After reading The Silent Patient, I was eager to see what else Alex Michaelides had in store. The Maidens offers a good, strong female lead and, true to form, plenty of Greek mythology. In fact, I think this is where it surpasses The Silent Patient: the mythology ties more closely into the story and feels purposeful rather than ornamental.
There are some compelling characters here. Fosca is deeply unsettling in just the right way — a character you want to dislike on instinct. Mariana makes for a strong protagonist: intelligent, driven, and very human. Her missteps in her amateur investigation felt believable, if sometimes frustrating.
Where the book falters, at least for me, is in the execution of its twist. I won’t spoil anything, but the big reveal felt a bit too obvious, even if the red herrings occasionally gave me pause. Some supporting characters also didn’t land. Henry felt unnecessary, Fred could have been developed into more than just “weird,” and Zoe needed more depth. For all the dark happenings, I often found myself oddly detached.
I did enjoy seeing Ruth appear again (she was also in The Silent Patient), but Theo’s inclusion felt gratuitous. His cameo added nothing that couldn’t have been handled by another character.
Finally, while the acknowledgements mention that The Silent Patient was largely Michaelides’s own work, this book involved input from editors, fellow authors, scholars, and family. To me, it had a “too many cooks” feel — muddy in execution compared to the sharper impact on his debut.
In the end, The Maidens is an intriguing but uneven novel, earning itself 3 out of 5 stars. I’m glad I ready it, but it didn’t leave me with the same satisfaction as The Silent Patient. All that said, I’m still looking forward to reading The Fury in the not-too-distant future!
