Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was provided an Audio ARC via Netgalley.  All opinions are my own.

This is my first book by the author, and when I discovered that this might have ties to to Greek mythology and it was a thriller it really peaked my interest.  I love both Greek mythology and a good thriller.  Let's just say that those two aspects are not as connected as I would have liked.

I really didn't enjoy this book.  I found the characters unlikable and the plot to be kind of ridiculous.  I didn't particularly enjoy the narrator's performance either.   All of the female characters were poorly portrayed and all of the male characters suffered from the same troubled childhoods making them all suspects.  For a thriller, I was never once thrilled or surprised.  The reveal was a huge let down and completely underwhelming.  

There were several plot lines meant to mislead the reader and make you think "maybe that person is the killer", when really those parts of the story could have been completely left out and you wouldn't have missed them.  The aspect of Mariana inserting herself into a murder investigation was so unrealistic.  I also did not like the use of mental health and the treatment of those struggling with mental health issues in this book.   Much like our main character, I felt like it was unnecessarily crossing boundaries.  

I think this is going to be a book you either really love or really don't like at all.   While I didn't particularly enjoy this, I think there are going to be plenty of people who really do enjoy this.  I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed this more had I read it on the page vs listening to the audio,  but this didn't work for me.

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