Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - The Maidens

I’m pretty neutral on 90% of this book (it was just boring and lackluster to be honest), but I was hoping the book would redeem itself with a good ending and I could give it 4 stars. Unfortunately, I was sorely mistaken because I absolutely hated the ending. If we could all just stop using sexual exploitation, p*dophilia, and r*pe for shock value that would be great!

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wronglibrarycard's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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ktbug711's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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cfoley's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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r1vana's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“That was the horror of it. We all secretly hope that tragedy will only ever happen to other people. But Mariana knew, sooner or later, it happens to you."

I was really excited to read about a “dark academia/ mystery murder” plot. But it is obvious with my rating that I am disappointed.

The first half of the book got me hyped up. Let’s say that at the end, I am a little disturbed.

I was really into it: the short chapters and the changes of POV between Marianna and the killer:

“After all, everyone's entitled to be the hero of their own story. So I must be permitted to be the hero of mine.

Even though I'm not.

I'm the villain.”

I was analyzing and overthinking everything about who can be the killer… anyone that Marianna meets are so sus…:

“i don't want to be two people. I want to be one person. I want to be whole. But I have no choice, it seems.

boy was I right about Sebastian. What I was not expecting is Zoe being the murderer. I am traumatized. Poor Marianna. I did sympathize her a lot. But sometimes I disliked whenever she was being reckless and careless.

There are a lot of Greek mythological stories that seems a lot. But I think the author wanted to confuse the reader in finding the killer. Unfortunately, the suspense seems to decrease as the story goes because the plot seems to go on a loophole.

When it comes to the actual murder mystery, it felt practically absent/non existent because Marianna made constant reckless actions like going on a date with a creepy younger guy. Or just confronting X person and “interviewing” them. She is extremely overbearing.

With everything going on, the story felt unrealistic. This woman has terrible boundaries; she can’t even say “no” sometimes. It did made me lose interest a few times, but since the chapters were short, I had to finish it.

The ending had me satisfied on reading this book bcz I would have put a two star. I was shook. Nevertheless, as the story goes on, I was on the edge the whole time.

All the men in Marianna’s life are major red flags and big ass creeps. It still makes me uncomfortable that Fred; Henry and Sebastian are all creeps and two of them are stalkers. Not that Edward Fosca was any better… with having relationships with his minor students…

Two passages that I had been in my mind throughout the whole book:

After we die, all that remains of us is a mystery; and our possessions, of course, to be picked over by strangers. ;

“I hold it true, whate'er befall;

I feel it when I sorrow most;

‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all…”

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erinbarton's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.0

this was a really fun thriller for the first 80% or so but unfortunately the ending was just not satisfying in wrapping up the plot. i really enjoyed the short chapters and multiple parts structure because it made the book feel very fast paced. the atmospheric cambridge setting was done really well i thought and the investigative narrative was engaging.

i thought the concept of the maidens and their charismatic professor was so interesting and created so many questions. however, i don’t feel this idea was explored well enough - the maiden’s barely had any appearances and didn’t do anything significant enough to really show how much influence fosca had over them. i was definitely expecting more of a cult vibe but apart from them inviting him into a group therapy session they didn’t do anything to support him.

i think the blurb and prologue announcing that mariana was convinced of fosca’s guilt was a bit misleading since she wasn’t really sure he was guilty until the halfway mark. this was more of a whodunnit with a lot of suspicious characters for the first half

henry’s confrontation of mariana and suicide attempt felt so rushed and anticlimactic — the whole henry subplot in general felt to me like it was added in after the main plot was written to add more threat and mystery to mariana, but the phone calls and room break-in were so obviously henry to the point where i thought there would be another actual twist that someone else had been threatening/stalking her. we learn at the very beginning that henry is stalking her and threatens her so it was hardly a twist.

the reveal of zoe being the killer and her motive being to kill mariana in a way that would frame someone else so that she could inherit mariana’s money was TERRIBLE. perhaps sebastian’s grooming of zoe would be enough to convince her to kill mariana so they could be together, but i don’t think it would be enough to convince her to kill three of her classmates and frame one of her professors, all to get to mariana after sebastian’s already dead. why not just kill mariana in london and frame one of her patients for it? why wouldn’t sebastian just kill her on their holiday and say she drowned? when the letter to zoe was revealed i knew it obviously wasn’t from fosca, but for a bit i did wonder if it was from fred and that he had orchestrated meeting mariana on the train and acted like a clumsy love-struck idiot to lure her into trusting him. this probably would have been a better twist.

also, if the maidens and fosca had nothing to do with the murders, why did they act so strangely and apathetically after them? if zoe was the killer then these girls were really just a close-knit study group who had three of their members murdered and reacted by saying they were “stupid” and “deserved to be murdered”? just because they were all sleeping with the professor it doesn’t mean anyone would realistically act this way.

lastly, and perhaps my biggest question, is fred actually psychic? why did he seem to know so much about mariana’s past? how did he know mariana was in danger at the end?

overall, this to me had so much promise but left too many unanswered questions and plot holes. all of the characters act in a way that is incredibly unrealistic to arouse suspicion and provide red herrings. though it was definitely a fun and fast-paced read for the most part, the ending somewhat spoils that.

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