The Maidens was a fantastic dive into dark academia, an enthralling murder mystery and a great introduction for me into the writings of Alex Michaelides. It was almost a challenge to compile my thoughts into one, spoiler-free review, but here’s my attempt.
The Maidens, Alex Michaelides
Themes: Fiction, Mystery, Dark Academia
Reading Format: Hardback
5 STARS // 9.5 CAWPILE
The Maidens sets the bar for dark academia in my opinion. The dreary, gloomy scenes filled with the halls of St Christopher’s College of Cambridge University felt like the perfect setting for a murder mystery shrouded with British literate and Greek mythology. We follow Mariana, a group therapist, as she is called by Zoe, her niece, following the murder of a student at the college. Mariana makes her way to Zoe in Cambridge and decides to try to solve this murder herself. With her niece convinced her teacher Fosca is responsible, Mariana starts to build a case against him.
I have to say, I did roll my eyes a little bit at how much Mariana could get involved in this case, as someone who shouldn’t have been able to get access to as much as she did. It seems rather easy at times for her to jump over obstacles and find out information that maybe should have been a bit more protected. There are a few moments in this book that made me go ‘really?!’, but as it kept me totally hooked and I found it the most fun I’d had with a book like this for a while, I let it slide. The five stars this book received from me is down to the pure enjoyment I felt when reading it, how gripped I was and how much I enjoyed the writing. But in this review, as well as my praise, I will also go on to mention the sexist moments, male gaze and some parts of this book that I felt were a strange addition.
I think I expected The Maidens to be heavier in writing and more lyrical, but honesty it surprised me by not being as daunting as expected. There was lyrical writing and it did feel like it added to the setting beautifully, but there wasn’t too much. It was very focused on dialogue, which is what I always prefer in a novel. I find it makes the pacing faster, gives me more to care about in the characters and generally adds even more to my enjoyment. I praise this book for its pacing – something I’ve seen other reviews criticise. Whilst it took time to meet the title group of the Maidens, I felt like I was being moved along at a fast-paced and had enough information being constantly added that I never felt bored. I felt genuinely excited to pick this book up.
I enjoyed reading Michaelides’s references to both Greek Mythology and also British literature. I think he did a really good job of making the reader feel in the know. I didn’t ever feel lost or like I didn’t know what references he was talking about, he explained the stories he was referencing enough that someone with no knowledge of them, could easily understand. I think this is really important as it means the reader feels intelligent and involved in the story, in the same way, our protagonist Mariana is.
As for the characters, I think this is where people have found most things to critique and I suppose I would agree. Whilst I’ve rated this book with a glowing 5 stars, it isn’t without fault. I’m always wary when books written by men, have a female lead, and whilst I think Michaelides did a fantastic job of creating Mariana and giving her depth and a backstory, there were elements linked to her that he failed to grasp in my opinion. I enjoyed getting to know her and felt she was fleshed out well, she certainly felt like a real character with both merits and flaws.
However, Mariana felt like a damsel in distress quite a lot of the time, and whilst she quite literally states she ‘doesn’t need a knight in shining armour’, it seems like this line is put in there to make her seem stronger when actually she constantly needs saving. Whenever I read women like this I always think of Fiona in Shrek Forever After when she says she saved herself and stopped waiting for a man to come along. Mariana it feels does not do this. Not that she has to, it is okay to be vulnerable and need help, but I felt like Michaelides was trying to present her as fiercely independent, but actually had someone holding her hand at every stage.
I felt most of the male characters were fawning over Mariana at some point in this book. It followed the trope of a female lead not knowing how beautiful she was etc, and honestly, I feel like it’s a shame this was added in. It would have been nice to see these men take an interest based on Mariana’s intelligence and mind, not purely because she’s beautiful and doesn’t know it.
Throughout this book we see several male characters struggle with being told no by Mariana. They keep pushing themselves onto her and trying again and again to change her mind. Throughout reading this I’ve wondered what the point of this was and if the author was in fact not realising this wasn’t okay (you’d really hope this isn’t the case). But I think now having finished the novel, I’ve decided the purpose of this was to make readers, perhaps particularly female readers, feel uncomfortable by the male characters. I think this was a writing ploy to alienated readers from the male characters.
Lastly on characters, I definitely think at times there was a male gaze present here, which was a shame to see, but also perhaps ties in with my above point. At one stage Mariana meets two female students and the first comments of description about them are on their body shapes and the length of their skirts. I feel like Mariana wouldn’t have noticed these things first personally – it felt like the male gaze certainly slipped in here.
The themes this book explored were really interesting, ranging from therapeutic techniques to a knowledge of Greek Mythology. I think this book also touched on things like the Oedipus complex with regards to Fosca and the Maidens. There is so much to explore here and also to research, I found myself constantly looking things up throughout my reading. I enjoyed learning more about how the Greek Myth references wove into this story, it was interesting to see the parallels between the plot and these ancient myths. Sometimes it perhaps felt like there was so much woven in that a lot of could be there to set up red herrings, which was done quite often, however, I won’t criticise this as I think it made the book even more fun.
Overall, I loved this book. I did slightly see the ending coming, but it did also keep me guessing. I felt like I didn’t know who to trust and was compelled to keep reading to find out. This book left me desperate to pick it back up when I wasn’t reading it, which I think is always a strong trait of a book well enjoyed. Whilst I have flawed this book, especially the characterisation and male gaze, ultimately it was good fun. I felt invested, I loved the dark academia vibes and I wanted to know what would happen. It’s for that reason it scored so high for me and probably secures itself a seat on the top table of my books of the year.
