Aστραίᾱ reviewed The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Review of 'The Maidens' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
(W:this is not a complete review just some randomly collected thoughts// also no spoilers)
- when i first encountered this book what really lured me in was the possibility of finally possessing in my grasp a ‘dark academia’ type story where the characters explored weren’t predominantly male but yet again my expectations have been cut short. I mean when I hear “The Maidens” and read the synopsis presented in the back of the book I couldn’t help myself but think of a mysterious group of young intelligent girls in a cult like scenario dealing with the madness that has captured their life, but at the end of the day they were just treated like some random rich girls with no head to think for themselves even thought they were described as brilliant and even geniuses. (i get it that it was probably used to lead the readers to truly understand …
(W:this is not a complete review just some randomly collected thoughts// also no spoilers)
- when i first encountered this book what really lured me in was the possibility of finally possessing in my grasp a ‘dark academia’ type story where the characters explored weren’t predominantly male but yet again my expectations have been cut short. I mean when I hear “The Maidens” and read the synopsis presented in the back of the book I couldn’t help myself but think of a mysterious group of young intelligent girls in a cult like scenario dealing with the madness that has captured their life, but at the end of the day they were just treated like some random rich girls with no head to think for themselves even thought they were described as brilliant and even geniuses. (i get it that it was probably used to lead the readers to truly understand the impact of certain characters, which i will not mention because no spoilers, but still come on)
- the concept of the story is really interesting but could have probably been better explored through the usage of more than one pov (??)
- personally i think that one of the most important aspects of an enjoyable book is the possibility of connecting with the characters emotionally. the characters presented in this story have a lot of potential but they are not explored in depth whatsoever
- The plot twist in this book was one of the only things that i found capable of truly grabbing my full attention, it was a really good plot twist but was handled in a rather rush manner after a never ending build up that brought into the story almost nothing of use
