Listened to this on Libby because it was available and I like Greek mythology and suspense novels. I knew it couldn’t possibly be as good as The Secret History, but hoped I would get some of the same thrills. I did not. Spoilers below.
The book is tepid garbage from start to finish. It sets up a murder mystery plot that is so hackneyed it barely constitutes original work, then proceeds to set up an obvious candidate for murderer plus several obvious red herrings. And then, instead of any kind of cleverly-foreshadowed twist or subversion of genre tropes, the book just throws all that away and ambushes you with a gratuitous, irrelevant twist that seemingly exists only to throw the main character deeper into despair and to say “ha ha, bet you didn’t guess the answer!!”
There are some themes that work, and that even manage to be compelling from time to time. The problem is that these themes are such gems as “women endure heinous suffering without respite” and “men are sociopathic predators.” Not exactly original stuff, nor originally-written. Even Fred, the kindest male character in the book, ends up stalking Mariana (and yes, saves her life because of it, but still, cmon guy.)
The final twist did give me a frisson, but in retrospect that was just because of how intentionally gruesome it was. I had even considered Sebastian-from-beyond-the-grave as an answer to the whodunit, but rejected it as not supported by the evidence in the text. It doesn’t make any fucking sense for Zoe to have committed those murders, and it’s never explained how she prepared for them or got away with them. Seriously not one word is dedicated to discussing the actual murderer’s methods or alibi.
The book also insults its readers’ intelligence. The worst example I can remember:
> “Why were the cult initiates given a pinecone?”
> “Well you see, it’s not really about the pinecone, it’s about what the pinecone represents.”
…no shit.
And then of course there’s the hundreds of pages of incessant Greek Mythology 101 lessons. The main character is of Greek descent, lived in Athens for her whole childhood, spent significant time on an island with a temple to Persephone, and still has to be taught several times about the identities and personalities of these foundational characters in the mythos. Either give us a little credit and cut it with the D’aulaire’s summary, or at least get into some of the more interesting corners of the stories. “Persephone was a goddess of death, and she was also a comely maiden! How about that cognitive dissonance!! ooOOOooOOO!!!!” doesn’t really do it for me after the second time.
I know that people are going to ask why I finished the book if I hated it so much, and the answer is that I shouldn’t have. I wanted to know how he was going to deliver a satisfying conclusion based on the agonizingly slow buildup (he didn’t). [This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkAcademia/comments/11089hq/the_maidens_by_alex_michaelides_is_such_an/) and its responses are pretty much in line with my thoughts, I just had to vent a little.
by LazarusRises