I'm having a bit of trouble finding the words for this one. Just know that it comes with all the trigger warnings and is very gory and very disturbing. Extreme horror is usually not my thing but for some reason I actually quite like Maeve Fly. She is a Disney princess gone wrong; because where else would a psychopath work? There is a fair bit of dark humour and a lot of gruesomeness. It won't be for everyone but if you have the stomach, it is strangely mesmerizing; like an accident you can't look away from. The biggest horror of all is the mundane and dehumanizing nature of working for a paycheck, even at the happiest place on Earth. I actually found myself cheering for Maeve to not be caught while also hoping she would be stopped. Maeve Fly is a crazy, paradoxical, beautiful disaster.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group, Tor Nightfire for providing an ARC via Net Galley for review.

This was a lot, like a lot a a lot. I loved every single second of it. The synopsis is what immediately drew me in, wanting to get to reading as quickly as possible. I devoured this book. The writing and story pulls you in and doesn't let you go.

I know this book has been getting a lot of love, but this was a big miss for me.
I found the book extremely boring and I found Maeve to be a very bland and lacking main character. There’s a big focus on trivia and facts about LA, I’m sure a lot of people find that interesting, but I found it took me out of the story quite a bit.
The second half of the book takes a very odd turn. We finally get some gore in the last 20% of the book, but it felt too little too late.
I’m sure this book has its audience, but it’s not me.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

One thing you should know about me is that I am a horror genre newbie and while I enjoy the most of the horror sub genres, I abhor extreme horror and splatter punk. I unfortunately did not know this book was going to be either and it affected my reading experience a lot.

I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot! The dark comedy aspects really appealed to me, but it was in the second half that things got a little too gory and descriptive for it to be enjoyable for me. This was not my kind of horror novel but if you enjoy extreme horror and splatter punk, pick this one up!

American Horror Story meets Colleen Hoover in C.J. Leede's debut Maeve Fly. Maeve, an LA transplant, is something of an oddball with interests including body horror, and sexual depravity. However, underneath the bizarro fiction façade of this story, there is a love story--albeit an unconventional one. Definitely pick up this unique book if you're looking for something disturbing, gritty, and darkly humorous.

Rating: 3.75/5 ⭐
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This book was... Something. Something very weird. But in a pretty fascinating way. There are a lot of gory and very detailed, gruesome scenes which can be quite unsettling, but enjoyable if that's what you're looking for. A few things were just unnecessary or unrealistic in my opinion. (Specifically some of the fetishes depicted and things that happened towards the end when Maeve "spends a night out on the town".) There were a few times I just felt icky in my own skin and I loved it.
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However I was not a fan of Maeve herself. I like the premise of who she is but it didn't read that way for me. She came across as insufferable and "poor me" most of the time. The other characters (other than Maeve) lack any depth or personalities and were pretty unremarkable. The romantic relationship was toxic AF but it makes sense to the story so was kind of enjoyable.
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The ending pissed me off and part of me likes it but another part keeps saying "If you would've just said something this could've all been avoided"! It's so frustrating. Another thing I noticed was the constant repetition of one analogy in particular. At first it made sense and was interesting and then it just got annoying and lost all meaning to me.
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As a whole if you can stomach this book I would recommend it but only to the right person. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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***Trigger warnings include, but may not be limited to, drugs (including date rape drugs), violence, dismembering/disfiguring, body horror, torture and sexual content (including rape).***

Maeve Fly was a fast paced nightmare - but in such a great way. We follow Maeve, granddaughter of an Old Hollywood star, who also shares a few quirks her grandmother has. Now, she works at the Happiest Place on Earth as the Ice Princess by day while harboring dark fantasies over piña coladas by night. Until she can't only harbor them anymore.

This was fantastic, gory, sometimes surreal. An excellent read.

weird. weird and deranged and dark. one of the first heavy books i’ve read but i really enjoyed it. love an angry girl.

I read Maeve Fly in early June and had originally rated it 3 stars. However, as time passes, I keep coming back to it, so I upped it to a 4.

Reading this was like a fever dream. It was atmospheric, the descriptions made me feel like I was really in Disney Land on a hot summer day.

I loved having a main character obsessed with Halloween!

I really enjoyed the backstories for Halloween songs and the descriptions of LA.

Interesting and weird story all the same time. Maeve lives with her grandmother, a formerly famous actress. There’s bad things inside of them, but they’re not allowed to tell anyone because no one will understand. See what happens when Maeve lets pieces of this out.

Just imagine if Patrick Bateman from American Psycho was played by Elsa from Frozen. That's it. That's what you need to know. This book blew me away. 100% one of my top 5 books of this year, guaranteed. The utter depravity of this book means I will be eagerly awaiting the authors next book. Can she top this? We will find out on the next episode of Olaf's Warm Hugs.

This book comes out TOMORROW! So be sure to snatch a copy and go hide in your closet and devour it.

❄️You do not first need to be a victim to become a monster.❄️

Lets be honest - I was always going to read something with this amazing cover! Luckily, the book itself is equally as dark and disturbing, with an unexpected poignancy running through it. Maeve is a fascinating protagonist. She is an unashamed misanthrope, a hedonist and a villain and yet, she loves working in 'the happiest place on earth' as a princess and loves her ailing grandmother deeply. Paying a debt to American Psycho, the prose is brutal in its honesty, holding a mirror up to the world and finding it wanting. We follow Maeve as she traverses the underbelly of the Sunset Strip, engages in sex parties and takes down people on the internet. Through it all is a deeply disturbing and violent undercurrent and C. J. Leede does not shy away from describing the violence in all its gory detail. This will not be a book for everyone, but I loved it and will be eagerly awaiting C. J. Leede's next offering.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

Description:

Maeve’s life is a dream. On one hand, she works as a pretty, pretty princess at the happiest place on earth and on the other, she’s a badass ball of feminine rage. Her best friend, Kate, a talented actress who is millimeters away from catching her big break, introduces her to her brother, Gideon, the ridiculously attractive hockey player. Together they feed into Maeve’s dark side without even understanding what they’re doing.

Review:

I’ve never heard of horror smut before, but here it is! It’s hot, it’s sexy, it’s bloody, but it’s also heartbreaking? Show me someone more badass than Maeve Fly. I’ll wait.

Final Rating: 4.5
So the first third of this book didn't really grip me and I struggled with wanting to pick it up and read it, but once I got through that first third, I couldn't put this down! This book absolutely delivers, it's creepy, dark, surreal, and downright disturbing. I can't believe I'm saying this, but as much as Maeve was meant to be a deeply unlikable character I actually loved her, and at the end I found myself feeling so bad for her, but then I had to remind myself about what she did that got her in that situation to begin with! If you're looking for a book that starts fairly normal, but becomes absolutely unhinged and dark then this might be the one for you!

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

This book is heavily compared to American Psycho set in LA, which made me nervous at first because I don't care for LA or Hollywood culture, and though I haven't yet read American Psycho, I remember not caring much for the movie. If you are like me....fear not! It was oddly fun to be in the head of Maeve, the Halloween-obsessed Ice princess who doesn't believe in villains needing origin stories or females needing a trauma or reason to be "evil".

This novel is filled with female rage, sexual energy, emotionally-detached graphic violence, and many, many music references (which I loved!). There is a lot of talk about LA as well, but it was done in a way that really suited our main character. We watch Maeve go from a tightly-controlled life of order to animalistic chaos....and what a fun ride it is! I never knew what to expect next, but I knew it couldn't be good.

I listened to this audiobook, and quickly ran out to purchase a physical copy, because I know there were things that went over my head, and I'm already eager to re-read this!

Let's talk about Maeve Fly! 🪰

It's taken me a while to write this review, because there were so many thoughts in my head both during and after reading this masterpiece. I've read it twice now and I'm ready to give my thoughts.

Maeve Fly is the debut novel by CJ Leede. The story follows a young woman named Maeve Fly. She works as a theme park princess and is mostly solitary - only having close relationships with her best friend (a struggling actress) and her dying grandmother. Something dark lives inside her though and, when she meets the right person, that darkness may just come out to play…

This book felt like everything I've ever wanted from a horror story with a disturbed female lead. Told in first-person, we're shown an unflinching look into Maeve's mind. We so rarely get female characters who are disturbing "just because" (something which the author also brings up).

⚠️ A warning: Some of the violence and depravity in this book is *extreme*. I would not recommend this to anyone who isn't into that type of horror. If you have any triggers, approach this with caution and do research beforehand.

I've seen many compare this book to American Psycho. It's an understandable comparison - Maeve references the book herself and looks up to Patrick Bateman in a way. However, I wouldn't call her the "female Patrick Bateman". She's definitely her own breed.

Overall: Fantastic book. CJ Leede hit it out of the park with this one, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

When people use phrases like "not for the faint of heart" or "entertaining extreme horror" when describing books, I just can't not read them.
Maeve Fly was exactly these things and so much more.
Maeve is different. There is a wolf that lives inside of her, hungry for darkness. A lover of literature and the dark underbelly of Hollywood.
She also works at a theme park as a princess and has an incredible love for all things Halloween - especially Halloween music.

Everyone said how extreme this book was and although I was thoroughly enjoying it, I didn't think it was that outrageous. If you're feeling like I was, be patient - she gets cranked up to 1000 throughout the last half.

I honestly can't believe this is a debut novel. The character development, the boldness of the plot, all of it was exquisitely crafted into a nice, gross little package for us to enjoy. I'd highly recommend this one to fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis - if you love their cheeky, disgusting style but desire the story from a female's perspective, don't walk but RUN to buy this book. You won't regret it.

Thank you NetGalley, CJ and Tor for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Filled with rage, humor, halloween, and murder. I loved this book so much! I can't wait to read more for Leede!

Full disclosure, I went into this novel not knowing what "splatterpunk" was as a subgenre or that Maeve Fly itself was classified as such. I only knew that it was considered extreme horror (sometimes both being interchangeable subgenres) and that the synopsis and cover were awesome. What shocked me the most about the book and what actually makes it splatterpunk is the depictions/suggestions of sexual violence and the graphic sexual/kink scenes. Now, we do not kink shame in this house, but that is not what I went into this expecting and it really threw me. Having since schooled myself in this subgenre of horror, I think the author did a good job taking the story where it needed to go. Our main character, Maeve Fly, is deeply flawed but very interesting and I saw myself connecting with her on many of her interests (obviously not the killing people one). I just wish we had gotten more back story from her from before she had moved to Los Angeles. It was a wild ride and a story I won't soon forget.

HOLY SHIT. OBSESSED.

Maeve Fly is the embodiment of a female rage story done right. Leede allows readers to get to intimately know Maeve in the first half of this book. We learn her history, her quirks, her passions. I loved how layered and real Maeve felt. I could relate to so much of what she felt and while her reactions at times were most definitely extreme, they also felt justified.

It’s so hard to review this book without giving away details that I think are better left unknown in advance. I’ll instead share a favorite quote: “Men have always been permitted in fiction and in life to simply be what they are, no matter how dark or terrifying that might be. But with a woman, we expect an answer, a reason. But why would she do it? Why, why why?”

I don’t think this book will be for everyone. It’s incredibly dark and gory with scenes that are truly shocking. I loved every moment of this book and appreciate the accuracy behind the comparison of this story with American Psycho. As always, I recommend checking the content warnings on Storygraph.

🎧: I picked this one up on audio and strongly recommend checking it out in this format. Sosie Bacon does a phenomenal job of bringing Maeve and her story to life!

A huge thank you to Tor Nightfire for my gifted copy!