My first book after like a year of hiatus from reading, this is the book I picked up to read. Boy, was I wrong.
I had read The Silent Patient when it had released in 2019, and it was really really good. It was your usual murder mystery bit a very fresh take on it. With the high and hype of The Silent Patient, I went ahead with The Maidens, and honestly I just have one question after reading the epilogue - WHAT THE FUCK?
If you have not read the book, from here on it is full on spoiler mode, so I would suggest you read the book and then read this, if you don't care about this book.. well here we go.
But whether to read this book or not?: Don't set high expectations, it a casual read. I borrowed this book from my friend and still felt robbed, but its up to you.
So now, why the hell was Pedophilia involved at all? Like what the fuck. I could have understood that Zoe killed because of love and shit but why Sebastian? Just why? I honestly rolled my eyes when the story came to that.
That's just one thing wrong with this book. Why the hell is the protagonist, Mariana, so boring? She has no hobbies, no features which either made me root for her or be against her in anyway. She was just there. I honestly cared so little about everyone.
The book doesn't even make logical sense, the police investigation seemed minimal, because not even once did Mariana's goose chase intertwined with the police's investigation. I don't think so Police even gave a shit about the murders.
I didn't understand the motivation for Zoe to frame Fosca, some Greek mythology link was given but honestly I didn't even care, just wanted to finish it.
We had so many male characters which made no impact to the story, like Henry, he came out of nowhere and just the author just flicked him off. Fred was an anomaly, he was just there at the end, because apparently he is a psychic. Morris was I guess somehow relevant.
Why is everyone's father bad to them? Is Alex okay? Did anyone ask him?
What the fuck was up with the pinecones?
Zoe dismembered the bodies, somehow had no DNA of her on the dead bodies and she was able to do it secretly without anyone knowing?
Why name the book "The Maiden" if you are hardly going to mention them?
I just wanted to rant, the book was a fucking mess. I honestly feel tired, because it took me 5ish hours to complete this fucking chore of a book.
The only thing I am happy about it is that I was able to complete a book from start to finish.
coconutandpineapplee t1_iudy7bc wrote
It felt like the book wasn't edited. Almost like the Silent Patent did so well and they just rushed this one out to bank on the people excited for it.
There were too many red herrings. It made no sense at the end to say Zoe was in a relationship with Mariana's husband BUT Mariana had NO IDEA??? There was nothing in the book to indicate that was going on...it wasn't needed at all.
I understand, I wanted to rant to someone about this book after I read it haha.