I was excited to read The Maidens after finishing The Silent Patient last year. It draws from the same bag of tricks as The Silent Patient, with a protagonist who is a widowed group psychotherapist (great to see the main character Theo appear in The Maidens - I love easter eggs!). The setting though is Cambridge University, and the victim is a beautiful young student who is part of a mysterious group of female students called “The Maidens.” Mariana (the psychotherapist/detective) suspects her violent killing to be at the hands of Edward Fosca, the alluring Greek Tragedy professor at the center of the Maidens. And she will catch him, whatever the cost.
As a compulsively readable thriller with a great plot twist, it delivers. I read this novel in just about one sitting.
But as a novel, it lacked… soul? Believability? This novel moved fast because it was a page-turner. But so much was sacrificed for the set-up and twist. The Maidens, a group of potentially fascinating characters ripe for a psychotherapist’s picking, were mere plot devices. Michaelides doesn’t share a single thing about them, except their names and who their parents were. And when reduced to plot devices, the eponymous Maidens are a bit silly – wouldn’t somebody at the University be suspicious of a gaggle of attractive young girls always hanging out with the attractive young professor? Especially when they trail him at the funeral, “six distinctive young women… extremely beautiful… all dressed in long white dresses.” I mean sure, that doesn’t make Fosca a murderer, but something inappropriate is definitely going on here.
At the end of the day, The Maidens had no engaging characters, with a plot that strained credibility, and interesting themes that were only superficially addressed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun thriller – but it’s also completely forgettable.
As a compulsively readable thriller with a great plot twist, it delivers. I read this novel in just about one sitting.
But as a novel, it lacked… soul? Believability? This novel moved fast because it was a page-turner. But so much was sacrificed for the set-up and twist. The Maidens, a group of potentially fascinating characters ripe for a psychotherapist’s picking, were mere plot devices. Michaelides doesn’t share a single thing about them, except their names and who their parents were. And when reduced to plot devices, the eponymous Maidens are a bit silly – wouldn’t somebody at the University be suspicious of a gaggle of attractive young girls always hanging out with the attractive young professor? Especially when they trail him at the funeral, “six distinctive young women… extremely beautiful… all dressed in long white dresses.” I mean sure, that doesn’t make Fosca a murderer, but something inappropriate is definitely going on here.
At the end of the day, The Maidens had no engaging characters, with a plot that strained credibility, and interesting themes that were only superficially addressed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun thriller – but it’s also completely forgettable.