I think my expectations were just too damn high from The Silent Patient. The atmosphere Alex Michaelides builds is stunning as always. His ability to weave Greek mythology, dark academia, and murder is truly commendable. The descriptions about Cambridge are soso incredibly vivid; I could always envision Mariana no matter where she was in the story. The feeling of foreboding, dread, apprehension, all the keys of a good thriller were there. The group of girls, The Maidens, I loved how I could perfectly conjure them up, they were so eerie. The chapters were short and easy to get through, which I think aids in the 'page-turner' tag for this book.
However, one really big thing for me was the amount of unnecessary red herrings meant to misdirect the reader into thinking that this person is the murderer, wait no this person is the murderer. There was no point to a lot of it? I don't like I particularly fell for it.
Especially Henry, who we get introduced to early on and sort of pops up at random moments in the book, it left me wondering "who tf is henry and why is he important to the plot why does he keep being mentioned". Then he appears and pulls out a knife and just threatens to kill himself to spite Mariana? I really, really don't understand why that was crucial to the plotline.
For me, Mariana was a very neutral main character. Her journey through grief and loss was maybe slightly interesting. She quickly grew annoying as the story progressed. As the synopsis suggests, she's basically acting as an investigator, and through her efforts to figure out what happened to the murdered girls, she oversteps a lot of boundaries. I suppose that could be overlooked by some readers, but things Mariana did just didn't sit right with me. I listen to too many true crime podcasts, and her tactics are just so... lame.. that it didn't feel like an investigation to me.
Edward Fosca. I literally could not take him seriously. He's like that overly villainous cartoon character smiling evilly. Early on in the book, I decided it could not possibly be this man that was off stabbing girls.
Fred. Ok, I seriously thought Fred would have more significance. The big reason he was here was to save Mariana from Zoe????? I had to wait ALL the way for the end of the book to find that out??? The rest of the time was filled with his incredibly cheesy advancements on Mariana who is recently widowed and much older than him. It was very disturbing how this man continued to pursue her even after she made it clear she didn't feel anything for him. It screams plot convenience.
Zoe was.. interesting. I sensed there was more to her in the beginning. It baffles me how Mariana didn't push her to talk to her more. I did like how the plot twist in the end tied in with her. I might be stupid, but I genuinely didn't think it would be her.
Ending was a bit rushed. Bit clumsy. The ending was meant to be ambiguous, but I think I just wanted to know what happened when Zoe and Mariana talked again. If there's a third book, I'm praying for a The Silent Patient and The Maidens crossover, because this book does take place in the same universe and essentially the same timeline. For fans of The Silent Patient, we get cameos from Theo and Alicia, which is literally the best. Having finished The Silent Patient puts such a different perspective on Theo and every single interaction Mariana had with him, I love how Michaelides tied that in.
Overall, I'm not sure I would entirely recommend this book, but I feel like there are parts of this that are just personal preference, and a lot of people could enjoy it very much.