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A review by kris_mccracken
The Maid by Nita Prose
1.0
The Maid by Nita Prose
Part-murder mystery, part-quirky “coming of age” story, I struggled to fully embrace this book, as I could not stop thinking about the death of Elijah McClain. Elijah was a young, black neurodivergent man killed by Colorado police because he was “acting strangely”.
Why?
The book is told via the first-person narration of Molly, the young, neurodivergent maid of the title. Prose doesn’t explicitly identify Molly as white. Still, I’d say that it was a safe assumption, given the relatively easy ride she gets as the storyline plunges Molly into a whole world of trouble.
If only Elijah McClain were so lucky.
The mystery is seemingly secondary to the key selling point of the novel: that is, the ‘twist’ of Molly’s ‘special’ way of seeing things seems to delight most reviewers. I understand that the author wants to address the stigma of neurodivergence. As a character, Molly is not consistent enough – either in communication with others or in her inner monologues – to be believable. She shifts from a clueless dupe in the first half of the book to an astute observer of the unspoken nuances of social interactions by the story’s end.
While my mind can stretch to accommodate character development, the writing here is utterly pedestrian with a focus on telling, not much showing, and actions from our central narrator that is not at all consistent with her early characterisation and presentation of her struggles with determining intentions.
Worst of all are the outrageous racial stereotypes that had my jaw-dropping. The offensiveness of this drew me back to the story of Elijah McClain, and I shake my head at how no editor picked up on the tone-deafness of large parts of the book. Published this year and set in the present day, the ‘racial reckoning’ of the past two years has clearly missed HarperCollins.
For a book about breaking stereotypes, the treatment of the minor characters, especially the maid staff and the illegal Mexican immigrant/ dishwasher, was eye-rolling and plainly offensive. It’s good that these happy, kind (but simple) souls have the young, white neurodivergent maid looking out for them!
The dénouement involves a courtroom scene amongst the worst I’ve read and an ending emerging from nowhere. Who needs Chekov’s gun when you’ve got MacGuffins and red herrings littered all about the place?
That’s enough from me. This was rubbish.
⭐ ½
Part-murder mystery, part-quirky “coming of age” story, I struggled to fully embrace this book, as I could not stop thinking about the death of Elijah McClain. Elijah was a young, black neurodivergent man killed by Colorado police because he was “acting strangely”.
Why?
The book is told via the first-person narration of Molly, the young, neurodivergent maid of the title. Prose doesn’t explicitly identify Molly as white. Still, I’d say that it was a safe assumption, given the relatively easy ride she gets as the storyline plunges Molly into a whole world of trouble.
If only Elijah McClain were so lucky.
The mystery is seemingly secondary to the key selling point of the novel: that is, the ‘twist’ of Molly’s ‘special’ way of seeing things seems to delight most reviewers. I understand that the author wants to address the stigma of neurodivergence. As a character, Molly is not consistent enough – either in communication with others or in her inner monologues – to be believable. She shifts from a clueless dupe in the first half of the book to an astute observer of the unspoken nuances of social interactions by the story’s end.
While my mind can stretch to accommodate character development, the writing here is utterly pedestrian with a focus on telling, not much showing, and actions from our central narrator that is not at all consistent with her early characterisation and presentation of her struggles with determining intentions.
Worst of all are the outrageous racial stereotypes that had my jaw-dropping. The offensiveness of this drew me back to the story of Elijah McClain, and I shake my head at how no editor picked up on the tone-deafness of large parts of the book. Published this year and set in the present day, the ‘racial reckoning’ of the past two years has clearly missed HarperCollins.
For a book about breaking stereotypes, the treatment of the minor characters, especially the maid staff and the illegal Mexican immigrant/ dishwasher, was eye-rolling and plainly offensive. It’s good that these happy, kind (but simple) souls have the young, white neurodivergent maid looking out for them!
The dénouement involves a courtroom scene amongst the worst I’ve read and an ending emerging from nowhere. Who needs Chekov’s gun when you’ve got MacGuffins and red herrings littered all about the place?
That’s enough from me. This was rubbish.
⭐ ½