Wowzers. I loved The Silent Patient, which had a killer (ha!) twist, so I was really anxious to get my hands on his second book. It’s so good. Mindbendy and provocative and full of twists and turns. The main character being a psychotherapist is brilliant, there’s so much introspection in the narrative and exploration of inner thought that adds a great element to the story.

The murder mystery is really well done, with lots of red herrings and misdirection. And there’s a great tie in with The Silent Patient that I appreciated.

Long story short- if you like crazy murder mysteries set on a college campus involving a small privileged group of students and a cult figure type Antiquities teacher, this is the book for you.

Since I listened to the audiobook, I’ll also add that the narration was top notch.

2.5 stars rounded to 3. The Maidens was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021, as The Silent Patient is one of my favorite books. This book has, so far, been the most disappointed I’ve been in a book this year. It was SO FREAKING SLOW!!! So slow. I found the whole story to be gimmicky and predictable (I guessed the final reveal, which NEVER happens), and just overall wasn’t impressed or attached to any of the characters. Hopefully Michaelides isn’t a one hit wonder.

I was very excited to listen to this book, since The Silent Patient was one of my favorite reads of 2019. Unfortunately, this one fell a little flat in comparison.

First of all, the plot seemed a little cliche and overworked. The whole 'secret society' at a prestigious university plot has been thoroughly worked over and seems a bit stale at this point. But then I also felt like the author shied away from embracing this plotline completely. And the wishy-washiness doesn't help any.

My other complaint is how rushed the plot felt at some points, especially the ending. I would have preferred fewer scenes with unimportant characters earlier in the novel in order to fully flesh out the ending.

With all of that said, I have definitely read much worse thrillers. The book flows well enough, and there is a decent amount of suspense and intrigue. The narration also shines, and helps to move the novel along. You could do worse than to read it.

Michaelides definitely knows how to write thrillers. I was terribly excited to get an audiobook ARC since I loved The Silent Patient so much. I feel that I can't say much ... almost anything could be a thriller. Towards the end, there was one thing about the letter that bugged me ... Some of the language used there is used elsewhere and that was hard to suspend this belief for, but otherwise this is a great thriller.

I'd recommend this to anyone who loves a good psychological thriller. A big thanks to the author, the publisher, and net galley for a copy of this ARC.

Easily The Maidens is one of the biggest books of the summer.

Trying to gather my thoughts here. I’ve read the reviews for The Maidens before reading the book itself. I never do this, because doing so frequently ruins how I will go into the book. I’ve seen what people have been saying, and they haven’t been kind.

Lucky for me, I am auto approved through Macmillan Audio on Netgalley, and as soon as I realized this book was available to listen, I snatched it up.

Look, maybe I’m not a critic. It’s very rare that I’ll say I hated something. I love to read. I love stories that take me away. I especially love Greek mythology. So... I don’t know what you guys are talking about when you say this was a flop, because I loved it. I didn’t see flaws with Mariana like most of these reviewers said they saw. I loved her character and her open mindedness.

I especially loved this narrator. Even as I write this, I’m reading my own words in her voice. It was pure honey.

That said, I do see that the twist with this book was glaringly obvious, so unlike its predecessor, The Silent Patient. But it was still good! It still made me gasp. I think it’s the way Alex Michaelides writes. His way with words is truly brilliant, always interlacing teeny little hints and clues along the way.

Give into the hype and read this book as soon as you can get your hands on it, and decide for yourself if it’s worthy of all the buzz. I say so.

Rating: 5.5/10

Thanks to the publisher and author for an advance copy of The Maidens for review consideration. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions.

The Maidens was one of my most anticipated novels of 2021 after loving The Silent Patient SO MUCH OMG. Michaelides absolutely slayed with his debut (clearly, look at the sales, reviews, etc.) and with that, made me an insta-fan of his writing. Unfortunately for me, his sophomore novel never really glimpsed that debut crest and ended up as a middle-of-the-road thriller.

The voice is there, his prose is there, and the premise is there. What it lacked, for me, was believable execution and characters with whom I cared about. Mariana, our main protagonist, has all of these qualities that give you almost a requirement to feel for her, but it never really clicked for me. Don’t get me wrong, her drive and motivation to get to the bottom of things is perfectly understandable, but being absolutely blind to “the reveal” was sort of a… seriously?

As far as the other characters, the were quite bland and very surface level, especially “The Maidens”. I found them rather, well, annoying and unnecessary but they were unfortunately a requirement for tricksies. Sure, they popped up randomly to misdirect, but besides being “the mean girls’ club”, they didn’t add much to the story for me. The men all just turned out to be horny creeps which was a bit… off-putting.

I think having just about every character in a story be a potential suspect hinders more than helps, because when the final reveal happens, there isn’t much of a mic-drop moment; it feels like more of dart throw. I also feel like it was a bit rushed over the course of the last few chapters, and that is while also stating that the book had quite a quick pace to begin with.

Look, I did enjoy this book for the most part and the eventual reveal was decent though not farfetched. I really enjoyed Michaelides’ setting and atmosphere, his writing style with quick punchy chapters, and the mixture of thriller with Greek tragedy. I also have to say that Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Louise Brealey did a wonderful job lending their voices to the audiobook. While Holdbrook-Smith had very few lines, the tone with which he voiced those segments was perfect and I could listen to Brealey narrate all the day long.

The Maidens is a dark academia story that follows Mariana, a grieving widow and group psychotherapist. While Mariana is coping with life after her husband's death, she receives a call from her niece, Zoe, at Cambridge University. Zoe is frantic as she explains that her friend has been murdered. When Mariana arrives on campus, she starts piecing together the murder and grows increasingly suspicious of a professor at the University who is known for his popularity among the young female students and his curious obsession with Greek tragedy.

This novel was a slow burn, full of rich atmosphere from start to finish. Each character seems capable of bad deeds and Michaelides truly makes it impossible to pin down our murderer through the end. There was also a nod to Michaelides' previous novel, The Silent Patient, which I think readers will enjoy.

Unfortunately, this book was just too slow building for my personal taste. While it is critical to the atmosphere of this novel, I personally enjoy a more fast paced, heart throbbing thriller. This costs the book stars for me but I think it is important to note that fans of slower, more atmospheric thrillers will likely devour this one! I also think that even though this releases in June, this will be a great read for early fall!

Okay this was so good! The writing pulled me in immediately and the plot kept me hooked. I also did not see the twist coming at all! I thought Mariana was realistically flawed and likeable enough. I desperately need to read his other book, The Silent Patient, ASAP. Also, the narrators were really good!

*Thank you for the opportunity to listen and review The Maidens!

This is the second book I’ve listened to by this author. I really enjoyed both the story and narrator. I will be purchasing the book to read. It was Fantastic!

I listened to this elegant, dark, and enthralling audiobook while often simultaneously reading along with the ebook. The audiobook with its splendid narration by Louise Brealey and Kobna Holdbrook- Smith, enhanced my reading pleasure. The book contains lovely prose and a stunning conclusion to its mystery and references Greek tragedy and poetry by Tennyson. It explores psychology and reveals how little the protagonist, psychotherapist Mariana, knows about the human mind. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this great listening experience. My full description and review is posted under my ebook edition. The author, Alex Michaelides, proves that he is a master of surprising and shocking twists. Highly recommended.

4.5 stars

I absolutely loved this book and after not being a big fan of The Silent Patient, I was hesitant about how this book would go and I was clearly wrong. This book was right up my alley with creepy vibes throughout and heavy on the Greek mythology. I loved it and the writing. Definitely recommend!

◘ A lot of misdirection seemed pointless and ineffective for the “big reveal”. And I personally didn’t even find any of the twists to be that exciting. ⁣
◘ I didn’t care for the ending whatsoever. Maybe because I didn’t like any of the characters. Not even the main one, Mariana. I just... didn’t. That simple. And it’s not like they were written to be unlikeable. [BTW Mariana you are a therapist, not a detective.]⁣
◘ Sorry not sorry, the Greek mythology and Tennyson references seemed to muddy up the story. I concentrated so much on those thinking they’d reveal something and it was for naught. ⁣
⁣
I’m keeping it at 3 stars even though it was more 2 stars. Basically because I really liked his writing style and I just can’t fault Alex too much because his debut novel kicked so much ass. But this was such a miss for me. I was bored almost the entire way and felt obligated to finish it just so see if it got any better. And it didn’t.

This is the second book that I have listened to by Alex Michaelides, and once again, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found it to be more interesting in general than The Silent Patient. This was probably because, once again, the author is focusing on psychotherapy, which is also my field, and I think that he has such a good grasp of the inner thoughts and struggles of a psychotherapist. He does seem to have a unique understanding of this field and once again, I found myself checking his background to see if he had ever worked in this field. To my surprise, he did not. He also weaves an interesting tale of mystery and family dynamics. My only complaint about the man character is her seemingly overdramatic focus on her dead husband. It is well explained, however, in that she had so few relationships with anyone, really until she met Sebastion. I appreciated the appearance of Theo, from The Silent Patient, in this book. The narrators, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Louise Brealey, did an amazing job of portraying the characters in the book. There is also a male narrator with a very deep and creepy voice that fits well for the male character, but I cannot find his name listed anywhere. I really found myself looking forward to listening and really curious as to who the murderer would turn out to be. At the last, I did figure it out, right before the author revealed the culprit, but that did not ruin the book for me. I would like to Thank Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to preview this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book had all of the dark academia tropes I love: Greek mythology and Greek philosophy references, a tightknit academic group, a slightly odd narrative, and of course, unexplained murder. This one was a bit different as it was told mostly through the point-of-view of Mariana Andros, a group therapist and former student of Cambridge University, which her niece that she partially raised and informally adopted with her late husband is currently attending.

When Mariana gets the call from her niece, Zoe, telling her that her friend has been brutally murdered and giving her information that leads her to Greek Tragedy professor, Edward Fosca, Mariana becomes determined to prove that Fosca is guilty. Edward Fosca is the leader of a small academic group that meets outside of class, a group entirely made up of female students, which he has dubbed The Maidens. The first victim of the murders is a member, and despite Fosca having an alibi, Mariana has no doubt that he is guilty. When a second victim is found to also be a member of The Maidens, Mariana only feels she has more reason to suspect him.

The narrative is compelling, deeply dark the whole way through. It felt very much like a psychological thriller especially as it was being told through the almost clinical but undoubtedly emotional perspective of Mariana, who is a psychotherapist. Darker and gripping (although admittedly at times hard to read) were the chapters told through the perspective of who we assume to be the girl's killer, whose perspective is similar to Mariana's in that it is also clinical, but lacks the empathy of Mariana, this narrator is clearly a cold person with a means to an end.

The ending was not something I expected on any level, which was incredibly satisfying. I had my suspicions about who was guilty and gripped onto little details that I thought proved myself and I ended up completely baffled. Most surprising was just how dark the twist ended up being, completely turning the entire narrative on its head and making me rethink everything. This was incredibly well-written and the story was executed to perfection.

The audiobook was great, I very much enjoyed both narrators, and the male narrator left me with chills after each chapter. Very compelling.

Tense, uncomfortable, suspenseful, compulsive. I could not put this book down over the course of two days. I carried it everywhere I went, hoping for the chance to read a few more pages. Every time I thought I had it figured out, something happened to make me change my mind. Bravo to Michaelides for spinning together this story incorporating Greek mythology into this stunning tale!

I read the Silent Patient and sadly I have the same feelings with The Maidens. I was able to figure out pretty much everything early on. Their was just this way that the author kept bringing up a couple of characters over and over again that just made things obvious. I didn’t hate this book, just like I didn’t hate The Silent Patient. I just wish I would have been guessing until the end. I will continue to read his books. They are very entertaining.

First of all, the narration of this audiobook is wonderful! Both narrators are excellent and get five stars in narration. I just wanted to start off with that since I was given the audiobook version.

The story however is only 3 stars. I was expecting a lot following "The Silent Patient", and unfortunately this book did not match up to that.one. It was still a good read, but it wasn't nearly as intriguing. I wish there had been more of the backstory of Marianne to really bring the pieces all together at the end. It just felt like something was missing. I think the author writes well and keeps the story moving, I just wasn't completely happy with how this one was resolved. Overall, definitely still an enjoyable book, just not as good as I had hoped it would be after the previous book.

The Maidens is a murder mystery mixed with Greek tragedy.

CW: grooming of a minor, brainwashing, suicidal ideations (mentioned), inappropriate sexual relationships mentioned (adult/underage child (also pedophilia?) as well as teacher/student)

It took me awhile to get into this book. The beginning seemed to drag on which wasn't something . I felt as though Mariana was a little unbelievable in her sleuthing and the fact that she was adamant about who the killer was. The ending was suspenseful and possibly one you won't see coming because of the copious red herrings.

The Greek mythology was a fun addition and I felt like it added to the plot and wasn't just there as a device.

I read and listened to this book. I enjoyed the narrators, they fit the characters and the enunciation was clear and well paced.

An enjoyable narration of a well-written story. The characters were relatable and the writing excellent.

The Maidens was by far one of my most anticipated books of the year. Dark academia, Greek mythology, and a murder mystery? Sign me up! Unfortunately, this novel wasn’t the slam dunk I was expecting it to be.

Things I liked: The audiobook narration performed by Louise Brealey was well done, she has a British accent and her voice is soothing and drew me in, enticing me to keep listening. There are several chapters narrated by the unknown killer, performed by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, which were eerie and kept me guessing at his identity.

I was also intrigued by the story’s setting which takes place at Cambridge. The author expertly weaves an atmospheric narrative which made me feel as though I was at the college with these characters.

Unfortunately, there were several aspects of this book that I wasn’t a fan of. I understand that this is a mystery and the author is trying to confuse the reader but there were too many Red Herrings and unfinished plot points. To avoid spoilers, I won’t go into detail but there are two character storylines in particular that are so pointless, they could have been omitted from the novel altogether.

As for the main character, Mariana, she was a fine protagonist but I was bothered by how easy it was for her to insert herself into the police investigation of the murdered students. She’s a therapist but somehow this qualifies her to investigate and question possible suspects? I found this so implausible.

Although I didn’t enjoy this book, I’m still interested to read what this author writes next.

Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon Books for the advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.