I’m the killer” but yeah, they weren’t. At the half-way point, everyone, literally everyone, was a suspect. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing.

Despite the things I had difficulty with, I still give The Maidens a solid 4 stars and would recommend it to any fan of the genre. My thanks to Macmillan Audio for this generously gifted ALC!

I read the Silent Patient when it first released and remember enjoying it so I was eager to be able to receive this ARC. This book was not for me. I unfortunately found the storyline and characters very dull.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMilan Audio for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sophomore novels are tough, especially when your first novel is a runaway hit.
The premise has a lot going for it: Cambridge, murder, a mysterious society, a charismatic professor, Greek mythology! All the elements are there, but I wasn’t captivated.

Widowed Mariana is drawn back to Cambridge, when a college student is found murdered. Cambridge holds the memories of her courtship to her husband and the mystery of the murdered student. She races to find answers before more lives are lost.

I might be growing out of dark academia. I didn’t find anything new and insightful in it. The nod to Michaelides’s first novel was interesting, but was not elaborated on.

The audio book has two narrators, both do a wonderful job, the male narrator’s voice is creepy and great!
Thanks to netgalley for the audio book, it is very well produced.

ARC Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (5 stars)

Truly, I finished this book days ago, and I have been digesting it ever since.
I need each of you to go read this book immediately. I mean it. Literally the moment it releases. Because I have realized the one downside to being blessed with an early copy. Once you read the book and it blows your mind - you have no one to talk to about it! I desperately need to rant, rave, and rage about the wonders of this tale!

A perfect blend of mystery, psychology, and Greek folklore - this book contains my favorite elements. Mixed into this, you have Mariana Andros. While Mariana grieves her own losses, she is suddenly called upon to aid Zoe, Mariana’s niece, when her friend is murdered. Zoe is a student at Cambridge University, which also happens to be Mariana’s former university. When Mariana arrives, she uncovers a web of intrigue that will keep you guessing until the final moments.

I listened to the audiobook, as such, I would also like to note that the narrators are excellent. We all know that a narrator can make or break the experience of consuming a story audibly, and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Louise Brealey brought this tale to life beautifully.

Thank you so much to Celadon Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley who sent me an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Maidens follows Mariana as she returns to Oxford when her niece, Zoey, is suddenly surrounded by a series of murders that have elements relating to Greek tragedies. As several young women part of a mysterious group called The Maidens on campus begin to drop, Mariana struggles to make sense of the reasoning behind the killers motives.

This was a great read! I found it thoroughly enjoyable. There were lots of left turns and suspense, and I loved the Greek tragedy elements. It was really fun to see where it went. The ending wasn't too surprising to me, but it made it no less enjoyable to go through.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Good murder mystery, with Greek tragedy references mixed in. Loved the Cambridge setting too.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to a prerelease copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Marianna is clearly grieving the death of her husband, but her behavior is odd and extreme at times. The fact that she constantly falls into bouts of deep nostalgia about her husband feels a little forced, but I found myself “forgiving” the lapses, because she is overcome with grief. The author’s choice makes sense later in the book, but I was quite skeptical while making my way through it.

Michaelides did a really great job of creating an unreliable main character. This definitely increased the tension throughout the book, because the reader doesn’t know what to believe. I was unsure if the events being presented are actually happening, or if it’s only in Marianne’s mind.

Zoe was not a reliable character either. Her motivations and behavior felt suspect, but as the reader, I couldn’t quite figure out why.

Michaelides also threw in a TON of “red herrings” and they all seemed plausible. The idea was solid, but It became frustrating the further I got into the book. It lacked subtlety, but maybe that was the point...to overwhelm the reader.

To be honest, I didn’t find any of the characters very like able, which thrilled me. Add to that the fact that the story takes place on the campus of Cambridge University, and the setting ended up being my favorite “character.”

The story was well crafted and meanders in all the right ways. Michaelides added enough backstory to help the reader understand why certain characters may behave or react the way they do. However, there were a few characters that felt like throwaways. They were introduced and set up as if they might be important, but they ended up being peripheral at best.

The plot hinges on two problems...
ONE: Young women are being murdered on campus and no one knows who the killer is.
TWO: Marianna is directly in the center of the of it all, but it is questionable whether she is unwell and how much of what she thinks and says can be trusted.

Overall, I enjoyed this Mystery/ Thriller (not as much as Michaelides’ previous release The Silent Patient) and would recommend it.

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio via NetGalley for the early listening copy of The Maidens! So excited to have had the chance to listen to this! All opinions are mine alone

About the narrators: this was great to listen to, and hard to stop. The male’s accent didn’t seem to make sense for where the character originated from, but the female has an excellent voice. She is very articulate and easy to listen to. I could always tell who was speaking and her differing voices were consistent and on-point.

I really like Michaelides’ writing style, he offers vibrant descriptions of scenery and architecture and I feel like I can really picture things as they happen. I also especially enjoy how the suspenseful, dark, academic atmosphere permeates almost every scene of the book so that I never forget I’m reading a suspenseful, psychological thriller.

There is some interesting psychology in the book too. It did a lot to redeem group therapy in my mind. I read a particularly terrible book on it earlier in the year but Mariana, a group therapist, explains how group actually works and I feel like I got a decent feel for how it is expected to work. Theo (anyone remember the psychiatrist from The Silent Patient?) had a cameo in the book as well which was kind of cool to see. So the book looks at both individual issues and group mechanics when dealing with mental trauma.

Mariana and Fosca were both complicated, multilayered characters. You’ll have to read to find out how so. I loved the Greek influence, how much psychology and Greek tragedy, mythology, and poetry were included in the pages. My biggest issue was the reveal – like – really? It didn’t cause me to hate the book but it was a HUGE leap for me to make mentally, which is what I guess makes a psychological thriller…..good.

There was just the TINIEST touch of magical realism.

My only overall issue was that every single male character was creepy as hell, which kind of detracted because I don’t think every single person needs to be creepy or bad. All of the women were pretty basic.

Overall – totally recommend for fans of psychological thrillers, dark academia, and Greek inspired writing!

https://www.instagram.com/p/COtiMF2LK4l/

https://onereadingnurse.com/2021/05/17/the-maidens-arc-early-audiobook-by-alex-michaelides/

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Alex Michaelides’ first novel The Silent Patient was a New York Times bestseller when it released in 2019. I enjoyed it as you can see here in my REVIEW, but it was no Verity and it’s not a book I recommend very often. However, the premise of his sophomore novel The Maiden’s is completely alluring and I was so excited when Celadon reached out with the offer to read an advanced copy.

In The Maidens, raised in Greece and now working in London, Mariana is a group therapist who is struggling after the death of her husband Sebastian. His untimely death while on vacation to one of the Greece Isles, leaves Mariana wondering if she has offended Persephone some how. When Zoe, her niece, calls after the murder of her roommate, Marina is off to Cambridge to console her. While there Mariana begins to investigate the murder herself and stumbles upon a group of students known as The Maidens. The Maidens, all of whom are wealthy young women, are a young male professors ‘chosen students’ and he treats them as such. As a group therapist, Mariana finds the strange hold this professor has over these students to be suspicious and dives into unraveling who this professor really is.

Let me start by saying that this is a slow burn thriller. I really enjoy slow burns, I mean Jane Harper is the queen of slow burn stories and I adore her writing. But generally speaking the best slow burn stories have quite a bit of character development and really bring the suspense. The Maidens has neither of these things. The characters all fell a bit flat for me with little depth and honestly none of them are very likable. I actually become pretty annoyed with our main character Mariana, and wished she’d just leave it to the police to solve. There were also a few times I felt bored with the story just waiting for something to happen. When things finally started to happen it was all jumbled together and felt rushed.

In terms of the plot it’s definitely interesting but my biggest compliant is an over usage of red herrings. Everything and everyone was one which made the impact they had on the story weaker. I won’t say I saw the ending coming but I had my suspicions. While not necessarily predictable, the story never really ‘WOWed’.

I will say that as a lover of all things Greek Mythology, I did enjoy all of the Greek references to mythology and literature. Did it get a little ‘in the weeds’ a bit, yes, but overall I liked the added references in the story.

There are definitely a couple of references to The Silent Patient and based on those this book takes place in the same universe but earlier time frame wise. I actually really like how Michaelides tied the two together, and makes me curious to see how a third book would tie in.

Michaelides’ second novel is another three star for me. While it’s a decent read, the pacing was too slow for me with not enough build up. The ending felt rushed and while I don’t regret reading it, it won’t be high on my recommendation list. I’d say if you read alot of thrillers this one may not rate for you but if you only dabble in them, you’ll probably enjoy this one.



The Maidens comes out June 15 2021. Huge thank you to Celadon Books for my advanced copy for my honest review. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof_books.

I would like to thank the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free e-audio ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

I was fortunate enough to win an e-audio ARC for the author's last book, and I was very excited for the book, with all the hype, but didn't really love it. I was going to pass on this one, but I kept hearing so much about it, that it was so much more developed than the last book, the twists and turns, the well developed characters, the Greek influences. So I decided to try it after all. And ... it was just ok. There were parts that picked up in the story, where I wanted to keep reading - or listening - but overall, I just didn't care about any of it. The main character, Mariana, is SO wandering with her thoughts - this or that? That or this? Or maybe something else? - plus her constant musings about her late husband - it was annoying! But the time we got around to a murder, I was already loosing interest.

And this is an audiobook, so let's talk about the narrator - whose name I cannot find listed anywhere at all. I looked, because I wanted to make a note to AVOID this narrator at all costs! Her pronunciation was terrible, and her accent is SO BRITISH I kept forgetting it was supposed to have anything to do with Greece. The accent is so lisping, I felt like I was listening to a snake rather than a professional narrator. All around, this was a HUGE disappointment to me.

I was excited to listen to this book after loving the Silent Patient however, I was a little disappointed. It started off strong but about midway I caught my mind wandering while I listened to it. I hate giving up on a book so I finished it and will actually listen to it again at a later date. I just feel like I might have missed something. I have pre-ordered the hard copy for my library and will recommend it to my patrons who like this genre.

Having read the physical copy, I wanted to give the audio a shot to see how the narrator fared and the narrator fits the story perfect. I always feel that Alex's books sounds great in spoken form, and THE MAIDENS does not disappoint.

Thank you for the e-arc!

Alex Michaelides is back with The Maidens where dark academia meets greek tragedy, sign me up! Mariana travels to Cambridge University to check on her niece, Zoe, when one by one girls are murdered. All clues point to Edward Fosca a professor and founder of a group ‘The Maidens’ that all victims belong to. Still navigating the loss of her husband, Mariana’s perspective is somewhat muddied as she begins to help investigate in her role as a therapist. Could she be misjudging the professor?
Alex Michaelides writing is lyrical, almost hypnotic. It’s at odds with the unsettling subject matter at times, keeping us uncomfortable, off kilter. This is extremely effective. The plot however is full holes, misdirection, a round robin of cat and mouse, and mouse, but maybe another cat? It feel needless complicated.
The audiobook elevates the story entirely and is my recommendation one hundred percent. Voice actors Louise Brealey (The Silent Patent), and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith are outstanding and cast extremely well here. Chapters are narrated very sporadically by Holdbrook-Smith, our unnamed villain. His voice is dark, extremely disturbing, but like a train wreck we just can’t look away. Since his voice is used so sparingly we don’t know when it’s coming it’s more suspenseful. Louis Brealey is extremely adaptive at portraying the wide variety of other characters, their emotions, and nuances.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy and the opportunity to review The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. All opinions are my own.

Can we ever really fully understand the human psyche? This is a question that will plague the heroine of this thrilling novel The Maidens by Alex Michaelides.  

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who is still mourning the death of her late husband. Her niece who attends Cambridge University tells her she believes her professor, Edward Fosca, a handsome, charming and Svengali type of man, murdered her best friend and fellow student.  After watching a news report of the girl's death, she drops everything to go to Cambridge to be with her Niece. Mariana is convinced that in spite of Edward Fosca's "flimsy" alibi, he murdered the girl and she is bound and determined to prove it.  What she finds out puts her straight in the path of danger and will irreparably change her life forever.  

I loved this book so much!  It had me on the edge of my seat trying to guess who the villain was to the very end. That is the mark of a great thriller!  It keeps you in suspense and creates the right pace for all of the tension to unfold.  If this book was a movie (and I think it should be) I would have been scared witless at times watching Mariana dive headlong into danger without a thought for her safety.  You feel so much empathy for her and all that she has endured in her life when the layers of the story start to unfold.  I listened to the audiobook and the narration was fantastic. I was so enthralled listening to this spinetingling story that I didn't want it to end.  

Thank you so much @Netgalley & @MacMillan.audio for providing me this ALC.

The Maidens takes place primarily at Cambridge, which was one of the main reasons why I requested it, along with the fact that it takes place on a college campus. While the mystery was strong enough to keep me listening, I figured out the “twist” early on, and I didn’t care for many of the characters. This will not be a memorable listen for me. The narrators are excellent, but the story was just mediocre.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Another winner from the author of The Silent Patient.

This novel focuses on group therapist and recent widow Mariana, who is called in to help her niece when her best friend is killed at college. Set in Cambridge, the city almost becomes a secondary character, and the dramatic reading of the audio book contributes to the suspenseful feel as still grieving Mariana searches for a killer with little help from the police.

The book touches on many classic works and myths, adding to my enjoyment. Overall, Michaelides does a great job setting a creepy, suspenseful tone and sustaining it throughout the book. He is quickly becoming a favorite author.

Both audio readers did a great job.

Absolutely full transparency here, I loathed The Silent Patient. With this disclaimer, I wanted to read The Maidens and give this author another chance. The Maidens is a bit of a slow burn, dark academia thriller. I found Mariana a frustrating character to read. Everyone around her is suspicious from the beginning, and Mariana is paranoid. The hyper-focus and blatant evidence planting are clear, this book is heavy with red herrings.
The writing was fine, but the characters were flat. unsure if this was a nod to the case in the Silent Patient, or if the author fails to wrap crimes up in any other. Spoiler here: sending every woman to a mental health facility because she’s decided to silence herself is boring. That’s it. I wanted to genuinely enjoy this, and went in with high hopes. I should have known better, knowing I don’t enjoy this author’s plots.
Full review will be July 30th, 2021

3.5 ⭐

This book follows Mariana, a group therapist who is dealing with the recent death of her husband when she receives a phone call from her niece that a body has been found on her campus. Mariana goes to see if her niece is ok and she ends up getting entangled with the murder investigation.

Characters
- there was a great character background depth which was really helpful when getting into how the main character thought
- I loved the way a character from The Silent Patient was tied into the story (no, you do not need to read The Silent Patient before reading this book)

Plot
- Michaelides does such a good job at redirecting the reader
- I thought that someone else was the murder besides the main characters suspect, but I was completely wrong
- I thought that Henry was a pointless character/plot line
- I was surprised by the twist. However, I didn't like the twist (that's just a personal preference)
- Overall this story didn't live up to The Silent Patient; I did expect more

Writing
- Very accessible and immersive
- I loved all of the Greek Mythology references, but it did get a bit repetitive at some points
- very good at hiding the reveal at the end

I received an advanced audiobook from Macmillian Audio via NetGalley. The Maidens will be published on June 15, 2021.