The Maidens (Alex Michaelides)

This is not a book! This feels more and more like a motion picture as it takes you on a chilling journey, full of excitement, suspense, fear & anticipation. Alex Michaelides has a sure shot winner with The Maidens and I would be most keen to see if it replicates the success of his debut novel ‘The Silent Patient’. I for one had not read ‘The Silent Patient’, and so I had no benchmark to judge his latest work. Nor could I (thankfully!) draw a comparison with it. For me, this was a wonderful wonderful book deserving of all accolades & applause.

From the word go, the book has you on your toes. At the start I had thought it was probably an investigation into Sebastian’s death. But as the plot unfolds, it brings in such unexpected scenarios. To start with, the character of Henry – he embarks such a sense of fear & chill that sets the tone for the book. It is simply amazing how Alex succeeds in creating such a tense & fearful scene – rather scene after scene all through the book. The way Henry stays back at Mariana’s house and stalks her house sets you thinking he will surely be causing something untoward. A simple sentence that Mariana left the latch open just leaves you waiting for something to happen, and you feel relieved when it doesn’t really happen!

And then the character of Fred. His introduction was yet again one of those terrifying sequences that cast a sense of fear & suspicion. The way he keeps appearing from nowhere & keeps speaking of his premonition almost gives a ghostly feel.

The Maidens is loaded with such characters that for once makes you wonder how come all psycopaths have landed together at one place :)) If the psychic Henry & clumsy Fred were not enough, we get the sociopath (as Zoe calls her) bedder Elsie whose character is so funnily crafted with a witchy feel to it and always speaking in third person. The way she agrees to talk at the mention of some cake lol. Or wakes Mariana with her incessant banging of the door. Funny.

Continuing from the spoiler above, the sequence in particular where Mariana goes to Fosca’s room for dinner – WOW! Can only stand up and clap for the petrifying effect that Michaelides creates.

The manner in which the author creates the scene where someone is following Mariana, or how she is always looking over her shoulders sensing someone’s watching – all such illustrations make for a gripping read. There never was a dull moment in the book, nor any section you feel could have been done away with. The minutiae of Greek mythology that keep popping up every now and then were quite fascinating – interesting to read, and another thing working for this book.

Another thing deserving mention is the manner in which the culprit’s account, in his words, is presented – giving a perspective, the killer’s perspective, on what makes one a monster. If you have watched “Breathe – Season 2” starring Abhisheik Bachchan, you are bound to be reminded of it when reading these passages. They have a striking similarity of a dual life, and the reasons that lead to it.

All in all, a complete entertainer. A job well done by Alex Michaelides.

An equally chilling thriller, check this out The Judge’s List | Book Review | Book Of The Year 2021 Winner . Or the exhilarating Over My Dead Body (Jeffrey Archer)