The Maidens

Product Information

I want to thank the publisher, Macmillan for the ARC of The Maidens by Alex Michaelides in exchange for an honest review. P.S. I have now listened to the audio version of the The Silent Patient. I had to increase my rating for that one because the audiobook was so well done, but I still prefer The Maidens! I suspect that if more reviewers had listened to the audiobook, The Maidens would have a much higher rating. This would make a great movie! ) In the interim, in Zoe's room, Mariana finds a letter (which turns out to be what the journal-like chapters of the book are) written to Zoe, where the author explains that he wrote it so Zoe could understand him, and he professes his love for Zoe. (Mariana assumes the letter-writer is Fosca.)

Accompanying the housekeeper on shopping trips to the crowded and frenetic market in the center of Athens always made Mariana nervous. And she was relieved, and a little surprised, to return home unscathed. Large groups continued to intimidate her as she grew older. At school, she found herself on the sidelines, feeling as if she din't fit in with her classmates. And this feeling of not fitting in was hard to shake. Years later, in therapy, she came to understand that the schoolyard was simply a macrocosm of the family unit: meaning her uneasiness was less about the here and now—less about the schoolyard itself, or the market in Athens, or any other group in which she might find herself—and more to do with the family in which she grew up, and the lonely house she grew up in. Tara had just confided in Zoe, that their Greek Tragedy Professor, Edward Fosca, had threatened to kill her. But, the investigators do not believe what Zoe has to say.

Discussion Questions

Mariana was still in love with him—that was the problem. Even though she knew she’d never see Sebastian again—even though he was gone for good—she was still in love and didn’t know what to do with all this love of hers. There was so much of it, and it was so messy: leaking, spilling, tumbling out of her, like stuffing falling out of an old rag doll that was coming apart at the seams. Instead, Mariana brought the shoes close to her chest. She cradled them tight, as she might a child. And she wept. When Zoe reveals that she, too, received a postcard (with the Ancient Greek quotes), Mariana decides it's time for them to get out of Cambridge. Before they head out, Zoe insists on fetching a knife from the ceremony (which she suspects was used in the murders) so they have it as evidence.

However, Mariana is able to overpower Zoe (with help from Fred, a guy who has a crush on Mariana), and Zoe ends up injured and being arrested. Elsie mentions Zoe’s rude/unkind attitude towards her, and Zoe responds rather callously when it’s brought to her attention. Zoe implies that Elsie is nuts, but given how the book ends, it serves as another clue that Zoe may not be as nice as Mariana thinks. Zoe is the one who insists and guilts Mariana into staying, saying that it’s what Sebastian would have done. edward fosca is a byronically handsome american professor specializing in greek tragedies (natch) who seems to only teach the prettiest girls on campus; several confident, intelligent girls known as the maidens who have formed a tight-knit little secret society based on the persephone myth, and whose education is frequently conducted by fosca in private sessions featuring drugs and alcohol and wild parties but it's not a harem at all, oh no, he's just the light these 20-year-old girlmoths collectively named after virginal ingenues gravitate towards and it's all perfectly normal academia. tara was one of the maidens, but neither fosca nor any of the other young women except zoe seem especially broken up over her death. to contrast grief-responses: mariana is clutching and weeping over her dead spouse's sneakers fourteen months after his death, but an inner-circle maiden dies and the next day these ladies are just fine and dandy, cool and snarky.

Too much unnecessary misdirection about the identity of the murder even though it’s so obvious from the beginning A deliciously dark, elegant, utterly compulsive read —with a twist that blew my mind. I loved this even more than I loved The Silent Patient and that's saying something!" There are so many things I liked about this book, that I almost feel bad saying that the main caveat about reading it is that the ending is just okay. I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but it certainly feels a little “meh”. I thought it was fine, though I don’t know that anyone will be particularly impressed by it. I’m hesitant to say more, since I don’t want to give anything away, but suffice to say it sort of works, but it certainly doesn’t feel quite as clever as the end of The Silent Patient. Mariana prays to the goddesses (Demeter and Persephone) in Naxos, and Sebastian is then shrouded in darkness and dies the next day. Mariana assumes it’s because she offended the gods, but in the end you realize that (if you accept the superstitious take on things) her prayer protected her from him. Then, when she prays again, they reveal the love letter in Zoe’s bedroom. I thought this was one of the cleverer aspects of this book.

Mariana understood this. She knew she should relinquish Sebastian, but she couldn’t—because she was still in love with him. She was in love even though he was gone forever, gone behind the veil—“behind the veil, behind the veil”—where was that from? Tennyson, probably.I've decided to round my rating up a star, if for no reason other than I cannot stop thinking about this book and it got me out of a major reading slump. I wasn't as dazzled by The Silent Patient as most readers, yet as a debut it was undeniably entertaining and well crafted. The author has completely changed courses with his sophomore novel, The Maidens, and traded the world of flashy psychological thrillers for a literary murder mystery. Make no mistake, although this book has a quiet power, its short chapters and oppressive atmosphere are gripping. Academia and crime fiction go together like peanut butter and chocolate, so I think Michaelides has found a sweet spot in this particular sub-genre of suspense. When Fosca notices Mariana's interest in him, he invites her to dinner. There, he tells Mariana about how the pinecone was a symbol given to each initiate into the cult of Eleusis and about his unhappy childhood on a farm. Mariana also sees his copy of Euripides complete works with on of the quotations on the postcards underlined, making her certain he is the murderer.