A review by greenlivingaudioworm
The Maid by Nita Prose

dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

“Sometimes, you must do one thing bad to do another thing good.”

This is one of those books that has been on my radar for a few years now, but I wasn’t intrigued enough to give it attention. When this book was picked for my August book club, I was ready to see what all the fuss was.

Things I Liked:
-This was a fun mystery in the sense that I wasn’t able to figure out who did it. I was still pleasantly surprised at the end when the twist was revealed.
-Molly’s relationship with her Grandmother (Gran) was so heartwarming. I loved how hard each of them worked for the other. It’s one of those grandparent relationships that makes me wish I had spent more time with my grandmother before she passes away.
-Molly. Oh, Molly. What a simultaneously brilliant yet socially unaware woman. I laughed so hard at the scene when she thought the room was filled with powder from powdered donuts and not drugs. What a hilarious misunderstanding that worked out quite well for the ones dealing drugs.


Things That Didn’t Work For Me:
-While I didn’t guess the twist at the end, it felt like it kind of came out of nowhere? I was not expecting the characters at the end to be in that scene and it made me wonder how on earth I was supposed to guess that when nothing in the book (in my opinion) appeared to lead to that conclusion. A shot out of left field, really.
-I picked up pretty early on that Molly is neurodivergent. Absolutely nothing wrong with that in itself. However, some of the narration felt a bit choppy and until I figured that out, I was very confused by the abrupt changes in Molly’s demeanor, especially as it came to how she interacted with other characters.
-The number of characters that appeared to take advantage of Molly and her inability to read social cues broke my heart a little bit. Have some sympathy, folks.

*Read for Read Between the Wines Book Club August 2024
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