Member Reviews
Naomi A, Reviewer
I really wanted to love this book, based on the premise, and I did, at first.
Lilith, the survivor of an acid attack 25 years ago, is gearing up for a gardening competition when the father of her ex fiance shows up at her house to let her know he won't be able to keep paying her allowance-- the settlement they reached after the acid attack on his property. When he shows up dead in her backyard maze the next morning, the police show up to question Lilith. A few days later, the woman who attacked her shows up dead, as well. Meanwhile, her ex fiance has returned, asking her to give him another chance, which her bodyguard, Dillan (whom she has feelings for) dissuades her from. Along with the dead body, there's another mystery: someone has stolen Lilith's prize roses, which jeopardizes her chances in the competition.
Now, for the good: I liked that the main character of Mazed was in her 50s (we could always use more romantic protagonists older than their 30s), and the plot itself was decent. The relationship between Lilith and Dillan (the love interest and Lilith's bodyguard-slash-garden helper) was also nice.
That being said, there's a lot of mishandling of people's identities-- pretty much everything regarding a trans character; a vaguely uncomfortable handling of race; the way Lilith talks about other survivors of acid attacks (constantly talking about how they're disfigured or grotesque, and warning other people away from them in a way that reads as her protection the delicate sensibilities of the non-disabled people, rather than it coming from a place of concern for the disabled people)... the list goes on. It turns out that the killer (and the woman who attacked her with acid) have personality disorders, which also wasn't handled well-- though the author put in a comment about not villainizing people with personality disorders, she did exactly that by including two people with those disorders, and having them be a serial killer and someone who attacked another person with acid.
In fact, I had enough of a problem with how so many identities were otherized (and the extent to which they were) that I realized about 2/3 of the way through that I didn't even care about who the murderer was or who stole her flowers, which, considering it's a mystery, made this book unsalvageable for me.
