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Alex Michaelides’ first novel The Silent Patient was a New York Times bestseller when it released in 2019. I enjoyed it as you can see here in my REVIEW, but it was no Verity and it’s not a book I recommend very often. However, the premise of his sophomore novel The Maiden’s is completely alluring and I was so excited when Celadon reached out with the offer to read an advanced copy.

In The Maidens, raised in Greece and now working in London, Mariana is a group therapist who is struggling after the death of her husband Sebastian. His untimely death while on vacation to one of the Greece Isles, leaves Mariana wondering if she has offended Persephone some how. When Zoe, her niece, calls after the murder of her roommate, Marina is off to Cambridge to console her. While there Mariana begins to investigate the murder herself and stumbles upon a group of students known as The Maidens. The Maidens, all of whom are wealthy young women, are a young male professors ‘chosen students’ and he treats them as such. As a group therapist, Mariana finds the strange hold this professor has over these students to be suspicious and dives into unraveling who this professor really is.

Let me start by saying that this is a slow burn thriller. I really enjoy slow burns, I mean Jane Harper is the queen of slow burn stories and I adore her writing. But generally speaking the best slow burn stories have quite a bit of character development and really bring the suspense. The Maidens has neither of these things. The characters all fell a bit flat for me with little depth and honestly none of them are very likable. I actually become pretty annoyed with our main character Mariana, and wished she’d just leave it to the police to solve. There were also a few times I felt bored with the story just waiting for something to happen. When things finally started to happen it was all jumbled together and felt rushed.

In terms of the plot it’s definitely interesting but my biggest compliant is an over usage of red herrings. Everything and everyone was one which made the impact they had on the story weaker. I won’t say I saw the ending coming but I had my suspicions. While not necessarily predictable, the story never really ‘WOWed’.

I will say that as a lover of all things Greek Mythology, I did enjoy all of the Greek references to mythology and literature. Did it get a little ‘in the weeds’ a bit, yes, but overall I liked the added references in the story.

There are definitely a couple of references to The Silent Patient and based on those this book takes place in the same universe but earlier time frame wise. I actually really like how Michaelides tied the two together, and makes me curious to see how a third book would tie in.

Michaelides’ second novel is another three star for me. While it’s a decent read, the pacing was too slow for me with not enough build up. The ending felt rushed and while I don’t regret reading it, it won’t be high on my recommendation list. I’d say if you read alot of thrillers this one may not rate for you but if you only dabble in them, you’ll probably enjoy this one.



The Maidens comes out June 15 2021. Huge thank you to Celadon Books for my advanced copy for my honest review. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof_books.

I would like to thank the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free e-audio ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

I was fortunate enough to win an e-audio ARC for the author's last book, and I was very excited for the book, with all the hype, but didn't really love it. I was going to pass on this one, but I kept hearing so much about it, that it was so much more developed than the last book, the twists and turns, the well developed characters, the Greek influences. So I decided to try it after all. And ... it was just ok. There were parts that picked up in the story, where I wanted to keep reading - or listening - but overall, I just didn't care about any of it. The main character, Mariana, is SO wandering with her thoughts - this or that? That or this? Or maybe something else? - plus her constant musings about her late husband - it was annoying! But the time we got around to a murder, I was already loosing interest.

And this is an audiobook, so let's talk about the narrator - whose name I cannot find listed anywhere at all. I looked, because I wanted to make a note to AVOID this narrator at all costs! Her pronunciation was terrible, and her accent is SO BRITISH I kept forgetting it was supposed to have anything to do with Greece. The accent is so lisping, I felt like I was listening to a snake rather than a professional narrator. All around, this was a HUGE disappointment to me.

I was excited to listen to this book after loving the Silent Patient however, I was a little disappointed. It started off strong but about midway I caught my mind wandering while I listened to it. I hate giving up on a book so I finished it and will actually listen to it again at a later date. I just feel like I might have missed something. I have pre-ordered the hard copy for my library and will recommend it to my patrons who like this genre.

Having read the physical copy, I wanted to give the audio a shot to see how the narrator fared and the narrator fits the story perfect. I always feel that Alex's books sounds great in spoken form, and THE MAIDENS does not disappoint.

Thank you for the e-arc!

Alex Michaelides is back with The Maidens where dark academia meets greek tragedy, sign me up! Mariana travels to Cambridge University to check on her niece, Zoe, when one by one girls are murdered. All clues point to Edward Fosca a professor and founder of a group ‘The Maidens’ that all victims belong to. Still navigating the loss of her husband, Mariana’s perspective is somewhat muddied as she begins to help investigate in her role as a therapist. Could she be misjudging the professor?
Alex Michaelides writing is lyrical, almost hypnotic. It’s at odds with the unsettling subject matter at times, keeping us uncomfortable, off kilter. This is extremely effective. The plot however is full holes, misdirection, a round robin of cat and mouse, and mouse, but maybe another cat? It feel needless complicated.
The audiobook elevates the story entirely and is my recommendation one hundred percent. Voice actors Louise Brealey (The Silent Patent), and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith are outstanding and cast extremely well here. Chapters are narrated very sporadically by Holdbrook-Smith, our unnamed villain. His voice is dark, extremely disturbing, but like a train wreck we just can’t look away. Since his voice is used so sparingly we don’t know when it’s coming it’s more suspenseful. Louis Brealey is extremely adaptive at portraying the wide variety of other characters, their emotions, and nuances.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy and the opportunity to review The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. All opinions are my own.

Can we ever really fully understand the human psyche? This is a question that will plague the heroine of this thrilling novel The Maidens by Alex Michaelides.  

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who is still mourning the death of her late husband. Her niece who attends Cambridge University tells her she believes her professor, Edward Fosca, a handsome, charming and Svengali type of man, murdered her best friend and fellow student.  After watching a news report of the girl's death, she drops everything to go to Cambridge to be with her Niece. Mariana is convinced that in spite of Edward Fosca's "flimsy" alibi, he murdered the girl and she is bound and determined to prove it.  What she finds out puts her straight in the path of danger and will irreparably change her life forever.  

I loved this book so much!  It had me on the edge of my seat trying to guess who the villain was to the very end. That is the mark of a great thriller!  It keeps you in suspense and creates the right pace for all of the tension to unfold.  If this book was a movie (and I think it should be) I would have been scared witless at times watching Mariana dive headlong into danger without a thought for her safety.  You feel so much empathy for her and all that she has endured in her life when the layers of the story start to unfold.  I listened to the audiobook and the narration was fantastic. I was so enthralled listening to this spinetingling story that I didn't want it to end.  

Thank you so much @Netgalley & @MacMillan.audio for providing me this ALC.

The Maidens takes place primarily at Cambridge, which was one of the main reasons why I requested it, along with the fact that it takes place on a college campus. While the mystery was strong enough to keep me listening, I figured out the “twist” early on, and I didn’t care for many of the characters. This will not be a memorable listen for me. The narrators are excellent, but the story was just mediocre.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Another winner from the author of The Silent Patient.

This novel focuses on group therapist and recent widow Mariana, who is called in to help her niece when her best friend is killed at college. Set in Cambridge, the city almost becomes a secondary character, and the dramatic reading of the audio book contributes to the suspenseful feel as still grieving Mariana searches for a killer with little help from the police.

The book touches on many classic works and myths, adding to my enjoyment. Overall, Michaelides does a great job setting a creepy, suspenseful tone and sustaining it throughout the book. He is quickly becoming a favorite author.

Both audio readers did a great job.

Absolutely full transparency here, I loathed The Silent Patient. With this disclaimer, I wanted to read The Maidens and give this author another chance. The Maidens is a bit of a slow burn, dark academia thriller. I found Mariana a frustrating character to read. Everyone around her is suspicious from the beginning, and Mariana is paranoid. The hyper-focus and blatant evidence planting are clear, this book is heavy with red herrings.
The writing was fine, but the characters were flat. unsure if this was a nod to the case in the Silent Patient, or if the author fails to wrap crimes up in any other. Spoiler here: sending every woman to a mental health facility because she’s decided to silence herself is boring. That’s it. I wanted to genuinely enjoy this, and went in with high hopes. I should have known better, knowing I don’t enjoy this author’s plots.
Full review will be July 30th, 2021

3.5 ⭐

This book follows Mariana, a group therapist who is dealing with the recent death of her husband when she receives a phone call from her niece that a body has been found on her campus. Mariana goes to see if her niece is ok and she ends up getting entangled with the murder investigation.

Characters
- there was a great character background depth which was really helpful when getting into how the main character thought
- I loved the way a character from The Silent Patient was tied into the story (no, you do not need to read The Silent Patient before reading this book)

Plot
- Michaelides does such a good job at redirecting the reader
- I thought that someone else was the murder besides the main characters suspect, but I was completely wrong
- I thought that Henry was a pointless character/plot line
- I was surprised by the twist. However, I didn't like the twist (that's just a personal preference)
- Overall this story didn't live up to The Silent Patient; I did expect more

Writing
- Very accessible and immersive
- I loved all of the Greek Mythology references, but it did get a bit repetitive at some points
- very good at hiding the reveal at the end

I received an advanced audiobook from Macmillian Audio via NetGalley. The Maidens will be published on June 15, 2021.

I thought this was a really good book! It’s really hard for me to write a review and not compare this book to The Silent Patient. That was such an amazing book, I feel like nothing compares to it. I enjoyed this book as well, but I do feel it has been a bit hyped up.

I did enjoy how this book was based around Greek Mythology. I thought that was a cool concept for the book. I found I was engaged and did not want to put it down. There were so many shady characters in this book, I wasn’t sure who to trust. And the twist at the end was great! If you’re a fan of Greek Mythology and thrillers, I recommend checking it out! I just highly recommend not comparing it to The Silent Patient and try and treat it as it’s own book.

Wow, wow, wow! Alex Michaelides does it again. If you liked The Silent Patient, you'll like this one. This slow burn thriller, is full of twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review. #NetAGalley #TheMaidens #AlexMichaelides

Still reeling from the sudden accidental death of her husband, group therapist Mariana finds herself having trouble focusing on her patients, including her most troubled, Henry who seems to be more than mildly fixated on her.

She is suddenly pulled away from her patients when she receives a frantic all from her niece, Zoe telling her that her friend had been murdered and that she suspects Professor Fosca who seems to show more interest than he should into a certain group of young female students he has dubbed "The Maidens".

After another member of the group is murdered, Mariana decides to take a closer look at professor Fosca and The Maidens but everyone she meets seems more than a little suspect.

Add in some Greek tragedy and mythology and the gothic atmosphere of the college and you have a very a very captivating mystery. Plenty of breadcrumbs to follow but also plenty of red herrings. I was captivated and couldn't stop trying to figure out the whodunit aspect. I found it hard to put down.

The 2 perspectives on audio were very well done, and the narrators were perfectly cast.

What an engrossing novel! It took me only two days listening to the superb narrative by Louise Bealey to finish the book. It is the best type of psychological thriller/murder mystery.

Marina Andros is a group psychotherapist with too much tragedy in her personal life. At 36 she is grieving the drowning death of her husband Sebastian a year earlier. When she receives a frantic call from her only relative, a beloved niece she helped to raise after the girl's parents were killed in a car crash, she drops everything to go to her support. Zoe is an undergraduate at St. Christopher's College, Cambridge. The body of her best friend, savagely mutilated, has just been discovered in the woods not far from the college.

The police have a ready suspect in Tara's drug-dealing boyfriend, but Mariana believes that this is more than just a brutal killing. There seems to be a ritualistic aspect to it which points to Professor Edward Fosca, a charismatic classics professor with his coterie of eight beautiful, brilliant students labeled "The Maidens." Tara was part of this group.

Mariana's two day visit extends while she tries to make sense of Fosca's role in Tara's life and the thrall he has on the eight young Maidens. At the same time, she is personally overwhelmed by new sorrows. She cannot help but relive her student years with Sebastian. There was the corner table they sat at in their favorite pub and the bench on the river where they ate lunch. Everywhere she goes he seems to be there, just out of sight.

Even though there is no proof that Professor Fosca is a murderer Mariana knows he is guilty. Her investigation uncovers too many secrets, too many references to classical tragedy to be coincidental. When another student is murdered in the same ritualistic manner Mariana rushes to connect the dots. Someone is watching her. Will she become another target of the killer?

Another twisty thriller from Alex Michaelides! This one was a little slow for me in the beginning, but it picked up around 30% and near the end I couldn't put it down. The Maidens kept me guessing and had me evaluating the possibility of several characters as the murder suspect. I didn't see the reveal at the end coming and while it seemed a tiny bit of a stretch, I do still think it worked.

I'd suggest reading The Silent Patient before reading The Maidens. It's definitely not necessary, but there's a pretty wild connection between the two and it had me re-reading parts and looking back at my Silent Patient review to be sure I was remembering it correctly. The set up at the end of the book also leaves a possibility for a connection in whatever Michaelides writes next. Overall a great book to pick up if you enjoy thrillers.

The Silent Patient was one of my favorite books that I read last year. There were so many plot twists and red herrings and Alex Michaelides really knows how to write a thriller. So I was expecting really great things from this. There's so much in here that I should have liked, but I think I just got a little lost. The cast of characters is quite large and I never really got attached to any of them or cared what happened to them, which is why the plot twists weren't as impactful, because I was apathetic about what was happening. I definitely see how a lot of people will like this, even if they didn't like The Silent Patient, but for me, it was a miss.

This was a compelling audiobook. The narration was outstanding and the story gripped me from start to finish. It was the perfect book to have available on a long car ride - it made the time fly! I have listened to both of Michealides books (this one and The Silent Patient) and they both make great listens. I really liked the twists and turns of this psychological thriller and I loved the literary bent - the references to Greek Tragedy woven into the story were wonderful and the description of Cambridge made me feel like I was there. It was twisty, just the right amount. I appreciated that a character from his previous book showed up as a minor character in this book. It reminds me of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad (and this is high praise). Alex Michaelides is now on my auto-read authors list.

This was a slow burn of suspense. Not to gory, not too scary-- just the right about of mystery to keep you going without giving away too much until the end. Highly recommended for those who like a twist.

Let me start by saying Michaelides's The Silent Patient was was right up my alley because it was an impossible-to-put-down type of psychological thriller that I really gravitate towards. The writing really kept me on the edge of my seat and I enjoyed the twists and turns. I guess I thought going into The Maidens that it would give me a similar feeling. It wasn't quite the page turner as its predecessor but it was definitely still compelling. One thing I really do like about Michaelides's writing and especially The Maidens, was that he includes some elevated subjects as finer details in his writing such as in this case all of the Greek tragedy references woven into his murder mystery. Mariana as a character was very interesting and relatable. In the first half of the book I couldn't quite figure out why there was such a focus on her grief but by the end it all made total sense. What I didn't like was the direction the book took in the latter half of the book. I was completely shocked at the turn of events but not in a way that at the end I was like "oh that makes sense - the author really had me convinced otherwise" but more in a "that was so out of left field and I'm still not sure that explanation makes any sense when taken with the rest of the story." I was also confused why there was such a focus on some of the odd male side characters, and realized it was only to mislead the reader and neither of the strange men actually had much of anything to do with Mariana's journey to the truth until the very end. Overall, I was really compelled by this and I LOVED the narrator - one of my favorites I've ever listened to. However, I wasn't satisfied with the ending at all. I'll still read the author's next books though because he is an excellent writer.

So I haven't read the The Silent Patient yet (I have it but just haven't opened it up on my Kindle yet) call me crazy I know! LoL
But I felt The Maidens to be a slow burn! With amazing twist that I never saw coming! love the way the author writes, he is so talented as he effortlessly pulls you into the story! Just amazing! After reading this one I've now got to open TSP! Because I absolutely love Alex and his writing