3.5 Fangs

After reading the wonderful debut novel, The Silent Patient, I knew I would want to read the next book by Alex Michaelides.

The Maidens is set in the University of Cambridge and the disappearance of a young woman whose body is found later.

Mariana Andros is a psychotherapist. She is a widow and she's still grieving the loss of her husband, Sebastian. A man she adored and who brought her the love she was missing under her father's care. She is successful at her job as a group therapist. She leaves her job when her niece, Zoe calls her from Cambridge University where she is a student. Her friend Tara has disappeared and before she disappeared, she told Zoe she was afraid of Professor Edward Fosca. He was going to kill her!

Fosca is the professor everyone wants to attend class and listen to and his classes always end with resounding applause. Fosca has a group of students he meets regularly with. They are all young women who go by the name of The Maidens. Tara was part of this group. Despite Zoe's claims and Mariana's growing suspicions, he has an alibi, The Maidens. They say he was with them. But are they covering up for him?

Mariana was a student at Cambridge herself. She met Sebastian there too. For her, coming back is painful but she knows she can't let Zoe be alone. Investigating the murder and trying to catch a killer before some else gets hurts becomes paramount.

I felt The Maidens had a slow start but it had a partial great twist at the end. One I did not see it coming. I enjoyed the crossover with Mariana interacting with Theo from the Silent Patient too. Some of the greek mythology felt redundant but maybe it's because I knew about Persephone from my teenage years.

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Celadon Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Maidens is perfect for lovers of the Secret History and If We Were Villains, bringing a Greek tragedy twist to dark academia. The Maidens follows Mariana, a group therapist that returns to her alma mater to help console her niece after the brutal and mysterious murder of one of her friends. Mariana, still grieving her drowned husband, is thrown back into Cambridge life as she tries to unravel the mystery surrounding the young woman's murder. At the center of it is the Maidens, a group of rich and gorgeous women that are personally tutored by the dashing Greek professor. What ensues is a mystery that will have you on the edge of you seat and a twist I bet you won't see coming.

The Maidens is an interesting twist on the typical format of dark academia where the story is told from the perspective of the students - Mariana was once a student at Cambridge, but has long-since graduated and is on the outside looking in at the mystery of the Maidens. Michaelides does a wonderful job of keeping you guessing at who the killer is, stringing you along in one direction and leaving you breathless.

Thank you so much @CeladonBooks & @NetGalley for gifting me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 15 June 2021)

SYNOPSIS | Mariana is a psychotherapist who travels to Cambridge to spend time with her grieving niece (Zoe) whose close friend was recently found murdered near campus. She becomes integrated within the investigation & fixated on a particular professor & a group of female students known as "the Maidens".

WHAT I LIKED:
- the tie in references to The Silent Patient
- the setting of Cambridge

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- none of the characters were even slightly likeable & I had a hard time caring who the culprit actually was or their motive
- I'm not really sure what the point of the postcards were especially as the MC can't read Latin
- there was A LOT of classical mythology that just isn't really my jam (don't tell my high school Latin teacher)
- this just sadly didn't hold the same oomph as his debut novel (The Silent Patient)

THE MAIDENS review🏛


💭After lots of mixed reviews I went into THE MAIDENS with the mind set that I was not going to compare/contrast it with his debut. I really think that helped me and definitely recommend to do the same (if you have read THE SILENT PATIENT). Yes - it was a bit of a slow burn mystery, but I personally thought that the book had a good pace throughout. Each chapter left me wanting to read more and kept building til the last 30-ish pages. Then the twist was revealed… and I was shocked, truly, but mainly because I felt it was a bit of a stretch and half baked. I’m curious to see if Michaelides’ next novel will delve into this ending more, because I really need more of an explanation 😂 did any one else feel this way, too?

I absolutely loved the Silent Patient by Alex Michalides so I was really excited to read The Maidens.
The Maidens was fantastic! I really loved the setting of Cambridge.
The author does a wonderful job with addressing mental health in this book.
But don't get it twisted, this book is filled with twists and turns and everything in between.
I was SHOCKED at the ending and absolutely loved the characters and the writing style.

The ending felt a bit rushed and I think that it could have been fleshed out better. The red herrings thrown in diverted me constantly. While Mariana thought that Fosca was the killer for the vast majority of the book, so many of the other characters were sketchy in their own ways that it had me second guessing their intentions constantly. Overall, it was a decent read and the characters felt realistic. A good story of obsession and twisted grief.

This one started really slow for me but it definitely Picked up. The characters were really interesting and I didn’t see the twist coming at all. I wasn’t a huge fan of the silent patient so I didn’t go into this one with high hopes, but it was a lot more interesting to me than AM’s first book. I would recommend giving it a shot! Thank you for my free review copy.

3 for the storyline. Something just was a bit off for me and I can't quite put my finger on it. I absolutely did not like where this story ended up going.
5 for the storytelling and writing. There s something very readable about this, even given a a subject matter that is a little outside of my normal cerebral level. I'm simply not that cultured to know much about Greek mythology and yet I was still able to understand the references. They were spoon fed to me, which I appreciate as I don't like to work very hard to have to understand a storyline.

I started this book with great anticipation and the thrills just kept coming. I enjoyed Alex Michaelides' THE SILENT PATIENT so much, there was never a doubt I'd love this story too. Michaelidies is definitely an author to follow.

Mariana Andros has been through some severe trauma in her recent past. Her husband drowned while they were on a romantic vacation. There is so much mystery revolving around Mariana's past, her marriage and her fortune that you should pay very close attention for clues. As she tries to rebuild her life and career, Mariana's close ties to her niece, Zoe, pull her into an investigation of several murders involving a group of young women calling themselves THE MAIDENS. As a group therapist and an alumnus, Mariana feels she can contribute, even though she is warned off by the police and her circle of friends and family. The story takes some very unique turns, at times I had to go back to make sure I knew what was going on, but this just makes the last few chapters a very real surprise. This is definitely a book you will not want to set down for any length of time.

The Maidens--and I know I'm in the minority here!--is so much better than The Silent Patient. It's a thriller, a look at friendships and how tangled they can be and how they can tangle us, and a look at academia. I loved it, and if you liked The Secret History you'll definitely enjoy this! Highly recommended.

Alex Michaelides is the king of slow burn, atmospheric thrillers with big twists. While I don't know if he will ever top the twist in The Silent Patient, The Maidens did keep me guessing and suspecting everyone for much of the story. There is an underlying theme of Greek mythology, which isn't my thing, but it did add to the overall atmosphere and gave this a unique spin for a thriller. This isn't the most plausible storyline, but those who love campus novels, cults, and mythology will love it.

Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for the advanced copy to review.

The Maidens is a suspenseful thriller. There were so many possible suspects as a reader but did not expect the twist at the end. It started out slow but ended with a bang.

"The Maidens" is a thriller set in college in Greece - think dark academia at its finest.
This was one of my most anticipated reads this year: I love dark academia, and adore Greek mythology so I was so excited to see how Michaelides paralleled the crimes to greek tragedy, however it fell a bit flat for me.

It was very fast paced & the chapters were short which I appreciated. There was well thorough research into greek mythology which was also nice. I will say, the first ~ 100 pages were sort of boring, I had figured out the "twist" fairly early on (& though "no it can't be that's too obvious) and frankly things weren't quite logical. I.e. the "crimes" didn't match the "drive/purpose" it just didn't make sense & I wasn't sold.

So if you're looking for a fast-paced thriller, pick it up, but it wasn't the masterpiece I was hoping for.

What a psychological thriller. It keeps
you on your toes and guessing till the
very end. I think in a way it was about
how we discover our new selves through
grief. We're one person when we're happy
and in love, thinking that you'll have time
for all your forevers. But when tragedy strikes,
in whatever form, you change. You evolve as a
person, you are no longer whoever you were before

Another book with a greek mythology edge to it. I LOVE it!

Alex Michaelides is a tor de force, of a writer. This book had a dark undertone with a splash of Greek mythology spilled in. Michaelides classic sinister edge was tossed in too for good measure. The Maidens was a fantastic read and will be sure to make readers favorite book lists!

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.

This book was original and intriguing. I also enjoyed the incorporation of Greek mythology. I anticipated some of the ending, but it was twisted in a way I didn't expect. Also liked the nod to Michaelides' The Silent Patient.

oof that twist was SO GOOD and I'm proud of myself for predicting parts of it! However, it is tremendously fucked up and I wish it had been given far more weight and examination.


I enjoyed this a lot; I think it was really well-written, especially for a thriller, and I loved all the allusions to Greek myth. There's also definitely a Dark Academia vibe here; the narrative is very atmospheric and tonally resonant. I also think the author does a good job in crafting a very complex character in Mariana, who is not always very likable, and who I found oddly timid, but who feels like a very real human being.

While this was not as good as The Silent Patient, I did enjoy it a lot! One of the twists definitely caught me off guard which is always appreciated!

Fans of "The Silent Patient" will also love "The Maidens." Michaleides has a mastery of thrillers and language that makes for an enjoyable read. I also like that inclusion of Greek myths in his works! I can't wait for another novel by Alex Michaelides!