The Maidens by Alex Michaelides is about Mariana Andros, a therapist who has become fixated on a professor, Edward Fosca, who she believes is a murderer. He is the group head of The Maidens, a young group of women who attend his Greek mythology classes. Zoe, her niece, calls when one member is found murdered in Cambridge.
Mariana is not untroubled herself. Working her way through grief at the sudden death of her husband, Sebastian, she is concerned about her grief and one of her patients, Henry, who has an unsettling obsession with her. Then another body is found and Mariana must deal with he niece, her concerns about Edward, a you man named Fred who has taken an interest in her, and the murders that unsettle.
I read about halfway through this book and almost did not finish it. It was pretentious and most of the characters were not interesting, especially Mariana. The grief was overwhelming, not in an I feel bad for her way but more in a can she stop being so stupid way. It was not written well. I felt like the author wanted me to feel bad for her but I couldn't when she was ignoring the world she kept trying to live in. She was often preoccupied and boring, which made me preoccupied and bored. I would have liked more about their relationship for the end of the book to be more poignant.
The most interesting character in the book was Henry, one of Mariana's patients, and he was not developed in a way he could have been. He was the type of character that someone could feel something for, and he was the type of character that some would want to root for to get healthy. Instead, he was made into a character that had no point in the story. He was there to threaten the main character, but there was no reason for it. It felt obviously like a misdirection. Again, this was one of the things that made me feel like the author thought he was "getting something over" on me.
While the ending was a surprise and quite interesting, I needed would have liked more from that as well. I would have liked to know more of how and why things started between the murderer and their companion. I would have liked to know why things happened the way they did. I would have liked to know more about Sebastian's death and his life with Mariana. I would have liked so much more. The problem was that there were so many "red herrings" in this book that it felt overloaded when it didn't need to.
All of that being said, I did like it. And honestly, I liked it much more than I liked The Silent Patient. That was another book by this author that took me forever to read and that I almost gave up on. Now that I have given the author multiple reads, I don't think I will read any more books from them. I don't think I have the stamina, and I while the endings of both books were good, I would have appreciated less pretentiousness and less filler.
Mariana is not untroubled herself. Working her way through grief at the sudden death of her husband, Sebastian, she is concerned about her grief and one of her patients, Henry, who has an unsettling obsession with her. Then another body is found and Mariana must deal with he niece, her concerns about Edward, a you man named Fred who has taken an interest in her, and the murders that unsettle.
I read about halfway through this book and almost did not finish it. It was pretentious and most of the characters were not interesting, especially Mariana. The grief was overwhelming, not in an I feel bad for her way but more in a can she stop being so stupid way. It was not written well. I felt like the author wanted me to feel bad for her but I couldn't when she was ignoring the world she kept trying to live in. She was often preoccupied and boring, which made me preoccupied and bored. I would have liked more about their relationship for the end of the book to be more poignant.
The most interesting character in the book was Henry, one of Mariana's patients, and he was not developed in a way he could have been. He was the type of character that someone could feel something for, and he was the type of character that some would want to root for to get healthy. Instead, he was made into a character that had no point in the story. He was there to threaten the main character, but there was no reason for it. It felt obviously like a misdirection. Again, this was one of the things that made me feel like the author thought he was "getting something over" on me.
While the ending was a surprise and quite interesting, I needed would have liked more from that as well. I would have liked to know more of how and why things started between the murderer and their companion. I would have liked to know why things happened the way they did. I would have liked to know more about Sebastian's death and his life with Mariana. I would have liked so much more. The problem was that there were so many "red herrings" in this book that it felt overloaded when it didn't need to.
All of that being said, I did like it. And honestly, I liked it much more than I liked The Silent Patient. That was another book by this author that took me forever to read and that I almost gave up on. Now that I have given the author multiple reads, I don't think I will read any more books from them. I don't think I have the stamina, and I while the endings of both books were good, I would have appreciated less pretentiousness and less filler.
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