"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear."
-C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
I've decided to round my rating up a star, if for no reason other than I cannot stop thinking about this book and it got me out of a major reading slump. I wasn't as dazzled by The Silent Patient as most readers, yet as a debut it was undeniably entertaining and well crafted. The author has completely changed courses with his sophomore novel, The Maidens, and traded the world of flashy psychological thrillers for a literary murder mystery. Make no mistake, although this book has a quiet power, its short chapters and oppressive atmosphere are gripping. Academia and crime fiction go together like peanut butter and chocolate, so I think Michaelides has found a sweet spot in this particular sub-genre of suspense.
Was this book perfect? No, but how many of them are, honestly? Yes, it will be too slow of a burn for some readers, especially those expecting a Silent Patient 2.0 type of read, but if you're willing to go into this one with an open mind and a fresh palate, and you enjoy the literary side of crime fiction, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the author's versatility in writing. Here we have a limited third person view, told strictly from Mariana's POV, and this is where I think most of my hesitance in giving the book 5 stars stems from. Third POV has a way of keeping the reader at a distance if we can't experience the story from multiple viewpoints, and I think seeing things play out from various character's experiences would have allowed me to get a little closer to the story and connect on a deeper level to the characters, rather than feeling like we were getting a condensed version of the tale shortened for time's sake.
You will have to suspend your need for a believable, realistic investigation, as Mariana does things in ways that would never fly in real life. However, this made for a constant sense of moving from one scene to the next, which really ramped up the addictive factor for myself as a reader. The culprit might not come as a surprise to many seasoned suspense readers, although I will say it took me longer to figure out this reveal than it did in TSP, and even so I didn't have all the "hows" and "whys" just right, which is exciting. Overall, a quick read, and one that felt as if it brought me back to my original love of UK crime fiction.
-C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
I've decided to round my rating up a star, if for no reason other than I cannot stop thinking about this book and it got me out of a major reading slump. I wasn't as dazzled by The Silent Patient as most readers, yet as a debut it was undeniably entertaining and well crafted. The author has completely changed courses with his sophomore novel, The Maidens, and traded the world of flashy psychological thrillers for a literary murder mystery. Make no mistake, although this book has a quiet power, its short chapters and oppressive atmosphere are gripping. Academia and crime fiction go together like peanut butter and chocolate, so I think Michaelides has found a sweet spot in this particular sub-genre of suspense.
Was this book perfect? No, but how many of them are, honestly? Yes, it will be too slow of a burn for some readers, especially those expecting a Silent Patient 2.0 type of read, but if you're willing to go into this one with an open mind and a fresh palate, and you enjoy the literary side of crime fiction, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the author's versatility in writing. Here we have a limited third person view, told strictly from Mariana's POV, and this is where I think most of my hesitance in giving the book 5 stars stems from. Third POV has a way of keeping the reader at a distance if we can't experience the story from multiple viewpoints, and I think seeing things play out from various character's experiences would have allowed me to get a little closer to the story and connect on a deeper level to the characters, rather than feeling like we were getting a condensed version of the tale shortened for time's sake.
You will have to suspend your need for a believable, realistic investigation, as Mariana does things in ways that would never fly in real life. However, this made for a constant sense of moving from one scene to the next, which really ramped up the addictive factor for myself as a reader. The culprit might not come as a surprise to many seasoned suspense readers, although I will say it took me longer to figure out this reveal than it did in TSP, and even so I didn't have all the "hows" and "whys" just right, which is exciting. Overall, a quick read, and one that felt as if it brought me back to my original love of UK crime fiction.