Holy moly what an incredible psychological thriller/detective story/murder mystery that had me enthralled from the start! The Maidens was full of “red herrings” and I honestly suspected everyone immediately, because the author made everyone seems so suspicious and they all seemingly had something to hide.
Our story centers around Mariana, who is a group psychotherapist who seems to have trouble setting boundaries for her patients. One of her patients, Henry, seems obsessive and has been stalking her.
Mariana is a grieving widow, having recently lost her beloved husband, Sebastian in a tragic drowning accident. However, a call for help from her niece , Zoe, brings a sense a purpose back to Mariana and she rushes to Cambridge University.
Zoe’s dear friend has been murdered and while Mariana tries to be supportive, she suspects a popular professor with his secret society of female students of being connected to the crime. Zoe seems to know a lot more than she will admit and soon Mariana is doing her own investigating and getting herself into some possibly dangerous situations.
I found myself really feeling for Mariana. She was obviously still really damaged from the loss of her husband and seemed to be in a dreamlike state in parts of the story. She really wanted to do the right thing by way of Zoe and you were really rooting for her even when her choices weren’t the smartest!
I never would have guessed the killer or where the ending was heading and that’s the way I love thrillers to end! I hope that there is more to come with this story; as pieces of the Silent Patient are entertwined with this one; a third book would be awesome!
Many thanks to Netgalley and MacMillian Audio for the ARC of The Maidens!

As I was with The Silent Patient, I finished this book shocked. I absolutely did not see that ending coming. I also loved all the little Silent Patient Easter eggs. It was kind of eery and made this book even more dark. I really enjoyed it.

I was unable to download this book from NetGalley, by no fault of my own. But I did read it on my own. I liked this book and thought it was well done with some great twists. It was a tad overhyped but I still think it is worth the time.

Mariana Andros goes to Cambridge to be with her niece Zoe when Zoe's friend is found murdered. A therapist, Mariana worries about Zoe's mental health after the death. They are both still grieving the recent death of Mariana's husband. Simon and Mariana raised Zoe after the death of her parents in an accident. Zoe has more experience with loss than most her age and Mariana worries that this death may be more than Zoe can handle.
Zoe's friend is just the first. There is a group of young women who flock around a charismatic professor, Edward Fosca. After observing him, Mariana is convinced he is the murderer and sets out to prove it. The police are not convinced, viewing Mariana as an amateur who doesn't have any proof to back up her theories. They are right but Mariana is convinced her training has given her the ability to diagnose Fosca as a psychopath. As the murders continue, can Mariana get the proof she needs?

This is Alex Micahelides' second novel. Like his successful first novel, The Patient, it is based in the world of psychological practice. As Mariana attempts to prove her theory, she finds that she has put herself in danger, drawing attention from the killer. I'm not sure that universities would allow the kind of female adulation of a male professor that the book documents or that the police would give Mariana even the amount of attention she gets in the book for her theories. Those two elements don't ring true for me but work in the book to build tension. This book is recommended for thriller readers.

When I saw that Alex Michaelides was coming out with a new book, I knew that I had to get my hands on it immediately. The Silent Patient is one of my favorite suspense novels and I had slowly been biding my time until the author made another release.

I initially requested this book via audio and found that I could not get into the narration. I then waited for the book to be published so I could pick up a paper copy. While I had an easier time once I had a physical copy in hand due to the short chapters and story arc, I just found myself not really engrossed in these characters lives. I thought it to be extremely odd that Mariana had so many men swooning at her feet that it felt really unbelievable for most of the story. I did appreciate the twist at the end, but it did seem a bit rushed and took me out of the entire story to feel like I was reading two different books. The writing structure also felt disjointed from his first novel.

It was explained in the author’s note that he had a whole team behind him during this book and that his first book was written solely by himself. If that’s the case, I would say to let him “do his thing” with books in the future.

2.5 stars

I appreciate NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me the opportunity to read an early release copy of this book. I will be looking out for the authors next novel.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for providing me with an audiobook of The Maidens in exchange for an honest review!


2.5 rounded up!

This review is going to be short because I. have. no. opinions. on. this. bland. book. It was extremely mediocre & I just really didn't care about it.

Is it good? No.
Is it bad? Also no.

I will say that I did, at least, enjoy the aesthetic. Love the concept of secret societies & the mood of dark academies.

OH, also, I've never read The Silent Patient but there's a nod at it & I got the reference and I AM VERY PROUD OF ME.

Narration/Audiobook: What did shine in my experience with The Maidens is the narration of the audiobook. Especially the male's voice who narrates thoughts from the villain in this story. Whenever his voice popped up, I did feel genuinely creeped out.

Big thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Full transparency right off the top, I did not enjoy this book. I found the audiobook incredibly difficult to listen to because of the mood that the narrator fell into for reading. The pacing suffered because of the atmosphere that the narrator was trying to build. I would suggest not listening to the audiobook if you are able and picking up a physical copy.

The book itself was completely fine. I liked the premise and it's clear that this author has strong writing skills and a clear picture of the world in their head. All of the twists came at just the right time and overall the book gave a strong effort as a dark academia thriller.

I would like to read more from this author, I might be the last person alive who hasn't read The Silent Patient, but I won't be trying another audiobook again with this author.

I think I have an unfavorable opinion here that I enjoyed the maidens more than his first book the silent patient. I never saw the ending coming and love how it tied in the academic setting with some mythology. Thank you for the advanced reader/ listen of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to net galley for a review.

This novel was very fast-paced. I liked the quick pacing of the shorter chapters. The dual narrators were compelling and added a lot of suspense in their narration as the plot unfolded. Mariana as the protagonist was sympathetic in her exploration of grief but as the novel progressed I began to find myself annoyed with some of the choices she was making. The ending felt like a let down and I would've liked to see a more sensitive exploration of some of the issues that were brought forward by the final twist.

This wasn't it. It held a lot of promise--if you like dark academia, this is pretty textbook--but the ending left me annoyed, and the more I thought about it, the more annoyed I became, and it was heartening to finally read reviews and find I'm not alone. This was also my first audiobook experience which I think did some work to "trick" me, re: enjoyment--it's a really well done audiobook, but man seeing some of the lines quoted in reviews, seeing them written out... I'm like "holy shit." Louise Brealy did such a good job I forgave a lot of bad dialogue. And I thought perhaps audiobooks just really weren't the medium for me b/c I kept missing things and feeling like several characters were flat, but maybe it was just the book.

So for me the biggest thing: the twist, of course. It's actually pretty cool... and completely bungled. I did go back immediately to re-listen to some key passages about those characters, to see what clues I missed... yeah I didn't miss clues lol. Not as they relate to characterization/what we're offered. The book has a fundamental flaw: it is literally impossible to guess the "twist" based on organic foreshadowing (where the characters are written consistent to what the twist reveals about them), but VERY easy to guess the twist based on... everything else. And I did! Because thematically it was just so obvious, aspects of the "classical" parts of the dark academia SO heavy handed that the ONLY explanation had to be the eventual ending. Because why else include all that literary/thematic navel gazing unless X was the solution? It rendered every red herring moot and pretty stupid, especially in hindsight. I never believed any of the other "suspects" could have done it because it was just too "easy" for it to be any of them.

Mariana also suffers from SERIOUS "stupid heroine syndrome," or at least that's how I felt reading--having now read other reviews, they make a good point. It's partly narrative shortcuts (really stretching any believability, re: that Mariana could insert herself into this investigation the way she did), and also likely a male author who really didn't think through the logic once or twice. I'm hesitant to go to that well immediately and YET. I was just SCREAMING the whole time w/ the dinner with Fosca WHY IS SHE SO STUPID WHY WOULD YOU GO TO A PRIVATE DINNER WITH A PSYCHOPATH YOU THINK IS A MURDERER. Also the alarm bells with... every other male character going ignored. It was just so incredibly stupid.

And then. Well, Mariana is the world's worst psychologist, isn't she? Except when she's not? [see my Goodreads review for a full spoiler discussion of the twist]

This one just had so much potential? The atmosphere was great, and some of the observations about grief were spot-on. I like the idea of the twist--it hits on thriller tropes I love--but the issue for me is execution of them (and the choices made in order to hide said twists). It's just no fun if you just smack me in the face with BIG TWIST/TROPES but the previous 90% of the book didn't offer me the FUN parts of those tropes, which is the foreshadowing! The pathology! And because I still had a good time reading most of this, it's a 3 for me, but the execution of the twist and issues that are easier to see in hindsight keep it from being a homerun read for me.

The Maidens

3.5 - rounded down to a 3 because it needs to be.

I received an audiobook arc. I review it voluntarily.

I have not read The Silent Patient and I will say I rate the story two stars. Many aspects were very unbelievable or cheesy. Frustrating even.

Since this is an audiobook review I must say, the narrators were great - the female voice was amazing. She excelled with various ages, tones, region dialect, lots of individual traits, each character was unique.

The male voice super creepy - menacing

Five stars for the voice narration.

I wond_Up only listening to part of the audio and then just reading the physical copy. Nothing was wrong with the audio. I just wanted to listen to music while reading the book. I did love what I did listen to.
In regards for the story I thought it was pretty good, I just preferred The Silent Patient by this author more. I didn't really care for how the book ended. But I did love the world.

I went into this book thinking it was going to be a retread of the classic campus novel involving a cloister of charismatic professors, a group of privileged, if troubled and selfish, students studying the classics, and at least one murder to solve. In other words, the typical tragedy. All those elements are in The Maidens, but it is so much more. I love the way Michaelides weaves just the right amount of literature, art, and references to Greek tragedies into this murder mystery. Add a protagonist, Mariana, who grew up in Greece and is a psychologist dealing with her own tragic loss and grief returning to her alma mater to help her niece through the aftermath of a campus murder, and you have a great story. There were plenty of red herrings that kept me second guessing my own conclusions as to the murderer. This was well-paced and kept me engrossed in the story from page one. The Maidens is a fun read and doesn't feel as heavy as many tragedies tend to do. I haven't yet read the author's debut novel, The Silent Patient, but you can bet I will after reading The Maidens.

I listened to an ALC provided by Net Galley and Macmillan Audio. The story translates to an audio format well, and the narrator is excellent. My opinions are my own.

When I first saw this cover, I knew I had to read this book no matter what the story was. It screamed mythology to me but sadly, the mythology theme was almost non-existent. The Maidens is actually a Mystery/Thriller by the author of The Silent Patient (which I have not read just yet). Writing this short review ten days after reading/listening to it, I can say that this book didn't have a huge impact on me as I already had to think about it for a minute or two to remember what actually happened and who "did it". It wasn't bad by all means, but this was a bit of a flop for me. However, you might like it more than I did.

(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

Mariana is a talented group therapist but has some issues of her own. She is mourning the death of her husband Sebastian. This does not stop her from going to Cambridge when her niece's friend is found murdered. Mariana immediately suspects that something sinister is going on at the university and she is almost certain that Edward Fosca, a popular Greek Tragedies professor is behind it. He seems oddly obsessed with the story of Persephone, the maiden doomed to return to the underworld every winter. Fosca is especially beloved by a secret society of his female students who call themselves The Maidens. The murder victim was one of these Maidens. There are also facts about how the victim was murdered that relate to the Tragedies.

I seem to be reading a lot of books set on college or boarding school campuses this year AND also books related to Greek Mythology and this novel falls into both of these categories. Growing up, I had a strange affection for Greek myths so books like this call to me with their siren song. :). I read Michaelides popular novel The Silent Patient in the past couple of years and found that one also tied into Greek lore (Euripides). Overall, I found The Maidens to be a bit of a slow burn and it took a bit too long for me to get into it, so I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I'd hoped I would. I had a hard time connecting with Mariana as a protagonist though, which is probably why it didn't 100% click for me. It was a fun atmospheric, literary mystery though. I loved all the references to Greek mythology. I did a project on Persephone once in school so I have a certain fondness for her story.

I listened to this on audio and it was an entertaining listen. It was great to listen to while doing busy work and chores around the house.

3.5 stars.

What to listen to while reading...
A playlist curated by the author: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4es...

🔪Did Alex Michaelides impress me again? yes. yes he did...

🔪Alex did it again with his new book! I absolutely loved every moment of it. I started this book last month but only got about 50 pages in. I seriously put it down because the beginning was slow and I was so nervous I wasn’t going to like this, dang was I wrong... definitely push through.

🔪I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as The Silent Patient, but goodness this is an amazing book. I loved that this story took place at a university and loved the thrills this story threw.

🔪My jaws dropped so many times throughout the book, especially the ending!! Yet again he wrote a shocking ending! I did not see that coming neither.

🔪I absolutely love Michaelides writing style and have become a fan of his books!! I’m so excited for his next book and will be waiting patiently (not).

https://www.instagram.com/p/CO9Mjrer__9/?utm_medium=copy_link

Alex Michaelides, author of the breakout THE SILENT PATIENT, returns with a gothic murder-mystery, rife with dark secrets aplenty.

As in THE SILENT PATIENT, Michaelides features a psychotherapist as its central character. This time it’s 36-year-old widow Mariana Andros, who visits niece Zoe on her Cambridge University campus and becomes embroiled in the case of a murdered student.

The more she digs, and the more bodies are found, the more she’s certain Professor Edward Fosca—Greek tragedy professor—is the culprit. There’s a ritualistic nature to the murders with cryptic calling cards left as clues, and moreover, the victims were all part of a secret group forged by Fosca: The Maidens, named in reference to the cult of Eleusis in ancient Greece. But what did the Eleusinian Mysteries, and Persephone and Demeter, have to do with the killings of these young girls on the Cambridge campus?

Mariana obsessively searches for evidence as the stakes get even higher. Before the end, Mariana herself with be in the line of fire with a shocking culmination I didn’t see coming.

Michaelides weaves an intricate mystery elevated by Greek mythology references and thrumming with a foreboding feel that kept me rapt. While the book felt a little slower paced that THE SILENT PATIENT, I loved the immersiveness and mythological aspects of the novel.

Clever and sinister, THE MAIDENS is a solid atmospheric thriller perfect for poolside reading.

After The Silent Patient, this book had so much hype. I wanted to like it, but I think it was built up way too much. I will read other books by the author in the future, but I will be more leery of them.

I enjoyed the Silent Patient and was looking forward to seeing what the author could do with a greek tragedy however this book was so boring, slow and uninteresting.

The narration was fine but I was happy when it finally ended.

Mariana, a troubled group therapist, goes to Cambridge after a call from niece regarding the death of her dear friend. Mariana begins to try to figure how and why the girl has been murdered. The dead girl was a member of the Maidens which is secret group that draws on Greek mythology.
This book has many twists and turns and will keep you guessing until the end.