A review by solenophage
Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

dark slow-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

2.5

Classic over-the-top gore, violence, and sexual sadism could have made for a good time but didn't quite manage it for me.  It was rather slow with a lot of time on the romance and the main character's introspection, neither of which was very compelling.  I went back and forth on whether I found this look into Maeve's psyche interesting or insufferable.  She's pretentious and has a not-like-other-girls streak.  She's always thinking about how male serial killers just are what they are, but women have to be made into monsters by trauma/abuse/etc. but not her; she's always been "the wolf".  Fair enough, except all the killing we get to see her do is triggered by traumatic loss in her life.  Kind of diluted the strength of that concept.  Since it takes a long time for the book to get to any action and the other characters weren't explored much, it was good that Maeve had some depth, but it felt unintentionally hypocritical.
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