Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Maid

This book is giving Amelia Bedelia meets Agatha Christie novel, and I was living for it the entire time.
I do have to say, if you get secondhand embarrassment very easily, this book may not be for you. Molly, the main character of this fast-paced mystery, is clearly neurodivergent in some way. This makes her perspective very interesting; however, the first person point of view forces readers to experience her social ineptitude as if they were her. When I read the novel, I could feel when other characters were taking advantage of her and wanted to warn her; however, you can't jump through book pages.

This is a Rodney hate group. Rodney is literally the worst, and I have never read a more disturbing scene than him at the Olive Garden. Juan Manuel has my whole heart.

The twists were unpredictable, but they made a lot of sense after you had gone through the majority of the novel, so they stayed believable. That is such a difficult line to toe, so I applaud Nita Prose's ability to strike that balance.
Overall, I cannot recommend this book more. My stress level was at a ten because of the high stakes and other characters' mistreatment of Molly, but it was so worth it in the end. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

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kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

okay so that ending was NOT what i expected lol. haven’t read a murder mystery in a while (by choice) so maybe my whodunit skills were rusty but my goodness!

this was really sweet towards the end, but frankly the amount of secondhand embarrassment and “duh” moments we are meant to feel was overwhelming. constantly seeing molly be the butt of jokes or straight up used because she didn’t understand was honestly painful. I will not be reading the next book for that reason but I liked the resolution of this book

this book felt like Monk except there’s no actual diagnosis and people just keep calling her vague things like “different” or “odd”. not sure how i feel about that tbh but the found family bits are really nice.

as an aside I have to say that the grandma was INCREDIBLY fucked up for a lot of reasons but especially how she died???? why would you make your child promise something like that

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muzik_izak1's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I honestly can say this book surprised me in many ways. The way the author is able to write this main character, and how much mystery is in the book even to the very end. Amazing book.

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vireogirl's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Read it in one evening. Several chuckles. Nice to see a neurodiverse character. A bit cheesy at times but there were some twists I didn’t expect and a lovely message of embracing who you are.

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ak97x's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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samburkhouse's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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asourceoffiction's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Another brilliant neurodivergent protagonist at the heart of a fantastic book. Like Eleanor Oliphant, Molly struggles with social cues and the meaning behind the looks people give her. It was hard sometimes to read the way people take advantage of Molly and her differences. But ultimately this is a pretty feel-good story about found family and the value of true friendship.

I find the writing in books like this really clever, as the incricacies of the mundane (in this case the way Molly cleans a room) really get inside the main character's head. It's filled with emotion and brilliantly thought out characters, and I flew through it so quickly.

The plot is a little predictable at times, but threw in enough curve balls to keep me guessing. I'm excited by the idea that there will be more books featuring Molly the Maid!

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