The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Author: Alex Michaelides 

Title: The Maidens 

Published: 2021

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Pages: 368

Genre: Thriller 

     St Christopher's College, Cambridge, is a closed world to most. For Mariana Andros - a group therapist struggling through her private grief - it's where she met her late husband. For her niece, Zoe, it's the tragic scene of her best friend's murder. As memory and mystery entangle Mariana, she finds a society full of secrets, which has been shocked to its core by the murder of one of its own. Because behind its idyllic beauty is a web of jealousy and rage, which emanates from an exclusive set of students known only as The Maidens. A group under the sinister influence of the enigmatic professor Edward Fosca. A man who seems to know more than anyone about the murders - and the victims. And the man who will become the prime suspect in Mariana's investigation - an obsession which will unravel everything...

     You know how sometimes a book just grabs you from the moment you feel its smooth cover between your fingers. You pick it up off the table and flip it over, that small collection of words on the back just seems to spark with what you've been looking for. So you cross your fingers that it will live up to your hopes as you put one step in front of the other on your way to check out. All the way home you cradle it in your arms waiting for that moment when you can finally sit down crack open its pages and jump in. And that is how I came to be sat in my studio at home with a fresh cup of tea staring at those opening lines. It definitely has a hook to it. You are immediately enticed by its siren's call to want to delve deeper into its dark and twisted tale. And on a dark winter's night, I struggle to think of a fine place to find myself. 

     Michaelides's cast of characters is defiantly on the dramatic side. Each one plays their part to try and ensnare us to their way of thinking. We are being plotted against from the get-go and it's going to take a strong minute to try and get a handle on the rules of the game. This is a land inhabited with bubbling secrets each festering behind a pristine mask presented to the world. With each turn of the page, we are swept up into their riptide. It may sound a little over the top but I really got stuck into how he had his cast bounce off of each other. Our heroes are complex and intriguing, never feeling like some sort of cardboard cutout put in place to fill a page. As for our professor, he plays his part like the consummate creepy pro. There is an air of Manson or Jones in his control of the maidens. This group of elusive chosen ones. The girls seem to waft here and there never quite touching the ground. They have this almost feeling of the  Lisbon girls from The Virgin Suicides. As if they belong to another world than our own. And that I feel is just the way the professor would like us to see them.  But much like those deadly girls in ancient greek mythology get too close at your own peril. There is a deadly bite here to be found and someone is more than happy to sink their fangs in and make sure there is no waking up from it. 

     This is one of those books that at first sight seems quite straightforward, but the further into the labyrinth you venture the more you begin to realize just how much peril is around the next corner. The author has constructed the perfect trap for us as he plans our path. What we bear witness to is that dark and corrupted world of academia that may not exist in real life but we love to imagine does. This older charismatic cult leader bending young girls to his will. This book is definitely one of those that ride on the creepy side of the thriller genre. With so much to hide it doesn't exactly take a lot to become distrustful of all those who come into our view. How could we not? after all we already know something is not quite right from the get-go. I enjoyed getting brought into this web by the author. what he has created is this great modern thriller but at the same time pulling in strands from Greek myths. There were times when it reminded me of Patterson's Kiss The Girls, although slightly more the film version. It is this head intoxicating mix of knowing we are witnessing a situation and a place that breaks rules and taboos and shouldn't be looked upon but we can't pull our gaze away. You far too easily find yourself captured by this whirlwind of a story. 

     This was my first time stepping foot into a world created by this author. And I must say that it captured me for all of those three hundred and sixty-eight pages. I could not help but become fascinated by this world and the characters the author put in there. They have created a world of lies and secrets of their own making. It is a world we are being pushed out of but then you find yourself so desperately wanting to crack it open and gorge yourself on this toxic feast. I highly suggest you go and grab yourself a copy and sink beneath its pages.