Rant Review: The Maidens

Links to books I talked about in this video
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0:00-Intro

0:47-About the book

1:24-Review

23:39-I'm stopping this madness/final thoughts

24:42-Outro

WHERE TO FIND ME:

[Zachary_McLaren]

You know it's bad when Murphy doesn't like a character that has adopted a child.

[jlarcher]

Wasn't in the greatest mood this morning, until I saw Merphy had a rant review. And my morning immediately became better. I think I might be a bad person. 😆

[Thecatladybooknook_PennyD]

I feel negative reviews are more authentic than "playing the middle". I like unhauls because I feel I get more information than hauls as to why a book didn't work for them so I can decide better if it would work for me or not.

[rajanyasengupta]

what's better than hearing merphy rant for 25 mins straight (seriously not being sarcastic i love it)

[WadeZK]

[SPOILERS] What bothered me the most in the whole book was Fred, who is a complete creep that made my skin crawl for the entire book and if I met such a person in real life I would try to stay as far away from him as possible. I kept expecting him to be involved in the murders somehow, because there’s no way such a massive creep can be considered the main love interest. Is that what the author thinks good guys are like?

Although at some point, I figured out that Zoe is the killer, not because of any real story related clues, but because the book kept hitting you over the head with statements like “The killer is obviously a man! This kind of crime can only ever be committed by a man! This is characteristic of MALE psychology! Get it???”, so much that at some point it became obvious that the killer was a woman.

[mouseholmes]

(spoilers!!!) My breaking point in this book was when Marianna follows a dude to a graveyard and when she realizes that he's just there to hook up with a woman just..stays and watches them??? and then is freaked out when the guy is angry about this incredibly creepy thing she just did and acts like HE was the one who was in the wrong. She was such an infuriating protagonist and a genuinely terrible therapist it was incredible

[hfollman]

I almost would have been more satisfied if (SPOILERS) Fosca actually did it instead of Zoe. Like if it's so obvious the main character believes, and the author wants you to believe, it's Fosca that if he made it just a bit more subtle then made a dual POV halfway through with Mariana and Fosca (after he admits his crime to the reader) playing cat and mouse (Fosca trying to hide his tracks and Mariana trying to uncover them), I would've liked that a lot more. Samantha Downing made her villain known early in her new book "For Your Own Good" and that didn't take away from the "thriller" part of mystery/thriller.

I felt like Alex Micchaledes just wanted a plot twist that lived up to the one in his debut novel.

[bojanrodic]

This is how you know the video is a true rant.

*Last 5th of the video*

Murphy: So here's the setting of the book...

[AlexaDonne]

OMG I felt the SAME WAY about literally every point you made. I actually blocked Henry/Harry from my memory b/c his subplot was so stupid and inconsequential. Re, twist: You didn't miss anything. I went back specifically and relistened to every single earlier scene w/ CHARACTER REDACTED and CHARACTER REDACTED and there is zero foreshadowing that a reader could glob onto. It is maddening and screams "my publisher rushed a first draft through to the shelves b/c I'm a bestseller." (or the author didn't want to edit lol)

[wearesatellites]

I had such high hopes for this book. Dark academia, Greek mythology, and a thriller/mystery? It sounded like such a good combo! But I HATED that ending. If Mariana is a therapist, how did she not recognize her lover (of many years) was a psychopath? How did she not pick up on that fact that her niece was going through abuse/grooming/trauma? AS IF.

It also drove me crazy that in the end, the maidens and the mythology (aka. the very things that made people pick up the book) weren’t important for the story at all. Like they existed and died for no reason, because Sebastian and Zoe could’ve killed Mariana a thousand seperate times without the maidens being necessary or relevant at all. They were the ultimate red herring and I feel so cheated. Like you said, there was so much potential with the mythological/ritualistic stuff that was going on with the Maidens, but turns out it was all just pointless filler in a weak (and really far-fetched) murder plot about Zoe.

Can I also add: the police and investigator are skeptical of Mariana the whole time, but at the end we’re supposed to believe that she called them and said, “I followed my niece to the woods and it turns out she killed the girls, and then she tried to kill me!!” …. and they just suddenly believe her? That chapter is so rushed - it would not have gone down that smoothly. The only way they maybe would’ve believed her is if Zoe admitted to everything…. but that just seems very convenient (villain confessions are so unrealistic, and just lazy writing IMO).

So disappointed all around because I really wanted this to be a good one.

[lindsaym]

This twist ending was THE LITERAL WORST! It would have been more entertaining for her to be right all along 😂

[Katie-ugep]

Yesss I also hate it when the "killer" comes out of left field. A good whodunnit reveal makes you surprised but also think "wow that makes so much sense!!".

[PhantomGreyfire]

What is the cat doing with that bloody knife? Those are the answers we actually need.

[kammy]

Is it bad that Merphy's Rants make me feel so happy? Is that bad? I don't think it is.

[thepagesofsamantha]

the ending was my absolute biggest turn-off for the book. but your other points are SO accurate as well. I will say, The Silent Patient is SOOOO much better and you should definitely read that. The Silent Patient is one of my favorite books, it was ten times better than this one. The Maidens was very much a step down imo but I'm still interested in reading more from Alex Michealides

[hullshawna]

I don’t like when everybody in the book is in love with a particular character, spread the love.

[jhouserwrites]

I always wonder how many beta readers these authors have. I DEPEND on my betas to help me know when there are annoying plot conveniences and how well my red herrings/reveals come across. That said, we all read at a different level critically. Some of my readers will be too sucked into the romance to point out what another does about the believability of a certain world-building aspect. That's why it's important to have a few!

[TheKangeiko]

I am so happy to see this rant, mainly because 3 days ago I finished the book and was so incensed that I sent a 28-message-rant to my book group’s WhatsApp - and they weren’t even reading the book, I was just so angry I had to yell about it to someone! (Yes I’m going to be sending a link to this video to them ☺️)

[katymartin]

So I read this between Wheel of Time books and enjoyed it for being a fast, non-high fantasy because I needed a little break haha. That being said, I also agree with everything you said here haha. My HUGE thing is HOW out of left field the Zoe reveal was. I'm very thriller/mystery-dumb (I can't guess an ending to save my life), and my favorite thing is when I can backtrack and see all the little clues I missed - of which I feel there were none in this book. Also, as a therapy-goer, I just kept thinking oh my I'm glad Mariana isn't my therapist hahaha. All that being said, I am still going to give The Silent Patient a go!

[gordontheobald]

The olde “villain tries to sucker punch the hero and kills themselves by mistake” is so tired at this point. It’s the standard PG rated ending when we don’t want to tarnish our hero with a bit o’ killing.