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The Maidens

Alex michaelides.

337 pages, Hardcover

First published June 3, 2021

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Accompanying the housekeeper on shopping trips to the crowded and frenetic market in the center of Athens always made Mariana nervous. And she was relieved, and a little surprised, to return home unscathed. Large groups continued to intimidate her as she grew older. At school, she found herself on the sidelines, feeling as if she din't fit in with her classmates. And this feeling of not fitting in was hard to shake. Years later, in therapy, she came to understand that the schoolyard was simply a macrocosm of the family unit: meaning her uneasiness was less about the here and now—less about the schoolyard itself, or the market in Athens, or any other group in which she might find herself—and more to do with the family in which she grew up, and the lonely house she grew up in.

Mariana grew up with a keen awareness of [her mother's] loss. As a therapist, she knew a baby's first sense of self comes through its parents' gaze. We are born being watched—our parents' expressions, what we see reflected in the mirror of their eyes, determines how we see ourselves. Mariana had lost her mother's gaze—and her father, well, he found it hard to look at her directly.

Most of the teaching...was done on a one-to-one basis, between fellow and student, usually taking place in the fellow's rooms. At any time after midday, or even earlier, at the discretion of the fellow concerned, alcohol was invariably served...providing an education in drinking as well as literature. It also meant that tutorials took on a more personal flavor, and lines between teacher and pupil became blurred—confidences were given, and intimacies exchanged.

"I can see you have cast me as the villain—a predator preying on my vulnerable students. Except now you're met these young ladies, you can see there's nothing vulnerable about them. Nothing untoward happens at these meetings—it's just a small study group, discussing poetry, enjoying wine and intellectual debate." "Except now one of those girls is dead." Professor Fosca frowned. There was an unmistakable flash of anger in his eyes. He stared at her. "Do you think you can see inside my soul?" Mariana looked away, embarrassed by the question. "No, of course not. I didn't mean—" "Forget it." He took another drag of his cigarette, all anger apparently gone. "The word 'psychotherapist,' as you know, comes from the Greek 'psyche,' , meaning 'soul,' and 'therapeia,' meaning 'healing.' Are you a healer of souls? Will you heal mine?" "No. Only you can do that." Fosca dropped his cigarette onto the path. He ground it into the earth with his foot. "You're determined to dislike me. I don't know why."

Fosca smiled. "Good...My rooms, at eight? And one more thing—" Before she could stop him, he leaned forward— And he kissed her on the lips. It only lasted a second. By the time Mariana could react, he had already pulled back. Fosca turned and went through the open gate. Mariana heard him whistling as he walked away. She brushed away the kiss with her fist. How dare he? She felt as if she had been assaulted—attacked; and that he had won somehow, succeeded in wrong-footing, intimidating her.

"I have a gift for that sort of thing, you know—runs in my family—foresight, premonitions. I see things others do not."

As soon as any group establishes itself, it always arouses envy and attack—and not just from forces on the outside, those excluded from the group, but also from dark and dangerous forces within the group itself.

It felt as if a kind of pestilence, a plague, were spreading through the college—like in a Greek myth, the sickness that destroyed Thebes; an invisible airborne poison drifting through the courtyards—and these ancient walls, once a refuge from the outside world, no longer offered any protection.

Mariana couldn’t help but feel a little skeptical—her background in group therapy told her, as a rule, to be suspicious of any group in love with a teacher; those situations rarely ended well.

I thought a lot about the secretive nature of groups as I was writing - especially within Cambridge. There are groups within groups. I studied group therapy myself, that's what I specialize in. It all goes back to the classic mysteries that I love, from authors like Agatha Christie: Everything is always set in an enclosed location, like an isolated house, a train, a private island. Cambridge is similar.

Death was no stranger to Mariana; it had been her traveling companion since she was a child—keeping close behind her, hovering just over her shoulder. She sometimes felt she had been cursed as if by some malevolent goddess in a Greek myth, to lose everyone she ever loved.

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THE MAIDENS

by Alex Michaelides ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2021

Eerie atmosphere isn’t enough to overcome an unsatisfying plot and sometimes-exasperating protagonist.

A blend of psychological mystery and gothic thriller puts a psychotherapist in pursuit of a serial killer on the campus of Cambridge University.

The author’s second novel features a psychotherapist as its main character, as did his 2019 debut, The Silent Patient (whose main character makes an appearance here). This book’s protagonist is Mariana, who has a busy practice in London specializing in group therapy. At 36, she’s a widow, reeling from the drowning a year before of her beloved husband, Sebastian. She’s galvanized out of her fog by a call from her niece, Zoe, who was raised by Mariana and Sebastian after her parents died. Zoe is now studying at Cambridge, where Mariana and Sebastian met and courted. Zoe has terrible news: Her close friend Tara has been murdered, savagely stabbed and dumped in a wood. Mariana heads for Cambridge and, when the police arrest someone she thinks is innocent, starts her own investigation. She zeroes in on Edward Fosca, a handsome, charismatic classics professor who has a cultlike following of beautiful female students (which included Tara) called the Maidens, a reference to the cult of Eleusis in ancient Greece, whose followers worshipped Demeter and Persephone. Suspicious characters seem to be around every ivy-covered corner of the campus, though—an audacious young man Mariana meets on the train, one of her patients who has turned stalker, a porter at one of the college’s venerable houses, even the surly police inspector. The book gets off to a slow start, front-loaded with backstories and a Cambridge travelogue, but then picks up the pace and piles up the bodies. With its ambience of ritualistic murders, ancient myths, and the venerable college, the story is a gothic thriller despite its contemporary setting. That makes Mariana tough to get on board with—she behaves less like a modern professional woman than a 19th-century gothic heroine, a clueless woman who can be counted on in any situation to make the worst possible choice. And the book’s ending, while surprising, also feels unearned, like a bolt from the blue hurled by some demigod.

Pub Date: June 1, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-250-30445-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Celadon Books

Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

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BOOK REVIEW

by Alex Michaelides

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DEVLINS

by Lisa Scottoline ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2024

As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.

The ne’er-do-well son of a successful Irish American family gets dragged into criminal complications that suggest the rest of the Devlins aren’t exactly the upstanding citizens they appear.

The first 35 years in the life of Thomas “TJ” Devlin have been one disappointment after another to his parents, lawyers who founded a prosperous insurance and reinsurance firm, and his more successful siblings, John and Gabby. A longtime alcoholic who’s been unemployable ever since he did time for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie’s then 2-year-old daughter, TJ is nominally an investigator for Devlin & Devlin, but everyone knows the post is a sinecure. Things change dramatically when golden-boy John tells TJ that he just killed Neil Lemaire, an accountant for D&D client Runstan Electronics. Their speedy return to the murder scene reveals no corpse, so the brothers breathe easier—until Lemaire turns up shot to death in his car. John’s way of avoiding anything that might jeopardize his status as heir apparent to D&D is to throw TJ under the bus, blaming him for everything John himself has done and adding that you can’t trust anything his brother has said since he’s fallen off the wagon. TJ, who’s maintained his sobriety a day at a time for nearly two years, feels outraged, but neither the police investigating the murder nor his nearest and dearest care about his feelings. Forget the forgettable mystery, whose solution will leave you shrugging instead of gasping, and focus on the circular firing squad of the Devlins, and you’ll have a much better time than TJ.

Pub Date: March 26, 2024

ISBN: 9780525539704

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

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by Lisa Scottoline

Awards & Accolades

New York Times Bestseller

IndieBound Bestseller

THE SILENT PATIENT

by Alex Michaelides ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 5, 2019

Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.

A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.

"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.

Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7

Page Count: 304

Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018

GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE | PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

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clock This article was published more than 2 years ago

‘The Silent Patient’ was a huge hit. Next we have ‘The Maidens.’ Don’t believe the hype.

“The Silent Patient,” Alex Michaelides’s 2019 blockbuster bestseller, is all about a London-based psychotherapist who becomes obsessed with a painter who goes silent after she’s convicted of murdering her husband. His new suspense novel, “The Maidens,” also involves a London-based psychotherapist, a grisly crime and the silencing of women.

Maybe Michaelides has gone back to this well one too many times.

“The Maidens” of the novel’s title are a secret society of female students at Cambridge University who slavishly cluster around a brilliant, ponytailed hunk of a classics professor named Edward Fosca. As is the custom at British universities, the professor conducts private tutorials with each of these young women (whom he’s dubbed “The Maidens”) and is also rumored to throw “infamous parties . . . . only for his students.”

One-third of the way through “The Maidens,” these young women start being murdered one-by-one, in gruesome, ritualistic fashion. University administrators are slow to act, waiting until victim number three is discovered to ruminate over closing down campus. When Professor Fosca is questioned about the high homicide rate among his clique, he shrugs, “There’s nothing sinister going on. I’m a tame fellow with a generous alcohol allowance, that’s all — if anyone is being abused here, it’s me.”

‘The Silent Patient’ ends with a major plot twist. Should a savvy reader have seen it coming?

The police find Fosca’s attitude perfectly rational. Our heroine, a widowed young psychotherapist named Mariana Andros, who is also the aunt of one of “The Maidens,” is the one adult in the novel who is convinced that Fosca is guilty of foul deeds. Certainly, it does seem like a significant clue that, before their murders, all the victims received a postcard with ominous quotations written in ancient Greek from the very texts that Fosca teaches.

Let’s stop there.

As anyone who’s stepped on a college campus lately knows, a male professor rumored to be inviting his most beautiful female students to be initiated into an alcohol-fumed “secret society” would be, rightly, hauled before the Sexual Misconduct Review Board quicker than you could say “Leda and the Swan.” (Doing my own due diligence, I Googled the Cambridge University website and confirmed that institution proclaims “a zero tolerance” policy on “inappropriate student and staff behaviour.”) Michaelides holds an MA from Cambridge. One can only surmise, then, that this Cartoon Cambridge is a deliberate fabrication, constructed out of Gothic conventions (an illicit sexual assignation among the tombstones of the campus graveyard!) and the vestiges of quaint Oxbridge tradition (bowler-hatted porters and food from “the buttery” sure to appeal to lovers of Dorothy Sayers’s “Gaudy Night.”

“The Silent Patient,” was, according to his ecstatic publisher’s promotional copy, “the biggest selling debut in the world in 2019,” so perhaps I’m missing something distinctive about “The Maidens.” That something would not be the novel’s descriptive passages nor its dialogue. Judge for yourself. Here’s Mariana sparring with Professor Fosca during dinner in his private quarters:

“He kept staring. His gaze was heavy, intense, lingering. She felt like a rabbit in headlights . . . .

‘You’re a beautiful woman,’ she heard him say, ‘but you have more than beauty. You have a certain quality — a stillness. Like the stillness in the depths of the ocean, far beneath the waves, where nothing moves. Very still . . . and very sad.’

Mariana didn’t say anything. She didn’t like where this was going — . . .”

[ The 5 best new thrillers to read in June ]

That makes two of us, Mariana. As a Gothic seducer, the professor relies on lines more full of baloney than the Cold Cut Combo at Subway.

I will admit I was drawn in by the first few chapters of “The Maidens” that focus on Mariana’s grief (she lost her husband 14 months earlier) and her work as a group therapist. I even looked forward to Mariana’s getaway to Cambridge, propelled by a frantic phone call from her niece, Zoe, after the first murder. But Michaelides’s plot begins to go off the rails when a graduate student in mathematics falls instantly in love with Mariana and proposes soon thereafter. Credibility is further strained by Chief Inspector Sangha, who’s in charge of the investigation, a man with “a lean and hungry look” who treats Mariana with instant (and unexplained) disdain. The novel’s credibility fully disintegrates at a memorial service held in the college chapel for the first victim. There, Professor Fosca and “The Maidens” process in and no one in attendance — university administrators, parents or students — places a red-alert call to authorities from the Sexual Misconduct Review Board:

“Mariana saw Professor Fosca appear in the chapel. He walked down the aisle, following a group of six distinctive young women — distinctive because they were all extremely beautiful and because they were all dressed in white; in long white dresses.”

Throughout “The Maidens,” Michaelides quotes from the melancholy poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, one of Cambridge’s most celebrated poets. But a line from another Cambridge poet seems to me more apt as a final pronouncement on “The Maidens.” I’m thinking of A.E. Housman, who was a professor of Latin there in the early 20th century. Housman wrote the long poetry sequence “A Shropshire Lad,” which contains the oft-useful line, “Terence, this is stupid stuff.”

Maureen Corrigan , who is the book critic for the NPR program “Fresh Air,” teaches literature at Georgetown University.

The Maidens

By Alex Michaelides

Celadon. 352 pp. $27.99

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Book review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Title: The Maidens

Author: Alex Michaelides

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Publication date: 10th June 2021

My rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

“Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike. Particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated when one of The Maidens, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?

When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything – including her own life.”

The Maidens was one of my most anticipated books of 2021, driven by the success of The Silent Patient which spread like wildfire in the book community and quickly became one of my favourite Thrillers I have read to date. Needless to say I was extremely curious to see how Alex Michaelides would develop his writing and if he would stick to some of the themes and techniques that were so prominent in The Silent Patient.

Edward Fosca is a professor at Cambridge university specialising in Greek tragedy and becomes a key person of interest in the murder of a young girl which stunned the community. I found Edward to be an intriguing character with a similar mystery and darkness to that of Theo in The Silent Patient. This type of character development of a male antagonist is something that the author excels at with seemingly effortless ease. The other characters include Mariana, a psychologist who comes to the rescue of her niece Zoe who is Fosca’s student, and the Maidens who each seem to hide their own secrets. Unfortunately none of these characters were particularly refined and I felt like the author tried to make them too weak and soft in comparison to Fosca.

The Greek mythology theme was central to the plot and character development in The Maidens. It was clear that Alex Michaelides had researched this area well, both in language and culture. Ultimately this was the glue that held together Mariana to the maidens and Edward Fosca. I particularly liked how the author developed this point with the use of postcards written in ancient Greek.

The plot in The Maidens was ambitious but didn’t deliver compared to the high expectations. The pace was even and the storyline interesting enough to capture my attention but at no point did I feel engrossed enough to keep reading in the same way as The Silent Patient. I also believe that there were too many minor characters which took the attention away from the potential of developing the three main characters further to make the book even more captivating.

Overall, I enjoyed The Maidens and it promised to be an exceptional thriller. The Greek mythology theme was thoroughly researched and well implemented but more work is needed on the characters and smoothing out the plot. Nevertheless I am interested to see how this author progresses in his career and will certainly read his next books.

Facing the Story

Thank you, Stephen! I definitely recommend The Silent Patient, I think you’ll enjoy that one more than The Maidens.

Great review! A pity it didn’t quite live up to your expectations, since the premise sounds very intriguing. I haven’t read any of his books, but if I get the chance to I’ll make sure to start with The Silent Patient.

jennifertarheelreader

Loved reading your thoughts on this, Darina. I have not read his first book but I did read this one. I enjoyed the mythology but it definitely needed smoothing out like you said.

Kal @ Reader Voracious

Great review, Darina! I’ve heard similar things from people and have pretty much decided to go with The Silent Patient instead. Shame because I love mythology anything, haha

The Maidens Is the New 2021 Thriller That You Need to Add to Your TBR Pile Immediately

Published on 6/16/2021 at 8:05 PM

What do Greek mythology, a secret society, and two brutal murders all have in common? They set the scene of The Silent Patient author Alex Michaelides's brand-new thriller (out today!), The Maidens ($17). Enticingly dark and compulsively pageturning, this chilling novel takes readers on a suspenseful journey that's both terrifying and twisted.

The Maidens revolves around a group therapist named Mariana whose past has consisted of more death than life. After reeling from a rough childhood in Greece, Mariana goes to Cambridge University to complete her education as well as leave her past behind. Despite being lonely, quiet, and always on the outskirts, Mariana meets and falls in love with her future husband, Sebastian. Their happiness is unparalleled, until one day, during a trip Mariana suggested on the island of Naxos, Sebastian winds up dead. After months of suffering this heartbreak, things only get worse when Mariana's only lasting family member, her niece Zoe, calls her to tell her that her best friend was brutally and horrifically murdered at the same college Mariana and Sebastian had once found so much joy. Against her will, Mariana goes back to the campus, only to discover that the murderer is hiding in plain sight.

Untouchable, well respected, and often referred to as "dazzling," Professor Edward Fosca has blood on his hands, and Mariana knows it. When yet another young woman gets brutally murdered just days after Zoe's friend, Mariana knows she must catch the killer, but how? The professor has an alibi — he was with his group of prized students known as "The Maidens." This secret society of beautiful young women are named after Persephone, the goddess of death, and they are hiding something, but what and why ?

The once idyllic college campus becomes a hunting ground for a killer, and something sinister about Professor Fosca is making Mariana's blood run cold. Can she catch the killer before he strikes again? Or will she be next . . .

"As she looked into his black eyes, Mariana no longer had any doubts. She was absolutely certain: she was looking into the eyes of a murderer."

Standout Quote

As with any psychological thriller , you need to be in a stable headspace to read this book. There are some gruesome details about murder in here, so be sure you're equipped to handle those. If you're a seasoned thriller reader, we trust that you know how to handle a book like this.

Read This If You Like . . .

If you liked The Silent Patient , then you already know Michaelides's new book will be up your alley. With similar page-turning cliff-hangers, this utterly compulsive read will make you question which book you like better. There are also some cross-over nods to the The Silent Patient , so keep an eye out for those. Additionally, if you like Gone Girl , The Girl on the Train , and Sleeping With the Enemy , this book features a similar psychologically gripping style. It's thrilling without being too scary, and it has just the right amount of believable twists and turns.

POPSUGAR Reading Challenge Prompt(s)

This novel can check off more than one 2021 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge prompt; just pick the one that fits best for you.

A book that's published in 2021
A dark academia book
A book by an author who shares your zodiac sign (Michaelides is a Virgo)

How Long It Takes to Read

Since this book is really good, it won't take you longer than a couple days to get through it (or just one weekend, if you're a binge reader!). It's 333 pages, but thanks to the dramatic story and compelling writing, you'll breeze through it in no time.

Give This Book to . . .

It's a good book club book if you want to read something thrilling, and it'll lead to some interesting discussions about therapy, mythology, and (not surprisingly) death.

The Sweet Spot Summary

After his hit The Silent Patient , author Alex Michaelides is back with a Cambridge University-set psychological thriller centered on Greek mythology, a secret society, and a woman set out to prove a charismatic professor has blood on his hands. Prepare to devour this novel thanks to a twisted plot, intricate characters, and an ending that you'll want to rehash with any fellow mystery-lover.

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Review: A murder mystery with a twist of Greek tragedy and myth

Sigmund Freud is supposed to have said that there is no such thing as an accident. We behave in certain ways—often toxic or destructive ways—whose origins we are only dimly aware of. We are, ultimately, inscrutable to ourselves. That is at least one of the reasons why people like Mariana, the psychotherapist protagonist of Alex Michaelides’s The Maidens , stays employed.

Celadon Books 352p $27.99

Of course, as one character points out, a psychotherapist is, etymologically speaking, a “healer of souls,” and it is Mariana’s soul that is in need of repair first of all. Her impossibly perfect partner, Sebastian, has drowned off the coast of Naxos, and he and his death occupy almost all of her thoughts. Despite her best efforts, she cannot bring herself to discard his possessions. In the middle of her own grief and crisis, she also has others to think about: her clients, including the highly volatile Henry, and her orphaned niece, Zoe.

Other tragedies await Mariana. The body of Tara, a friend of Zoe’s at the University of Cambridge, is found slashed to ribbons in the woods. And so Mariana must return, with some trepidation, to the place where she and Sebastian met and fell hopelessly in love.

Occasional citations from Tennyson, Aristotle and others intensify the carefully built sense of tension in Alex Michaelides's new book.

What follows is a taut and diligently plotted detective story. Mariana, whose intuitions are predictably dismissed by the inspector handling the case, decides to remain in Cambridge and get to the bottom of things herself. Sebastian is painfully present to her in Cambridge, and at times he appears in the guise of a guardian angel, pressing Mariana on and giving her strength. (At one point, Mariana comes upon a statue of an angel and thinks it looks like Sebastian, which is really not to give the reader any credit at all.)

The murder, Mariana learns, is bound up with Greek tragedy and myth. And so it is fitting that at the center of the mystery around Tara’s untimely demise is Professor Edward Fosca, a dazzling American expatriate and classics professor. He is the kind of teacher whose lectures students line up to watch. Fosca has a loyal student clique of “maidens,” an exclusive study group whose parties, we are told (in low, conspiratorial tones), are pretty wild.

The Maidens unapologetically takes the tone of a thriller. Readers should not expect sumptuous and dreamlike evocations of an old university town fondly remembered, as in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited . Michaelides knows his genre (and his protagonist; he was himself trained as a psychotherapist), deftly controlling the flow of information and teasing us at times with snippets of story written on a typewriter by the ostensible villain.

Occasional citations from Tennyson, Aristotle (the author may have had the Poetics in mind at times while he was writing) and others intensify the book’s carefully built sense of tension. Hardly a word is wasted, let alone a chapter. And there is a smattering of memorable set-piece moments; a scene in which Mariana runs a group therapy session stands out in particular.

The author who most comes to mind while reading The Maidens is Dan Brown, a writer often dismissed as a mere entertainer, as if there were something wrong with entertainment.

Coincidences and clues accumulate in the plot like brushstrokes of paint on a canvas, coming together at a satisfying pace to form an image. But—and this is apt—one has the distinct impression that no one can truly be trusted, including the protagonist, who is naturally more aware than most of our inexhaustible capacity to hide inconvenient truths from ourselves. Michaelides has our heroine Mariana encounter both overtly sinister types and people who seem sinister by dint of not being sinister at all. Some of these characters do come across as obvious, shifty, red-herring types. But there is a real paranoia that colors The Maidens and mirrors Mariana’s mental landscape as she makes her way through Cambridge, asking question after question.

The novel has its flaws. Take the charismatic Professor Fosca, Mariana’s primary suspect. He is achingly handsome, charming, literate; he likes classical music. And, of course, he likes his meat rare . There are other well-worn tropes of commercial horror fiction. If Martin Amis is right in saying that good literature avoids cliché—well, you catch my drift. The inevitable twist, it has to be said, is entirely predictable, and from pretty early on. Michaelides also has that slightly trying habit of ending chapters with a single ominous sentence. But (I’m ashamed to say) it succeeds in making the reader feel compelled—even obliged —to read on. Clichéd or not, Michaelides knows how storytelling works.

The plot’s superficial similarities to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History are so obvious that it would be dull to devote much time to them here, though it is perhaps worth acknowledging that they are only superficial; in fact, the two books have very little of real significance in common. The author who most comes to mind while reading The Maidens is Dan Brown, a writer often dismissed as a mere entertainer, as if there were something wrong with entertainment. But Michaelides imbues this story with an almost palpable atmosphere of uncertainty, the discomfiting sense that one is not being told the whole story.

The Maidens is entertaining as well as readable in a single sitting, which is the best way to enjoy a book of this kind. Take it all in all and on its own terms, and it will prove a very welcome addition to the genre: a well-wrought, satisfying, psychological detective tale begging on every page to be adapted for the screen—something that is indeed already in the works.

This article also appeared in print, under the headline “Tales Ancient and New,” in the November 2021 , issue.

Harry Readhead is a writer and editor from London. He writes about politics and literature for titles like The Guardian, the New Statesman and the Times Literary Supplement.

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Book Review | The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Mariana is a group therapist still grieving the death of her husband. When her niece, Zoe, calls from Cambridge University asking for help after the murder of her friend, Mariana jumps in to help. She suspects the charismatic and popular Greek Tragedy professor, Edward Fosca, who is adored by everyone – particularly a group of female students called The Maidens. But with no evidence and no one who believes her, can Mariana prove Fosca’s guilt? Or is she looking at the wrong person?

In her mind, she would go back to the very beginning and remember it all. Every single detail. And she would catch him.

I enjoyed the author’s debut, The Silent Patient , so I was really excited for The Maidens ! Described as a fusion of dark academia, Greek mythology, and murder mystery, the premise is enticing and sounds right up my alley. And true enough, the author blends the right amount of Greek tragedies and literature into the story. Set at Cambridge University, the location is like another character, looming in the background. I enjoyed the amount of detail included, from the dorm rooms to the architecture of the campus. Discussions on Greek tragedies provided a unique angle to the story and added to the moody ambience.

I wish the author had focused on these elements because I found the murder mystery to be the weakest part of the book. The investigation is unrealistic; the police don’t follow up on clues and involve a potential suspect at the expense of a witness. The protagonist, Mariana, is a group therapist but inserts herself into the investigation without any difficulties – at one point she just strolls into a crime scene! Not to mention the ethics violation of her profession and the way her training seems to disappear. I didn’t find the plot twist to be effective because it relies on information the reader does not have. I also didn’t believe the villain’s motive. Instead of closure, the book ends with an indulgent crossover with The Silent Patient that frankly adds nothing to the story.

While the writing works in relation to the setting, its functionality doesn’t elicit emotions from me when it came to the characters. The characterisations were superficial and unconvincing. Like the men who stalked Mariana yet one of them is cast as her love interest. And I’m mostly disappointed at the lack of agency for the women. I wanted to know about The Maidens, who they are, and what drew them to the secret society, yet they barely featured. The book could have dived into the themes of female friendships, power imbalance, abuse, and sexual grooming. But it barely scratched the surface.

For The Maidens , I say stay for the dark academia vibes but temper your expectations on the murder mystery.

CW: child abuse, domestic violence

I received a copy from the publisher and Netgalley for review purposes. The Maidens is out in the UK now and will be out in the US on 15th June.

About the author: Alex Michaelides

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Book Review: ‘The Maidens’ by Alex Michaelides

Image Credit: Quinn Keaney

Can I just say that the fact this book was released around Father’s Day is hilarious, given the content of the story? It made me laugh out loud when I realized 💀 But annnnyway, let’s get into this book review, shall we?

"ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕗𝕖 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕟𝕠 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕚𝕥." 🔪

I finished Alex Michaelides’ The Maidens in one sitting, which seems like a good metric for how much I enjoyed it? Because I did enjoy it, for sure. However, this was always going to garner a comparison to his previous novel, The Silent Patient , and against that it doesn’t hold a candle if I’m being honest (only because I love-love-LOVED that one). That said, Michaelides has once again woven a tight, compelling thriller with a twisty pay-off . This one follows Mariana, a psychologist and recent widow, who races to Cambridge when her niece calls with news that a fellow Oxford student has been brutally murdered. Pretty much immediately Mariana suspects the handsome, shady Professor Edward Fosca (who needs to be played by Ben Barnes whenever this is inevitably adapted for TV/a movie), who leads a devoted, all-female cohort of students he calls . . . wait for it . . . “the maidens.” AND the girl who was murdered was one of them. Oh damn, y’all. Obviously there’s a ton more to this book, which is packed with a staggering amount of characters and tries very, very hard to throw you off the trail of who’s committing the murders through approximately one billion layers of red herring-y complications. In my opinion it tries *too* hard with all that, which made the final twist lose a bit of its ’umph’ for me (I was too busy rolling my eyes). However, this is a highly entertaining thriller, and moves fast. I liked the incorporation of Greek mythology and the looks into Mariana’s tragic past, as well as her relationship with her father. But I’m still trying to decide how I feel about the explicit link to The Silent Patient that’s woven into the story, which I won’t spoil here. Part of me thought it felt forced, but the other part of me is excited to see if (and how) Mariana’s story will continue.

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The Maidens

The Maidens By: Alex Michaelides

[Nominated for ‘Best Mystery/Thriller’ category of the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge ]

“We all secretly hope that tragedy will only ever happen to other people. But Marianna knew, sooner or later, it happens to you.”

Just as with Michaelides’ debut novel, The Silent Patient , this book has some polarizing views. People either loved the thriller and his nod to Agatha Christie’s red herrings, or people felt it had too many suspects and was too unbelievable.

I read the book very fast. It was a quick and very suspenseful read and I was engaged throughout the whole story. When I finished I felt like I liked it. I had my suspicions about how he was going to reveal the killer but the motive behind the killings was the main twist and I didn’t have that figured out at all!

I realized it’s one of those books that you enjoy but when you start talking to others or reading other reviews, you realize they make some good points and you feel like the book is a little less praiseworthy because of them.

Brief Plot Summary

Marianna, still grieving her husband who drowned a year ago, is a group therapist. She gets a phone call from her orphaned niece, Zoe, whom they had taken in as their own, and is studying at Cambridge. Zoe’s roommate, Tara, has been brutally murdered.

Marianna rushes to her niece’s side and the two become convinced that the killer is the Greek tragedies professor, Edward Fosca. When the police think Marianna is just weirdly prejudiced against him and don’t take her theories seriously— after all, Fosca has an alibi— Marianna takes it upon herself to prove that Fosca murdered her niece’s friend.

But the danger isn’t gone. Over the next few days two more girls are found similarly murdered in a ritualistic way, each receiving Greek postcards with lines from Greek plays talking about death and sacrifices. Marianna and Zoe both receive one and they must decide whether to get back to the safety of London or continue their quest for justice.

I think we all know what they choose.

Sidenote- the book is called The Maidens because all of the murdered girls were part of a secret (not-so-secret) ‘club’ of some kind that flocked around their tutor, Fosca, who had named them his maidens. And they just so happened to also be Fosca’s alibi for Tara’s murder.

The book alternates between Marianna and excerpts from a letter or journal entry supposedly from the killer that sporadically gives us some clues as to who the killer is.

It’s All Greek to Me

As with Michaelides’ first novel, he incorporates Greek mythology into this book as well.

Marianna’s husband, Sebastian, died when they were on holiday to a Greek island. They were trying to grow their family and needed some relaxation. They picnicked at a Greek temple dedicated to the goddess of harvest and life, Demeter, and her daughter, Persephone, the goddess of death. Marianna says a quick prayer to the statues in hopes they will bless them with health and life. But she regrets this when instead of life, more death enters her life. Sebastian disappears that day. His body washes up on the shore days later.

These two goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, come back into the story as Marianna digs deeper into the teachings of Fosca’s class:

Persephone means ‘maiden.’

One of the quotes in the Greek postcards found among the victims’ belongings reads, “In order to defeat the enemy and save the city… a maiden must be sacrificed— a maiden of noble birth. Sacrificed to Persephone.”

Is it coincidence? Does Fosca know what happened to her and Sebastian? Is this all in her head? What is the connection?

Surprise Appearance

Fans of The Silent Patient will be curious to know that there is a small crossover of characters in this story. Readers wonder if Michaelides’ third book might be a greater crossover in storyline… only time will tell.

Analysis and Questions

**The section of this review will contain spoilers, scroll down to the Conclusion section to skip the spoilers**

I like that Michaelides includes red herrings. But I agree that it might be too many if the potential suspects get no resolution as to why they ‘fit the profile.’

For example, I thought for sure it would be Fred. Especially since the ‘killer’s letter’ contained the statement that the writer had a ‘premonition.’ That’s not a common thing for people to say and Fred was very verbal about his premonitions. Plus he had some weird obsession with Marianna and happened to be on the train with her?

My theory is that it was Fred who wrote the letter, Zoe made up the story about Sebastian, and Fred and Zoe had a connection. I don’t think I’m right based on how it ends. But if I’m wrong, I don’t feel like we got a good enough explanation for Fred’s role in all of it or some of the things he said/knew and the ways he was acting.

I found the inclusion of Henry to be a little extra. He is the ‘problem’ person in her group therapy back in London who is possessive of her and stalks her at home, saying he ‘needs her.’ He tells her later that Marianna ‘sacrificed him’ by leaving London for so long— that she wasn’t there for him. This is connected to the ‘letter’ sections of the story where the writer is angry that his mother sacrifices him by not stopping the torment he experienced from his father.

Henry shows up at Cambridge with a knife and threatens Marianna. This felt jarring and random. Especially because we don’t hear anything more about it. We just hear that Marianna realizes she needs to handle that matter and get it under control when she gets back. I didn’t feel like this red herring was particularly effective or necessary.

A few other things that I question or that went unexplained were:

What happened to the other pages of the letter? Marianna finds only part of it in Zoe’s room, but there was some missing.

How did Marianna not realize what was happening between Sebastian and Zoe? Especially as a therapist you would think she would recognize something off about their relationship. I think Michaelides tries to account for this by including the thread in the story of Marianna’s relationship with her own father and how she was blinded by love for him and thought his abuse was what love was. Her therapist tells her: “At best, let’s call it a desire to be loved. At worst, it’s a pathological attachment to a narcissistic man: a melting pot of gratitude, fear, expectation, and dutiful obedience that has nothing to do with love in the true sense of the word. You don’t love him. Nor do you know or love yourself.” She had a hard time criticizing her father, so it would make sense that she wouldn’t recognize Sebastian for what he was because she looked at him as she did her father. I’m still processing if that’s a satisfying enough answer.

Marianna finds these Greek postcards but she doesn’t turn them into the police right away? They seem pretty significant because it talks about sacrifice and the murders were ritualistic. Sure the police told her to stop interfering with the investigation but I feel like the connection to the postcards would be hard to deny.

Also Marianna is convinced that it’s Fosca who committed the murders, yet she agrees to go eat dinner with him— in his rooms— without telling anyone. And also she drinks several things while with him. This seems like Stupid 101. You’re going to drink something a suspected killer gives you?? C’mon lady!

The letter references that the writer feels ‘split’ like he wants the evil part of him to go away. This seems like a significant aspect of the story and determining who the killer is, but I felt like they never fleshed that out. We never see this ‘splitness’ in action. I guess it was just included to create the backstory for what corrupted the person and caused them to do evil things?

What we find out about Zoe does seem a little far-fetched. That she would be capable of what she did seems abrupt and shocking.

Apparently the references to Persephone and the day Sebastian died is coincidental because we never find out why Fosca was teaching those things at that time. It seems weird that there was no different connection to the murders. Just some random Greek stuff?

There were two other quotes near the beginning of the book that I found foreboding and seemed to be somewhat foreshadowing. I think these quotes would be interesting to consider if you were reading this book as part of a book club.

“She was still in love and didn’t know what to do with all this love of hers. There was so much of it, and it was so messy: leaking, spilling, tumbling out of her, like stuffing falling out of an old rag doll that was coming apart at the seams.”

The words ‘messy,’ ‘leaking,’ ‘spilling,’ and ‘old rag doll’ that’s ‘coming apart’ all seem negative. Not like the bursting and overflowing of intimate and intense love but a damaged, dysfunctional, and out of control kind of love. The negative connotations here are a sign of their relationship.

“They had forgotten to bring a knife—so Sebastian smashed the watermelon against a rock like a skull, breaking it into bits. They ate the sweet flesh, spitting out the bony seeds.”

This is an ominous description of eating a watermelon. A smashed skull, eating flesh, and bony seeds. The fact that Sebastian did the smashing is telling, but also Marianna participated in the aftermath so that’s something interesting to reflect on. Michaelides intentionally wrote this scene with this grotesque sense of murder in the simple act of eating the fruit so it seems significant to understanding Marianna and Sebastian’s relationship and what was about to happen.

So where does all of this leave us? Like I said, I can understand the questions or comments from people who gave the book 1-2 star reviews. But personally, as I was reading the story, I enjoyed it. I wanted to figure it out and felt like it wasn’t annoyingly predictable.

Sure there were questions and unexplained things. It’s not a perfect book. But if you like whodunnits and thrillers, I think you’ll enjoy it.

There is always some sort of suspending reality for the sake of a story that happens. I don’t feel like what Michaelides wrote goes out of acceptable bounds. And the parts that were left unanswered or explained may be something people like about the books.

I’m discovering more and more that I’m the type of person who likes answers, not open-ended books and movies. Tell me what happened! But my husband likes some mystery and open endings, so if that’s you then you may like it even more than I did!

I definitely don’t think it deserves 1-2 star ratings. Probably floating around the 3.5-4.5 mark depending on your preferences and how many of these kinds of books you read.

Parental Advisory: There are some f-words (mostly from the youths), a brief scene of a tryst between a student and an adult but nothing graphic, and the main twist is a bit disturbing but it’s not described in detail.

And of course… the section I reserve for new British words that I learned while reading this book:

freshers - British slang for students at first year of university (there’s no slang term for the other years, I checked.) bedder - housekeeper at Cambridge University (can you imagine going to college and having someone who comes and makes your bed and empties your trash? my fresher roommate probably would have appreciated that for my side of our room…) high table - the table in the dining hall on a platform reserved for important people buttery - a room where food is stored and sold to students (not just butter. that would be a lot of butter.) staying in college- the phrasing of this one is weird. Someone asks Marianna where she is staying that night. Instead of saying she’s ‘staying at the college’ or ‘in the college,’ they don’t use the word ‘the.’ I just think that’s strange.

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When Words Matter Most

Dune: the graphic novel.

Review: THE MAIDENS by Alex Michaelides

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I was very impressed with Alex Michaelides’ debut psychological thriller The Silent Patient when I read it last year. It was a shocking and compelling read that I just couldn’t put down, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of his latest offering, The Maidens . Set primarily at Cambridge University in England, The Maidens is a twisty, atmospheric psychological thriller that follows Mariana Andros, a group therapist who unexpectedly finds herself at the center of a murder investigation and becomes obsessed with catching the killer.

Mariana is a pretty complex character with a lot of layers, so having the story unfold from her perspective made for a very addicting read. Mariana is a former Cambridge student herself and she also met her husband there, so her ties to the university run deep, especially since her husband has recently died in a tragic accident. Mariana is still grieving and just going through the motions from day to day, so when her niece Zoe, currently a Cambridge student, calls to tell Mariana that her roommate is missing and a dead body has been found on campus, Mariana heads to the university right away. She goes on the premise of offering comfort to Zoe, but when it’s determined that Zoe’s roommate is the victim and that she was a member of a secret all female society called The Maidens, whose members are all hand-picked by the handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor, Edward Fosca, Mariana becomes convinced he must be involved in the girl’s death, especially when it becomes clear that his only alibi are the other girls in his secret society and when another one of them turns up dead. Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt is what drives the action in the story and makes for such an intense, unputdownable read.

It is of course a wild, twisty, and suspenseful ride as we follow Mariana on her quest. I loved how unpredictable the story is. It took me in directions I never expected to go and kept me guessing to the very end. As intoxicating as the murder mystery itself was though, I was also very much drawn to both Mariana and to Fosca. I love it when a thriller has complex characters to complement its complex plot. Mariana is such a sympathetic character because she has experienced so much loss and is obviously still trying to cope. Being surrounded by university memories of her dead husband has to be so overwhelming and in some ways, I think she tunnel visions on the murders as a distraction from her own pain. Fosca, on the other hand, is fascinating in his own right because he’s so charismatic. Students line up for a chance to sit in on his lectures and the young women he chooses for his special society are clearly willing to do anything for him. The subject matter he is so passionate about also ties quite closely to the manner in which the girls were murdered. Is it a coincidence or is this guy’s charm all an act to cover up something sinister?

I don’t want to give anything away with respect to the murders, but if you’re looking for an atmospheric psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat and that has an almost Gothic feel to it at times, be sure to check out The Maidens .

About Alex Michaelides

Alex Michaelides was born and raised in Cyprus. He has an M.A. in English literature from Trinity College, Cambridge University, and an M.A. in screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. The Silent Patient was his first novel and was the biggest-selling debut in the world in 2019. It spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list and sold in a record-breaking forty-nine countries. Alex lives in London.

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The Maidens

Alex Michaelides once again proves his mastery of the psychological thriller genre in his gripping new book, The Maidens , set against the backdrop of Cambridge University, where Michaelides studied.

The novel at once takes on an ancient, secretive note, as the interiors of the fictional St Christopher’s College are based on Trinity College, one of Michaelides’ favourite places on earth. He channels his melancholy memories into the novel’s protagonist, Mariana, a brilliant group therapist who becomes entangled in a series of murders that rocks the campus. Flawed but determined, she uncovers shocking connections between the victims and an exclusive academic society called The Maidens, and the boundaries between reality and delusion begin to blur.

“ We are born being watched – our parents’ expressions, what we see reflected in the mirror of their eyes, determines how we see ourselves. ”

In terms of style, Michaelides continues to build intricate, twisting plots that keep readers guessing. Even though both books had elements related to therapy, he intentionally wanted The Maidens to be deeper and darker than The Silent Patient ; that said, the book did move at a brisker pace with more constant forward momentum in its plot reveals.

The reference to Greek mythology added psychological layers to the characters and was a unique touch to the college campus thriller, making it seem more grounded with solid arcs than the previous novel. Perhaps too many story elements ended up being far-fetched and irrelevant red herrings, as the ending, though unexpected, left something to be desired. It’s still a riveting psychological thriller nonetheless, and I’m keeping my eyes peeled for Michaelides’ third novel, The Fury , set to release in January 2024.

Book recommendations:

A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell

The Hollow by Agatha Christie

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Victorian Chaise Longue by Marghanita Laski

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we receive a commission when you click the links and make a purchase.

Carmen started the blog as a place to encourage slow travel by storytelling her travel experiences. When she’s not at her corporate job, she divides her time between exploring the city she calls home and planning her next outing.

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Book Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

May 28, 2022 · In: Book Review , Books

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?

“IT’S A BIT LIKE BEING REBORN […] BUT NO ORDINARY BIRTH—IT’S A METAMORPHOSIS. WHAT EMERGES FROM THE ASHES IS NOT A PHOENIX, BUT AN UGLIER CREATURE: DEFORMED, INCAPABLE OF FLIGHT, A PREDATOR USING ITS CLAWS TO CUT AND RIP.”

I am one of the very few people who still hasn’t read Alex Michaelides’ debut, The Silent Paitent , so I went into The Maidens not knowing what to expect. Despite finishing it weeks ago, I am still unsure how to feel about this one.

The Maidens had all the ingredients of a hit for me; Cambridge Uni (we love some dark academia vibes!), cults, Ancient Greece and, of course, some grisly murder. Honestly, up until about the last few chapters, it was a hit. Michaelides is a great visual writer. I adored the Cambridge setting and his detailed descriptions of the historical surroundings. 85% of the novel is an amazingly dark, gripping and claustrophic murder mystery about a group of young female students brutally killed as part of a ritual. It’s a thrilling premise and the added bits of Greek mythology (extra points for Demeter, Persephone and some nods to Euripides!) were just *chef’s kiss*. Michaelides had me hooked. Everything was going so well.

And then it wasn’t. As we approached the climax, The Maidens veered off course, quickly deteriorated and never recovered. Without spoiling the ending, Michaelides decision to go manic and give us a huge plot twist finale ruined an otherwise brilliant murder mystery and, unfortunately, exposed the flaws of The Maidens . Embedded within this highly fascinating thriller are a lot of unnecessary additions that didn’t serve the story and only dragged it down. For example, Henry, one of Mariana’s patients from her group therapy sessions and who is obsessed with her, just constantly pops up. He’s irrelevant to The Maidens ‘ central plot, so his inclusion suggests that he is merely there to add to the line up of suspects.

It’s such a convoluted plot and Michaelides spends so much time on red herrings and misdirection that the reveal of the murderer is so completely left field. Again, I don’t want to spoil it but the twist is also just… icky and gross. Poor Mariana.

If I pretend the final act of the novel doesn’t exist then The Maidens is a bloody great book. A fantastic murder mystery thriller. Edward Fosca is magnetic and excellently written, Mariana – who happens to be a better investigator than the actual police – is full of fire and Fred is the MVP. All that being said, I just cannot get over that ending. It was haunting… in the worst way. The Maidens finale is wacky and is the only reason why I deducted two stars. I think Michaelides is a fantastic writer but perhaps the complex plot and wanting to cram as much in as possible caused him to miss the mark with this one. Here’s hoping I like The Silent Patient more!

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Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides features an intriguing premise but the final twists were pretty disappointing.

If you follow Book Club Chat, you might have noticed I’ve been let down by several books I’ve read this year (of course I have read plenty of great ones too!). Honestly, I believe it’s due to many of the books written during the height of 2020. It seems that being isolated and the disruption of normal life really did a number on people’s creative efforts, which is totally understandable. So I do sympathize with that.

I can’t say that’s exactly why the ending of The Maidens did not work. But regardless, the ending is a miss. And that’s such a bummer because I really enjoyed this one right up until the big reveal. I thought it was SO well-written, engaging and I was interested in the mystery. I do keep these spoiler-free so I won’t reveal what happens but I will give my thoughts on my overall impression of this read.

What’s the Book About

The story’s protagonist is Mariana, a woman who has lost many people in her life—most recently her husband in a tragic accident. All she has left is her niece Zoe. Mariana immediately goes to her when she finds out that one of Zoe’s friends was murdered at Cambridge where they’re studying.

Mariana becomes convinced that the murderer is the charming Greek Tragedy professor Fosca. All the students are huge fans of Fosca but Mariana doesn’t trust him. Especially when she learns that he leads a group of female students known as the Maidens, which seems like a cult of some sorts. She’s determined to bring him to justice while working to protect Zoe and the other women on campus.

But Mariana’s obsession begins to threaten her relationships and will also put her in harm’s way.

Greek Mythology Aspects

Alex’s first novel, The Silent Patient , was hugely popular. It was more your typical psychological thriller but it did feature plenty of creative twists. But The Maidens is quite different. The story is written more in a literary mystery style. I much preferred this approach than the thriller angle. BTW, if you did read The Silent Patient , two key characters from that novel make a brief appearance in The Maidens . It’s been so long since I’ve read it that it took me a minute to realize the connection.

What really makes this one stand apart is the focus on Greek Mythology. Mariana herself comes from Greece and believes that the tragedies in her life might be because of Persephone, the goddess of death. Persephone is also the big focus of Fosca and the Maidens.

There’s a ton of emphasis on the Greek Mythology characters and even some old Greek text. If you have any interest in that area, you’ll be engaged with those parts.

Using Greek Mythology aspects combined with a murder mystery made this one standout. Although, while yes, there is a big murder mystery, I feel the story is mainly a character study on Mariana and how one adapts after so many tragedies.

But geez, the twists! I saw one coming about halfway into the book but did not see the other one. And just not a fan. When I finished the story, I had an overall bummed out feeling. The ending truly took away from the story for me. I don’t expect these stories to be that realistic but the absolutely far-fetched nature of the twists were too much.

So I’m split. I really enjoyed it up until the ending. But it’s hard for me to recommend this one because I did not leave the story feeling satisfied. Oh well. Hopefully the next read is a five-star one!

For book clubs, check out my discussion questions here .

The Maidens

Recap, summary & spoilers.

The Quick Recap and Section-by-Section Summary for The Maidens by Alex Michaelides are below.

Quick(-ish) Recap

The one-paragraph version: Mariana is a young widow whose husband Sebastian died in a swimming accident last year. She goes to visit her niece Zoe at Cambridge after Zoe's friend Tara is found murdered. Zoe suspects Edward Fosca, a handsome and popular professor who Tara had been sleeping with. Mariana gets drawn into investigating Fosca as well as the Maidens, a cult-like group of women who idolize Fosca. Tara had been one of the Maidens and soon two more of the women are found dead. In the end, it's revealed that Zoe is the killer. Zoe had been lovers with Sebastian, who married Mariana for money. After his accident, Zoe decided to continue with his plan of murdering Mariana (to get her fortune). The plan was to involve Mariana in an investigation into a series of murders (all committed by Zoe), frame Fosca and finally kill Mariana. However, Mariana manages to fight Zoe off, and Zoe ends up arrested and taken to a psychiatric facility.

The Prologue introduces Mariana , who is certain that a man named Edward Fosca has murdered two people. She is determined to find a way to prove it.

In Part I , the book flashes back to a few days prior. Mariana is a young widow who is grieving her late husband Sebastian , who drowned a year ago. On the news, it's reported that a young woman ( Tara ) has been murdered, who turns out to be a close schoolmate of Mariana's niece Zoe (whose own parents died in a car accident). Zoe says that just before Tara's death, Tara had been scared that a professor there that she'd been sleeping with, Edward Fosca, would kill her.

Mariana goes to Cambridge to see Zoe. They learn that the handsome and popular Professor Fosca has an alibi, backed up by his students. But Zoe still suspects him, and Mariana gets drawn into the investigation when it seems like the police aren't properly investigating Fosca.

In Part II , Mariana learns more about Fosca and a group of his favorite students -- all well-connected and intelligent women -- who are part of his private study group. The women are referred to as the Maidens , a reference to Persephone, the goddess of death. In Greek, Persephone is referred to " Kore " which means " maiden ". Tara had been one of them.

Mariana attends one of Fosca's lectures where he talks about an Ancient Greek cult, the cult of Eleusis , inspired by Persephone's mythological journeying from death to life and back again. And as Mariana's investigation progresses, the body of another student, Veronica (also a Maiden), is discovered.

The story is also interspersed with journal-entry-like chapters written by an unnamed person, who describes his childhood growing up with an abusive father on a farm. He talks about how one part of him is sane and calm and the other part of him is a bloodthirsty killer.

In Part III , the pathologist confirms that Veronica was killed by the same person as Tara. They were both found with their throats cut and stabbed post-mortem. A pinecone was also found on each of their bodies. And Mariana finds postcards with quotations from Euripides about death and sacrifices, handwritten written in Ancient Greek, in their possession.

When Fosca notices Mariana's interest in him, he invites her to dinner. There, he tells Mariana about how the pinecone was a symbol given to each initiate into the cult of Eleusis and about his unhappy childhood on a farm. Mariana also sees his copy of Euripides complete works with on of the quotations on the postcards underlined, making her certain he is the murderer.

In Part IV , Mariana sees Fosca give Morris (the head porter on campus) an envelope, and she follows Morris and sees him have sex with one of the Maidens, Serena . Soon, Serena is found dead as well, and Mariana finds one of the postcards (with the Ancient Greek quotes) under her own door.

In the journal-like chapters by the unknown person, we learn that when he is 12, his mother finally plans to leave his father. However, when he realizes she doesn't intend to take him with her, he is filled with murderous hatred towards her.

In Part V , Morris is arrested after Mariana tells the police inspector what she saw (though Mariana disagrees with them and thinks it implicates Fosca moreso than Morris). Zoe also finally admits to Mariana that she attended one of Fosca's initiation ceremonies, but ran away once he started kissing and touching her.

When Zoe reveals that she, too, received a postcard (with the Ancient Greek quotes), Mariana decides it's time for them to get out of Cambridge. Before they head out, Zoe insists on fetching a knife from the ceremony (which she suspects was used in the murders) so they have it as evidence.

In the interim, in Zoe's room, Mariana finds a letter (which turns out to be what the journal-like chapters of the book are) written to Zoe, where the author explains that he wrote it so Zoe could understand him, and he professes his love for Zoe. (Mariana assumes the letter-writer is Fosca.)

When Zoe and Mariana soon find the knife from the ceremony, Zoe reveals her intention to kill Mariana. Zoe admits that Sebastian was the author of the letter and that they were in love. Sebastian married Mariana for her father's fortune, and he was the one who formulated this elaborate plan to murder her. After his accidental death, Zoe decided to carry out his plan. Zoe intentionally involved Mariana in this investigation into these murders (all committed by Zoe for this purpose), framed Fosca and finally intends to make Mariana look like the final victim.

However, Mariana is able to overpower Zoe (with help from Fred , a guy who has a crush on Mariana), and Zoe ends up injured and being arrested.

In the Epilogue , Zoe ends up institutionalized. Fosca is fired for sleeping around with all the Maidens (Morris was blackmailing him over it). The book ends with Mariana finally going to talk to Zoe.

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Section-by-Section Summary

Prologue Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Epilogue

The book opens by introducing Mariana , who is certain that a man named Edward Fosca has murdered two people, and she is determined to find a way to prove it.

Chapters 1 – 6

The story then flashes back to a few days ago, with Mariana at home in London, who is still grieving her late husband, Sebastian , who died over a year ago. That October night, she gets a call from her niece Zoe in Cambridge, right after her Monday-evening, nine-person group therapy session (which is when Mariana’s nightmare begins).

Mariana is a group therapist. Mariana grew up in Greece on the outskirts of Athens. Mariana’s father was a sailor, a wealthy, complicated man who lacked emotional warmth. Mariana’s mother died soon after she was born, while Mariana’s older sister, Elisa , was seven years older and uninterested in her younger sibling. As a result, Mariana ended up being someone who preferred solitude and shied away from large groups. Still, despite her dislike of being with groups of people, Mariana is good at her job as a group therapist.

This Monday night, there’s a disagreement between Henry Booth , 35, and Liz , a retired schoolteacher in her mid-seventies, over Henry bringing a cup of coffee in despite it being against the rules, which results in Henry throwing the cup of coffee onto the floor. Henry has been a source of constant conflict in the group. A high-traumatized victim of physical and sexual abuse and former foster kid. Henry is intelligent, but self-destructive. Mariana ends up having to diffuse the situation between the two.

Afterwards, Henry stays to help clean up. When they’re alone, Mariana mentions to Henry that he needs to stop trying to bring her gifts and spying on her. Then, Henry tells her he needs individual therapy. When she refuses, he shows her his torso, which is covered in cuts from a razor blade, some of which are still bleeding.

Mariana knows she should be firm and tell him to leave. When Zoe calls, she settles on giving him a first aid kit and showing him the door. Afterwards, she calls Zoe back, who tells her to turn on the TV.

On the TV, it’s reported that the body has been found by a man walking his dog in Cambridge, in the Paradise nature reserve. The deceased girl, roughly 20-years-old with long red hair, had been stabbed repeatedly. Zoe believes the girl is her friend Tara Hampton who is the same year as her at St Christopher’s College at Cambridge University. Zoe also mentions that Tara had been saying some “crazy” things when she saw her last night.

After the call, Mariana has a glass of wine and finds herself worried about Zoe and a murderer on the loose. She packs a bag to head over to Cambridge to see Zoe for a few days.

Chapter 7 (October 7)

(This chapter is narrated by an unnamed person, who identifies themselves as “the villain”.)

The unnamed narrator talks about being two people with one mind. One part of him is calm and sane, the other part of him is a bloodthirsty killer. The sane part of him doesn’t want to kill. The twisted part of him doesn’t know why he ended up this way, but is unable to communicate with the sane part of him. He wants to be the hero of his story, but he knows that he’s the villain.

Chapters 8 – 11

The next morning, Mariana thinks she spots Henry spying on her again, but when she looks back, he’s gone. She then makes her way onto the fast train to Cambridge. On the way, she hopes that Zoe is mistaken about the dead girl’s identity, since Tara was the first friend that Zoe had made at Cambridge.

Mariana also thinks about her and Sebastian meeting at Cambridge when she was 19. At 18, Mariana had moved from Athens to England. Mariana had long romanticized England, since her late mother was English. At school, Mariana had been shy, bookish and had struggled to fit in. After she met Sebastian, they’d become inseparable. Sebastian came from humble means, but he related to Mariana’s father’s drive to succeed. They soon began planning their future together.

In present day on the train, Mariana looks up to see a young man, roughly 20-years-old, eating an apple and staring at her. The man introduces himself as Frederick (“Fred”), a theoretical physics Ph.D. student, and tries to make conversation, though Mariana tries to cut things off with monosyllabic responses. When they arrive in Cambridge, Fred asks her for coffee or a drink. She declines, but he jauntily responds that they’ll meet again soon.

On campus, Mariana feels like she’s being followed, but dismisses her thoughts as paranoia. As she thinks about the recent murder, Mariana considers all the deaths sees seen in her life. First, her mother to cancer. Then, soon after her sister Elisa and Elisa’s husband in a car crash, which made Zoe an orphan. Mariana’s father later died of a heart attack, and then finally Sebastian.

Mariana thinks of how Sebastian had flown to Athens to ask for her father’s permission to marry her, but instead her father had accused him of being a gold digger and had threatened to disinherit her if she married her. She married Sebastian anyway, Sebastian made his own way in the shipping business and in the end Mariana’s father left her his fortune despite his threat.

While Sebastian had wanted children, Mariana wanted to wait to establish herself. When they finally started trying when Mariana was in her thirties, they had difficulty conceiving. Their doctor, Dr. Beck , had suggested a vacation to relieve the stress since anxiety wouldn’t help. So, they’d planned a two-week trip in August to Greece to visit Mariana’s family’s summer home on a cliff-top in Naxos.

In Naxos. the house was idyllic, and on the third day they decided to take the winding road to visit the Ancient Greek temple in the hills, dedicated to Demeter (goddess of the harvest) and Persephone (goddess of death). In Greek, Persephone is known as “Kore” which means “maiden”. At the temple, they have a picnic, and Mariana says a silent prayer to Demeter and the maiden. As she does, a cloud passes, shrouding Sebastian in darkness momentarily.

The next morning, Sebastian had gone for a run on the beach, and Mariana had wondered if he’d gone swimming afterwards, noting the wind and how large the waves must be. With no sign of him as time passed, she’d gone looking for him, finding only his shoes. Three days later, his body washed up on the coast.

In present day, as she arrives at St Christopher’s College, Mariana thinks about how she’s still stuck in that moment (“trapped on the beach in Naxos”) like Demeter had been when Hades kidnapped her daughter Persephone.

Chapters 12 – 14

Inside St. Christopher’s, Mariana sees a cluster of police officers near the dean’s office, indicating that Zoe was likely right about the dead girl being Tara.

Mariana is briefly distracted by the sight of Julian Ashcroft , a friend who Mariana had studied psychology with. Julian, in his late thirties now, had ended up specializing in forensic psychology and often appeared as a talking head on news shows or true-crime documentaries. As they greet each other, Julian tells Mariana that he’s there working with the police on the Tara Hampton case.

Mariana then heads over to find Zoe in her dorm room in Eros Court, and Zoe is delighted to see Mariana. However, when Mariana confirms what Julian told her about the dead girl definitely being Tara, Zoe breaks down in tears.

Zoe then blames herself for Tara’s death, saying that she should have told the police when she thought Tara was saying crazy things. Zoe then explains that Tara had said she was afraid that someone was going to kill her and that the threat came from a professor here named Edward Fosca .

Soon, Zoe is in the dean’s office repeating her story to Chief Inspector Sadhu Sangha . Sangha asks why Fosca would threaten Tara, and Zoe says that Tara and Fosca had been sleeping together. They’d had a fight, and when she threatened to tell the college about them, he’d threatened to kill her.

Sangha then goes to talk to Professor Fosca and take his statement. He reports back that at the time of Tara’s death at 10:00 PM, Fosca says he was finishing a class that runs from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM which was attended by six students, two of which have confirmed it with Sangha already.

Sangha then asks Zoe about Conrad Ellis , who Tara had been romantic with. Zoe clarifies that Conrad was not Tara’s boyfriend, instead they’d been casually hanging out. Sangha brings up that Conrad had two prior convictions (drug dealing and aggravated assault) and had been heard having heated arguments with Tara. Zoe insists that Conrad wouldn’t hurt Tara, but it’s clear Sangha has already settled on him as their prime suspect.

Chapters 15 – 17

As they leave the dean’s office, Mariana and Zoe run into Professor Fosca, who is handsome, American and appears to be in his early forties.

Fosca seems genuinely distressed, and he tells Zoe that he knows what she told the inspector. However, he clarifies that he would never sleep with a student. Instead, he says that Tara had been struggling academically, and he had been planning to have her repeat the year. Tara, fearful of how her father would react if he found out, had responded poorly, threatening to ruin Fosca’s career and get him fired, which is likely why she made the sexual allegations.

Mariana finds Fosca convincing and thinks about how Zoe had previously talked about how strict Tara’s father was. Wanting to investigate further, Mariana decides to talk to Conrad and asks Julian for help in getting access to him at the police station. Julian agrees to allow her to talk to him while he does his psych evaluation.

Soon, Julian and Mariana sits down with Conrad in the interview room, with Mariana identifies herself as a psychotherapist who is also Zoe’s aunt. Conrad says Zoe is not like Tara’s other friends (the “witches”) who dislike him. As he talks about his spotty past and upbringing, Mariana thinks to herself that things look bleak for him, but also that he’s innocent.

When Mariana brings up Professor Fosca, Conrad says that he sold Fosca drugs a few times and that he fancied Tara. Before Mariana can ask him to elaborate, Julian ends the interview, saying that he had enough for his report.

Afterwards, Julian seems to think that Conrad is guilty and was simply putting on an act for them, though Mariana disagrees. When Julian asks Mariana to have a drink with him tomorrow night and she declines, Julian laughs it off, but she notices something distinctly cold about him.

That evening at 6:00, Mariana and Zoe attend a special service for Tara being held in the college chapel. Mariana spots Tara’s parents, Lord and Lady Hampton . In the chapel, Mariana thinks about Sebastian and the prayer she made at temple in Naxos. She wonders if she offended the gods somehow, which is why he is gone. Lost in her sad thoughts, Mariana goes outside to get some air.

Chapters 18 – 20

After the service is over, Zoe wants to keep investigating by trying to find Tara’s phone or laptop in her room. Mariana advises Zoe to leave it to the police, but Zoe points out that the police have already made up their minds and aren’t going to investigate thoroughly. Mariana senses that Zoe isn’t telling her something, but Zoe denies it. When Mariana suggests that Zoe come back to London with her for a bit, Zoe says she doesn’t want to “run away” and that it’s not what Sebastian would have done.

Then, Mariana spots Fosca talking to a gaggle of beautiful women in white dresses. He sees her and comes over to introduce himself. Seeing Zoe’s reaction to him, Mariana realizes that Zoe is scared of Fosca for some reason.

Next, Mariana goes to see Professor Clarissa Miller , a woman in her late seventies who had been Mariana’s director of studies when she was a student and who had kept a maternal eye on Mariana.

Mariana asks Clarissa about Fosca, and Clarissa confirms that Fosca had mentioned that he was concerned that Tara was struggling academically. Clarissa also commiserates with Mariana about the death of Sebastian. She offers her a slim volume of poetry, IN MEMORIAM A.H.H. by Alfred Tennyson , which she says provided her with solace after her own husband’s death.

Before she leaves, Clarissa contacts the porter’s lodge to arrange a room for Mariana to stay in. Mr. Morris , head porter, meets her at the lodge, who turns out to be the grandson of the Mr. Morris that was the porter when she was an undergraduate. He drops her off at her room. Before he leaves, Morris mentions that Tara and her friends were very well known on campus, due to their wild parties. He recommends talking to the housekeeping staff (a “bedder”), who might know more of the gossip.

In bed, Mariana opens up the book Clarissa gave her. In the introduction, it talks about Tennyson’s life, including his abusive father and the mental illness in his family. At Cambridge, Tennyson fell in love with a man named Arthur Henry Hallam until his lover died suddenly from an aneurysm. For the next 17 years, Tennyson wrote only bits of poetry, all of which were about Hallam.

As she reads, Mariana thinks about Sebastian and what Zoe said about him not running away. Mariana thinks that he would want her to stay, fight, investigate and figure things out.

(This chapter is narrated by what is presumably the same unnamed person/”villain” from Part I, Chapter 7.)

The person narrates that he was too energized again to sleep and took a walk tonight. He comes across a fox, and looking into its eyes, felt calm, as if God were holding his hand and the good part of him was coming out. Then, the fox vanishes, the sun rises and he feels split in two once again.

He recalls having a similar feeling a long time ago of a yellow light and feeling split in two, but he doesn’t remember from where or when. He thinks he could remember it if he tried, but is unsure if he really wants to or if it’s something he tried hard to forget.

Chapters 2 – 5

When Mariana awakes, she tells Zoe that she’s planning on staying for a few days to see what she can do, which makes Zoe happy. After Zoe heads off to her classes, Mariana calls her patients to cancel her sessions for the week. They take it well, except for Henry who lashes out at her and demands to know why she’s not at home. Mariana realizes he must be spying on her again. He then claims that he’s watching her even now, though Mariana tells herself he’s just trying to scare her.

As Mariana thinks about her next steps, she considers that psychology of killers. Mariana believes that in order for someone to know empathy, they must be shown it from others. It’s likely that the killer was someone who suffered as a child and was shown no empathy or kindness in his childhood. She suspects that he buried his true self under a polished sheen of someone charming and polite, but Tara provoked him somehow causing “the terrified child inside him” to lash out.

Mariana is interrupted by Fred, the man from the train. When Mariana mentions her niece, Fred knows who she’s talking about and why Mariana is here, which Mariana doesn’t recall telling him about. Given that everyone is talking about it, Fred says he has some theories about Tara’s death, and Mariana finally agrees to have a drink with him that night.

Next, Mariana approaches the bedders, asking for Tara Hampton’s bedder. The woman, Elsie, identifies herself. Elsie agrees to talk to Mariana after being offered some cake, and Elsie leads her to the Copper Kettle restaurant. There, Elsie mentions that she’s also Zoe’s bedder and that Zoe has been rude to her on occasion, and Mariana promises to have a word with Zoe about it.

On the topic of Tara, Elsie says that she saw Tara leave her room looking upset at 7:45 PM the night she died. Elsie also knows about Tara’s friends, who she agrees are terrible. She says they bullied Tara, and that Tara hated them. Elsie thinks they were jealous of Tara because of how beautiful she was. Elsie also intimates that there’s something Zoe knows about this, but she doesn’t elaborate.

Finally, Mariana asks Elsie to see Tara’s room. Elsie shrugs, saying the police have already gone over it, and agrees to walk her over there.

Chapters 6 – 7

Tara’s room is messy, and Elsie confirms it was always like this. Elsie also talks about how she’d brush Tara’s hair sometimes and how a stuffed rabbit in the room was a gift from her. When Elsie leaves her alone in the room, Mariana continues checking over the room meticulously, but doesn’t find anything noteworthy. Finally, before she leaves, she sees a postcard of a painting by Titian, Tarquin and Lucretia , with four lines of Ancient Greek handwritten on the back.

Mariana brings the postcard to Clarissa to ask her to translate. Clarissa looks at it and says she thinks it’s a quote from Euripides’ The Children of Heracles . Roughly, the lines say that “the oracles agree: in order to defeat the enemy and save the city … a maiden must be sacrificed – a maiden of noble birth—” to Demeter and Persephone.

Mariana thinks of her own superstitious thoughts about Demeter and Persephone and their connection to Sebastian’s death, but she doesn’t say anything to Clarissa about it. As Mariana wonders why Tara would have this, Clarissa says that Tara was taking Greek tragedy that term with Professor Fosca, so she probably read it in one of the plays.

When Mariana seems curious about Fosca, Clarissa tells her to ask Zoe, since he’s her director of studies.

Chapters 8 – 10

At lunch, Mariana takes Zoe out. When she brings up Elsie, Zoe says that Tara hated Elsie (contradicting what Elsie had said about them being close) and that she was rude to Elsie because Elsie creeped her out. Zoe says that Tara banned Elsie from the room because Elsie kept walking in without knocking.

Mariana also brings up Fosca again, and she asks Zoe directly if she had a crush on him at some point. Zoe forcefully denies it. After lunch, Zoe explains that she thinks Fosca “dazzles” her, which she doesn’t like because it seems like he’s acting, pretending to be someone he’s really not.

Zoe says that everyone else thinks he’s amazing, especially the group of Tara’s female “friends” that hang around him and act like his fan club. Zoe explains that they’re in his “private study group” for his favorite students and that they’re a secret society that he calls the “Maidens”. Tara was one of them.

This sparks Mariana’s interest, so they decide to catch Fosca’s next lecture since all the Maidens will be there. At the lecture hall, Fosca opens by talking a little about Tara. Then, he jumps into a lecture that involves a discussion of Demeter and Persephone.

Fosca shows a projector image of a man being initiated into the secret cult of Eleusis, describing it as a secret rite “that gives you exactly that liminal experience of being between life and death”. They take place at Eleusis, which is the entry point to the underworld, and it was Persephone’s journey from life to death and back again that gave birth to the cult.

Though the exact nature of those rites have remained secret, it’s known that they were open to everyone. You didn’t have to be Greek, but you had to understand Greek. Before the rite, they drank a barley-based drink called kykeon which a black fungus (ergot) grows on that has hallucinogenic properties (modern day LSD is made from it). Then, they’d meet at midnight to by the Oracle of the Dead to be led by priests into the caves within and into a vast chamber called the Telesterion .

What would happen there is unknown, but in the morning they’d emerge having “undergone an experience of death and rebirth”, giving them a new understanding of what it means to be alive. He concludes by saying that the message of the Greek Tragedies are about what it means to be human and alive.

Chapters 11 – 12

After the lecture, Zoe points out the Maidens, six women that were gathered together. Zoe also says that they are all intelligent, privileged and well-connected — the daughter of famous actress, an Indian princess, the daughter of a Russian oligarch, etc.

Mariana comes up to Fosca as he speaks with them. She asks the Maidens why they wore white to Tara’s service. Diya , the Indian princess, speaks up, saying it was Tara’s favorite color and that in India they wear white to burials. Mariana then asks to speak to a few of them, under the guise of her job as a psychotherapist who is assessing how the students are doing. Two girls, Serena and Veronica Drake , agree to speak with her.

Along with Zoe, they sit down at a college bar. Veronica talks about wanting to be an actress after graduation and the twentieth birthday party she is planning for next week. Meanwhile Serena was from Singapore, but was brought up in English boarding schools.

Mariana asks about the night of the murder, and they say they were with Fosca all evening. Tara was supposed to be there, but didn’t show up. Mariana then asks if Fosca was there all night. Veronica says “yes”, but Serena admits that he left for a few minutes to have a cigarette outside.

Then Serena gets a text and has to leave. Veronica teases her, saying it’s her secret boyfriend, but Serena says it’s just a friend. Veronica also leaves for play rehearsal. Afterwards, Mariana feels certain the girls were lying to her.

(This chapter is narrated by what is presumably the same unnamed person/”villain”.)

The person narrates about keeping a box of love letters that he’d written to girls, but never sent. He kept them in a cupboard that he was afraid to open for years, but finally looked at it today. The box also contains a brown leather journal he kept the summer he was 12 and his mother died.

As he reads, he starts to remember that summer and his past, though a part of him is reluctant to venture back there.

Chapters 14 – 15

That night, Mariana heads to the Eagle pub to meet Fred, as promised. When he arrives, Mariana tells him point blank that nothing is going to happen between them because he is too young for her. She also tells him about her recently deceased husband. Still, Fred insists that someday he’ll propose and someday she’ll say yes.

On the topic of Tara, Fred says he doesn’t think that Conrad is a murderer. He also volunteers to team up with Mariana so they can investigate, but Mariana declines. Instead, he gives Mariana his number in case she changes her mind.

As he leaves, Fred mentions that he went to Naxos last summer and how it’s a great place to swim. She looks shocked and tries to tell herself it’s just a coincidence.

As she leaves the bar, Mariana is certain she is being followed by a man dressed in dark clothing. She tries to catch a glimpse of him, but he disappears. Instead, when she reaches the gate to St. Christopher’s she’s approached by Mr. Morris who asks her if anything is wrong and lets her into the building.

Back inside, she ends up in the Main Court where a portrait of Tennyson as a young man hangs. It strikes her how handsome he is, reminding her of Edward Fosca. As she looks at it, it occurs to her that Tennyson was looking at something in the near distance as this was painted, and she wonders what he was looking at.

In her room, she finds a black envelope on the floor. She opens it to find a handwritten note from Fosca, inviting her for a chat the next morning.

The unnamed narrator talks about his childhood on a farm where they raised lambs for slaughter. His father was a monster of a man, and his mother was an unhappy alcoholic who disliked farm life and the slaughtering of animals that took place there.

Chapters 17 – 18

The next morning, Mariana meets with Fosca at the Fellows’ Garden. He acknowledges that he knows she’s been looking into him, and he wants to know why. Mariana says that she’s intrigued by him and the Maidens. She wonders why they are all female. Fosca reassures her that at their meetups they merely discuss poetry, debate topics and enjoy wine, with nothing untoward going on.

Despite his polished behavior, Mariana can sense his anger towards her underneath it all. However, when he invites her for dinner the following night, she accepts. Then, he kisses her before she can react.

Immediately afterwards, Mariana calls Fred and meet up with him. She asks him why he mentioned Naxos, and Fred repeats something he said to her before about being a little psychic, which perhaps is why it popped into his head. She doesn’t entirely believe him, but takes him with her to investigate the Tara situation anyway.

They go to Tara’s room, and Mariana explains how Elsie saw her leave at 7:45, but the porter saw her at the front gate at 8:00. She wonders what Tara was doing for those 15 minutes. Outside Tara’s window, they find a white cigarette butt from an American cigarette brand, and Mariana notes that Fosca (an American) smokes.

When she mentions Fosca, Fred says that Fosca throws infamous parties at Cambridge for his students that are reportedly “pretty wild”. Mariana then tells her theory and investigation into Fosca, but if he was truly only gone that evening for a few minutes, then it’s impossible he did it since it takes 20 minutes by foot or longer by car to get to where Tara was murdered (Paradise nature reserve). Fred then suggests that perhaps Fosca took a punt (small boat propelled by a pole) which would’ve been much faster, quiet and likely unnoticed at night.

Fred offers to borrow a punt from the boathouse to test their theory, but they’re interrupted when Zoe calls to report that the police have found another body.

Chapters 1 – 4

Soon, Fred and Mariana make their way to the field on the edge of the Paradise reserve where the body was found. As Julian helps Mariana past the police, Mariana sees that the dead woman with her torso slashed open is Veronica.

Afterwards, Julian also tells Mariana that it turns out Conrad was in custody when Tara was murdered, so she was right about him being innocent.

Kuba , the pathologist, notes that it’s likely the same guy who did it, given that the M.O.s are similar. He also points out that both women had their throats slashed open first and then were stabbed post-mortem, so the killer could have left the scene without being covered in blood. As Kuba describes the precision used in the killing, Mariana comments that it doesn’t seem like someone losing control and murdering in a fit a rage. Instead, they both agree that there’s a ritualistic element to it.

Mariana also notes that Veronica is holding something in her hand, which Julian says is a pinecone, which Mariana thinks is odd because there are no pine trees around these parts. Kuba adds that Tara was also found on Tara’s body. Mariana then remembers a marble relief of a pinecone she saw on one of the slides during Fosca’s lecture.

When Inspector Sangha shows up, he looks unhappy to see Mariana there, though Julian says that Mariana is with him. Mariana tells him pointedly that the dead girl is Veronica, another one of Fosca’s “special students”, and Inspector Sangha threatens to have Mariana arrested if she shows up at another crime scene. Julian then pulls Mariana away, saying it’s best if she steer clear of Sangha, but he promises to keep her informed of the investigation.

Julian asks Mariana to grab a drink with him, but she declines. He looks annoyed as he spots Fred waving Mariana down.

Soon, news breaks of Veronica’s death, making international headlines because of her status as the daughter of a US Senator. Senator Drake descends upon Cambridge along with a hoard of journalists and cameramen. Scotland Yard becomes involved, news of a serial killer breaks and charges against Conrad Ellis are dropped.

The person describes how his mother valued education, encouraging him to become educated, unlike her, in order to have money and security. He also remembers how he was good at finding ways to avoid his father’s anger, unlike his mother who inevitably set him off. Still, his father would occasionally punish him for “his sins”.

The narrator remembers himself as a scared little boy, but he stops himself and “banishes all pity” from his heart, even towards himself.

Chapters 6 – 8

Knowing that Veronica was last seen leaving ADC (Amateur Dramatic Club) rehearsal, Mariana goes to the Theater to investigate. In the upcoming production of The Duchess of Malfi , Veronica had been slated to play the title role of the Duchess.

While the stage door is locked, Mariana is able to get in through the emergency exit near the upstairs theater bar. The auditorium initially seems empty, but she finds someone there who introduces himself as Nikos Kouris , the director of the play who also happens to be Greek.

Nikos is frustrated that the play has been cancelled. He says that the last time he saw Veronica was at dress rehearsal. He’d given her some critical notes about her performance, and she’d left around 6:00 PM feeling rather upset. Nikos thinks she was leaving to meet her professor, who he describes as a tall, bearded American man.

In the dressing room, Mariana find a postcard with a picture depicting a saint with long blond hair, like Veronica’s. However, it has a dagger sticking out of its neck and holds a tray with two eyeballs on it. On the other side, is a quotation handwritten in Greek.

When Mariana runs into Clarissa, she asks her again for her help. Clarissa says that the icon depicted on the postcard is St. Lucy , patron saint of the blind, a Christian martry whose eyes were gouged out before she was stabbed to death.

The quotation, she says, comes from Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides. The quote describes Iphigenia being led to her death (“‘Behold the maiden … with garlands in her hair, and holy water sprinkled upon her … walking to the sacrificial altar of the unspeakable goddess – which will flow with blood’ – ‘αἱματορρύτοις’ is the word in Greek – ‘as her beautiful neck is severed.'”)

Mariana asks Clarissa if she thinks Fosca could have sent the postcard. She tells Clarissa about his group of favorite students referred to as the “Maidens”. Clarissa suggest that the name may be a play off the Apostles, which was Tennyson’s secret literary society where he met Hallam. However, she seems disturbed by the idea that Fosca could have sent the postcards. Mariana wonders if the postcards are part of Fosca’s game, by “announcing his intentions” and she suspects the quotations may hold a special meaning for him.

Chapters 9 – 10

After lunch, Mariana and Zoe happen to see Serena at the college bar. Serena is cold towards Mariana and angrily asks her what she said to the police about Fosca because he had clearly been questioned again. Mariana is secretly glad to hear that Sangha is following up on her tip. Before leaving, Serena tells Mariana that she was in class with him the whole time the night Veronica was killed, and he never left even to have a cigarette break.

When Serena leaves, Zoe comments on how fixated Mariana seems to be on Fosca even though he has an alibi for both murders. Zoe then leaves for class, and Mariana neglects to tell her that she has dinner plans with Fosca for that night. Afterwards, Mariana thinks to herself that she should go back to London tomorrow for a few hours to see her supervisor, Ruth , and get some perspective.

Chapters 11 – 13

That night, Mariana heads over to Fosca’s office. She sees that the living room area overlooks the courtyard, with doors leading to other rooms within his area. Fosca appears up wearing a dinner jacket and soon Greg , their waiter shows up. Fosca explains that he asked the dining hall to serve them dinner here so they could have some privacy.

On his coffee table, Mariana spots a pinecone, and she asks him about the slide in his lecture. Fosca explains that each initiate into the cult was given a pinecone upon entry, symbolizing the seed or spirit inside them and the commitment to finding your soul. When Fosca offers her the pinecone, Mariana forcefully declines it.

Fosca then leads Mariana into the dining room, where the main entrée is lamb. As they make conversation, Fosca says that he grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere in New York. Mariana asks him about himself and his childhood, and Fosca admits that he did not have a happy childhood and he never really knew his mother. He describes his father as a violent man who brutalized his mother. Fosca also says he’s never been married.

Fosca then brings up the investigation, repeating what Serena had said about them being in a private tutorial together when Veronica was killed. He also acknowledges that Sangha had visited him and had mentioned that Mariana seemed to have something against him. He tells her that it’s absurd to think that he is somehow murdering his students.

Mariana then asks what type of person he thinks is killed these students. Fosca says he thinks it’s someone spiritual who believes the killing are a “sacrificial act”, a “ritual of rebirth and resurrection”. He also says that the person is a showman or performer, who wants to shock and entertain.

Afterwards, Fosca insists on coffee in the sitting room. Mariana considers fleeing, but then she sees a book of The Collected Works of Euripides . She opens it to see the quotation on Veronica’s postcard bookmarked and underlined. When he returns, Mariana is certain that Edward Fosca is the murderer.

The person narrates that his earliest memory is of Rex, a white sheepdog. His father didn’t like Rex, or perhaps his father hated Rex simply because his mother loved Rex.

When he (the narrator) is nearly 12, his mother suggested they needed a younger dog to replace Rex in sheepherding. In response, his father suggested shooting Rex so they didn’t have to care for two dogs. His mother had refused to let him, causing a fight until his mother finally managed to threaten his father with a knife to stop him. After his father walked out, he had told his mother that “I’ll kill him for you”.

Then, they heard a gunshot, and he went outside to see Rex dead outside. Instead of crying, he simply learned “how to hate”. As time passed, he would imagine and act out terrible things, including making himself bleed.

After the dinner, Mariana calls Fred to meet at Gardenia, a Greek diner in Cambridge. She tells him about the postcard and the underlined quotation she found in Fosca’s book. She asks Fred what he thinks and if he thinks it’s unreasonable to suspect Fosca even though he has an alibi. Fred points out that “one of the girls who gave him an alibi is dead”. Fred also says that it’s possible he has an accomplice, though Mariana thinks he seems more like the lone-wolf type.

Before they leave, Fred playfully propose to Mariana, who unceremoniously says no. Then, they say goodbye and part ways. Mariana looks back, but Fred is gone. When Mariana gets back to her room, she gets a call from a unknown number, the caller says “I can see you, Mariana. I’m watching you” (which she thinks is Henry’s voice) and then hangs up.

The next morning, Mariana intends to heads straight for London as planned, but on her way out she spots Fosca talking to Morris. She sees Fosca give Morris what appears to be a bulky envelope. Curious, Mariana follows Morris as he walks away.

Mariana following him through the gate, past Emmanuel College and down the street. Then, he turns onto a lane and into a dead end. Then, she sees him climb over the wall to the other side. She hesitates for a moment, but then she follows him. When she drops down over the wall, she realizes that he’s at the abandoned cemetery on Mill Road. She looks around for Morris, but instead, she sees Serena walking toward a flat, marble crypt. Then, she sees Morris approach. He kisses Serena, and they proceed to have aggressive sex on the marble.

When they’re done, Mariana moves to leave, but accidentally makes a noise by stepping on a twig. Morris notices her, walks over and threatens Mariana to mind her own business.

Afterwards, Mariana takes the fast train to London. She thinks about the scene at the cemetery and wonders if Morris was the “secret boyfriend” that Veronica had teased Serena about — which would be a relatively harmless secret, but Mariana thinks there’s probably more to it. She also wonders if she was really right about Fosca or if there was another unknown threat?

At King’s Cross, Mariana feels again that she’s being watched, and she feels a sense of relief when she arrives at Ruth’s house. Ruth was her training therapist as a student and became her supervisor when Mariana became qualified. Ruth often helps her to “unpack her feelings”, to separate out her own emotions from her patients’ emotions and to help her look at things impartially. Mariana had also turned to Ruth after Sebastian’s death, though she’d rejected Ruth’s offer to treat her.

Once she starts to talk about the murders, Mariana cries, and Ruth recognizes that it’s because she feels powerless to stop it. After hearing about the Maidens, Ruth suggests that Mariana speak to them as a group and have a group therapy session with them to see what comes up.

Ruth also tells Mariana to be careful with Fosca. She sees how he’s similar to Mariana’s father — charismatic, narcissistic and “powerful within their community” — and she’s worried Mariana may feel an urge to win him over. Mariana disagrees with Ruth’s assessment, but Ruth seems to think that Mariana’s feelings about her relationship with her father — how he never gave her the love she needed, how he let her down — are playing into the situation.

Before Mariana leaves, Ruth suggests that she reach out to Theo Faber (note: he’s the main character from The Silent Patient), a psychotherapist she trained with in London.

That night, Mariana meets with Theo at the Oxford Arms. Theo also trained under Ruth, and Ruth has a soft spot for him. Theo, roughly 40-years-old and kind of awkward, has heard about the murders already. Mariana asks him for his take on things.

Theo recommends starting with the “why”, trying to suss out a motive in order to get at who the killer is. He also suggests understanding who the audience is for the display of the bodies and that the killer is trying to “dazzle” them with horror to distract from something else.

Before Theo leaves, Mariana asks him how he’s doing. He says he’s unhappy where he’s working. Mariana then points out a listing for a position at The Grove for a forensic psychotherapist. Theo looks interested and recognizes it as the place that Alicia Berenson , the painter who killed her husband but won’t talk, was sent. Theo says that perhaps he’ll apply for it.

Heading back to Cambridge, Mariana tries to puzzle through why Ruth brought up Mariana’s father. Mariana remembers idolizing her father as a child. For a long time, she only saw him as brilliant and hardworking. It was Ruth who made her see that her father was cruel, critical and cold, and his love was conditional. Ruth viewed Mariana’s “love” for him as a “pathological attachment to a narcissistic man”, and she suggested that Mariana’s love for him meant she didn’t love herself.

when she get back to campus, she spots Morris. Mariana considers telling Sangha that she thinks Morris and Fosca are connected, but she knows it would only prompt his ridicule. Instead, she needed proof first, and she didn’t tip Morris off that Mariana knew about their connection before then. When she finds herself wanting to call Fred, she stop herself, not wanting to imagine that she was developing feelings for him.

Mariana reaches her room to see the door ajar. The room had clearly been rifled through, though it appeared nothing was stolen. She immediately calls Morris to contact the police. The officers arrive and offer to check for prints, but then she sees a cross carved into her desk. Thinking that it must be Henry, she declines, though “for the first time, she felt afraid of him”.

On the day after his 12th birthday, his mother tells him that she’s leaving after a particularly bad beating at the hands of his father. The narrator initially felt joy, but as she explains her plan, the narrator realized that he wouldn’t be coming with her.

He promised not to tell, but inside he raged, thinking about her leaving him there. He then realized how she’d been willing to stand up for Rex, but never for him. He thought about how she deserved to be punished.

As an adult, he would have had the words to sit her down and explain his grievances, and he fantasizes about her begging for his forgiveness. But at that age he didn’t have the means to express himself. Instead, that night, he dreams of brutally murdering his mother and feels disappointed when he sees her in the morning, uninjured.

At breakfast the next morning with Zoe and Clarissa, Mariana tells them about Ruth’s suggestion to do group therapy with the Maidens. Zoe thinks it’s unlikely they’ll agree to it unless Fosca tell them to. So, she spots him, she asks for his cooperation in organizing it. Fosca agrees to it only if he can attend, so she consents to his presence there.

At 5:00 PM, Mariana meets the five Maidens — Carla, Natasha, Diya, Lillian and Serena — in the OCR (Old Combination Room) conference room. Fosca is late, so they start without him. The girls are clearly unhappy to be there are are derisive when they see Mariana has left out two extra chairs to represent their two missing members. When Mariana asks whether they see Fosca as a father figure, Natasha ignores her question and simply says that they all know that Mariana just wants them to say something bad about Professor Fosca.

When Mariana brings up how Fosca let two of them die, Lillian objects, saying that it’s not his fault they’re dead. Instead, they all agree that Tara and Veronica “were stupid” and not careful, which is why they are dead. Mariana is shocked by the lack of sadness or grief in the girls.

When Fosca arrives, Mariana brings up the play Iphigenia in Aulis , where Iphigenia is sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to appease the god Artemis (in order to save Greece). Mariana asks the group what they think about her death and whether she should have felt compelled to sacrifice herself for her father. Mariana suggests that perhaps Agamemnon is not a hero, but a madman and that Iphigenia mistook abuse for love.

When Mariana brings up Veronica and Tara, Fosca jumps straight to the point — that clearly Mariana is comparing him to Agamemnon (as the madman/father figure) and that he’s somehow mistreating the Maidens (comparing them to Iphigenia/the daugher being sacrificed).

Then, seeing the chairs left out for Tara and Veronica, he mocks Mariana’s relationship with Zoe, ridiculing her for not knowing that one chair is missing — because Zoe is also one of the Maidens.

Chapters 15 – 18

Afterwards, Mariana immediately goes to look for Zoe, but then stops, not wanting to confront Zoe while she’s worked up. She’s stopped by Fred who invites her back to his room for a drink. Not thinking too hard about it, Mariana agrees and follows him to his room.

At Fred’s place, she sees a bunch of papers, which he says is research for a book he’s working on. He says it’s about his mother who died when he was a boy. Mariana says that her mother died as well. He says her death sparked his interested in theoretical mathematics and parallel universes, since it means there may be one where she lived. He says that time doesn’t really exist, so really she’s right there.

As they talk, Fred repeats his premonition that someday she’ll agree to marry him, but Mariana laughs. Then he kisses her. When Mariana tells him she has to leave, Fred looks pained and insists on walking her out. Outside, Mariana feels annoyed with Fred’s obviously hurt feelings. When he hands her a letter to read, Mariana refuses it.

Back at St. Christopher’s, she passes by the portait of Tennyson again and stop to look at it when she hears footsteps. Then, Henry emerges, looking manic and with a bloody nose. He’s also holding a knife. He accuses Mariana of abandoning him and “sacrificing” him. As she pleads with him to put down the knife, he threatens to kill himself. However, Morris spots him and overpowers him. Morris then calls the police, who arrest Henry. At Mariana’s insistence, he’s taken to a psychiatric unit of the hospital.

When Mariana finally gets to her room, she’s unable to sleep for hours, turning over all aspects of the murders in her mind. That night, she has a nightmare about that Sebastian had been wandering alone, and when she found him, he didn’t recognize her, saying that she had changed.

Chapters 19 – 20

Mariana wakes up to banging on her door just past 11:00 the next morning, and she finds Elsie there with news. Elsie reports that Serena’s body was found by the river this morning.

Elsie then hands Mariana a postcard from under her door — with an image of a vase depicting Iphigenia being sacrificed on one side, and lines of Ancient Greek handwritten on the other. Scared, Mariana decides it’s time to tell Inspector Sangha about the postcards, even if he thinks she’s crazy.

As the leaves, she sees Fosca outside and is filled with anger. She charges up to him and demands to know the meaning of the postcard. He tells her it says: “The gods have willed your death – and soon, from your throat, streams of blood shall gush forth at the sword.” As soon as he finishes talking, Mariana hits him and then punches him again, until a nearby office restrains her.

Inspector Sangha shows up and soon, Mariana is in the dean’s office with Sangha, Julain, the dean and Fosca. Sitting there, Mariana tries to present her case as calmly as possible, about why she thinks Fosca is responsible for the murders.

She talks about the “unhealthy group behavior” of the Maidens and how Fosca exerts too much control over them. She also talks about how Veronica and Serena, who have him his alibi, both ended up dead. She also presents the postcards, which she views as his announcement of his “intention to kill”.

Fosca denies responsibility for all of it, including the postcards and notes that it would be “stupid” of him to send postcards with texts that he teaches if he wanted to murder people. When the inspector says that Morris saw Fosca at the exact time of Serena’s death, Mariana says that Morris is lying. She describes what she saw between Fosca and Morris and also between Morris and Serena, saying she thinks Fosca is blackmailing Morris.

However, with this new information, Sangha seems to think Morris seems like a more likely suspect (as opposed to suspecting Fosca), especially since as a porter he could move around unnoticed. Julian and Sangha plan to bring in Morris for questioning.

Afterwards, Julian tells Mariana that she seems a little paranoid and should get help. When she argues with him, Sangha gets angry and tells Mariana to leave the college by tomorrow or else she’ll be arrested.

Chapters 1 – 2

Soon, Morris is arrested by the police. Mariana meets with Zoe and Clarissa and fills them in on the events. Mariana also says she has no intention of leaving, since she wants to stay and see it through. Mariana also confronts Zoe about knowing that she’s one of the Maidens. Zoe says she only went to once to one of their gatherings. Mariana demands to know what Zoe knows.

Finally, Zoe tells her story: Professor Fosca claimed to know the secret of the Eleusian rites (the thing that would take you “on a journey from life to death and back again”). When it was Zoe’s turn to be initiated into the Maidens, she was to go to the boathouse where a punt would take her to meet him at the “folly” (a place by the river near Paradise reserve).

Upon arrival, Veronica and Serena were there wearing masks, meant to represent Persephone and Demeter. Zoe was given the kykeon to drink, which was barley water spiked with GHB (bought from Conrad). Then, he took a knife out and slid it into the wall to represent a ritual sacrifice.

From there, there was naked dancing and swimming in the river. At some point, Fosca started kissing, touching and saying he loved her, but Zoe ran away and never spoke to the girls about it again. She didn’t tell anyone other than Tara.

Chapters 3 – 4

After Zoe finishes explaining, she admits that she received a postcard that afternoon as well. On one side is an image of Iphigenia and the other an inscription. Upon seeing it, Mariana declares that it changes things and that they should leave for London. Clarissa agrees with Mariana, saying they should go to the police, but Zoe refuses.

Zoe insists they need evidence first, and she suggests they at least check the folly for the ritual knife (the one Fosca slid in the rock during the initiation) as potential evidence before they leave. Finally, Mariana agrees to Zoe’s plan, telling Zoe to go pack first. (Privately, she tells Clarissa she has no intention of going to the folly, instead she just needed Zoe to go pack so they can leave.)

Before Mariana leaves, Clarissa suggests that Mariana go straight to the police now, but Mariana is certain Sangha won’t listen to her. Instead, she tells Clarissa to tell the authorities all of this in case something happens to them.

Soon after, Mariana goes to fetch Zoe, but she’s not there. Instead, she gets a call from Fred. He says he had a premonition and that she’s in serious danger, but Mariana has had enough of him and hangs up.

Mariana waits around in Zoe’s room, looking around. As she does, she (superstitiously) makes a prayer to the goddesses to apologizing if she has offended them, but in the process she knocks over one of Zoe’s childhood stuffed animals, Zebra. Then, she sees that Zebra has papers stitched into its tummy.

Mariana picks up the papers and begins to read.

One day, his mother leaves, and he never hears from her again. He goes and writes in his journal for hours, then he puts it in a box to hide it away. Today, he has taken out the journal to read again, but two pages are missing, which he destroyed because they are “dangerous”.

Then, he writes “I love you, Zoe” (indicating that this is a letter addressed to Zoe), and he explains that he’s writing this so she can understand him. He had a “premonition” that she was his destiny and he believes he can make her love him and that they’ll be together someday. He closes by warning her that “it involves blood — and sacrifice” and signs it “yours, forever”.

Chapters 6 – x

After reading it, it’s clear to Mariana that Fosca had written this letter to Zoe, but she’s not sure what to make of it. Then, Zoe comes back in, and Mariana is not sure what to say or do. Instead, Mariana agrees to go to the folly with Zoe. At the boathouse, she sees Fred following them.

Zoe comments that Mariana is being oddly quiet, and they soon arrive at the folly, consisting of four columns and a stone roof. At the entrance is a emblem of a swan in a storm. Inside, Zoe looks for the place where Fosca had slid the knife. She smiles at she pulls it out, and Mariana sees that the tip is stained — either from rust or blood.

Then, Zoe points the knife at Mariana, ordering her to walk through the trees. When Mariana says that she found Fosca’s letter to her, Zoe interrupts. She clarifies that she was in love with him, but it was Sebastian, not Fosca, who wrote the letter.

Chapters 1 – 3

Zoe then tells Mariana that she and Sebastian became lovers when she was 15 and they took her to Greece. Zoe says that he only ever married Mariana for her money. Sebastian murdered Mariana’s father after he caught them fooling around in the olive grove.

After Sebastian died in that accident, Zoe decided to carry out Sebastian’s plan to murder Mariana (in order to get his hands on her fortune). Zoe had previously told Sebastian about the Maidens at school and it gave him the idea for the plan.

It involved framing Fosca for a series of murders, beginning with Tara’s. Zoe planted the postcards and underlined the passages in his books. He also planted some hairs from Tara’s head behind Fosca’s wardrobe, which the police haven’t found yet (“but they will”). Zoe then drew Mariana into the investigation and got her to try to convince the police it was Fosca.

Zoe then tells Mariana that tomorrow they’ll find Mariana’s body, and Zoe will say Mariana went to investigate here alone. At that point, Zoe plans to tell them her story about Fosca and the initiation ceremony. Then, they’ll investigate and find the evidence that she planted and assumed he killed Mariana and the rest of them.

As Zoe moves to strike Mariana with the knife, Mariana finds the strength the grab Zoe’s arm, resulting in a tussle. As the knife flies off, Zoe goes to look for it. Fred then shows up, looking concerned for Mariana. Before she can warn him, Zoe stabs Fred in the back. Before Zoe can stab him again, Mariana hits Zoe with a rock, causing Zoe to fall over and impale herself with the knife.

Mariana then calls the police.

Soon, Zoe is taken away by armed police officers in an ambulance and charged with attempted murder for the attack on Fred. Later, Sangha tells Mariana that Fosca has been fired. It turned out he was sleeping with all the Maidens, and that Morris was blackmailing him for it.

With it all over, Mariana feels terrible, but also that a fog has lifted. She feels more alive.

When she finally returns home, Mariana tries to make sense of what happened. Zoe ended up surviving the knife wound, but attempted suicide multiple times and had a psychotic breakdown. Deemed unfit to stand trial, she’s now a patient at the Grove under the care of Theo, who ended up applying for the job there. Theo has encouraged Mariana to speak to Zoe, but Mariana has not returned his calls.

As for Fred, he also survived, and Mariana has visited him a few times in the hospital.

One day, Mariana gets a letter from Theo, saying that talking to Zoe might give Mariana some closure. He also mentions that Zoe, too, is a victim.

When Mariana reads that, she feels angry at first, but then she finds that she wants to understand. In February, Mariana makes her way to the Grove. Theo talks to her, saying that Zoe is unwell, but that she was acting as a proxy for Sebastian. Theo then leaves to talk to a red-haired woman in his office (presumably, Alicia Berenson).

The book ends with Mariana walking in to talk to Zoe.

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Bookshelf -- A literary set collection game

In The Maidens , Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike―particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

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Who is Alicia Berenson in The Maidens?

Who is Alicia Berenson?

Hey, I really liked the review, quite insightful, especially the way you backed up the climax with some pragmatic back story from the novel itself. Just one thing, the part where you’d mentioned that Sebastian kills her ‘father’ as he catches sight of them (told by zoe), I’m afraid that’s not exactly true. It’s her grandfather he kills, not the father. I found the exact lines : ‘One day, Grandfather caught us in the olive grove. He threatened to tell you – so Sebastian had to kill him. He suffocated him right then with those giant hands of his. Then Grandfather left you all that money … So much money – it dazzled Sebastian – he had to have it. He wanted it for me, for him – for us. But you were in the way …’

Sebastian killed Meriana’s father aka Zoe’s grandfather. She is the one talking that’s why she said grandfather

The Maidens ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Genre: Thriller

US Publication: June 15, 2021

Print: 352 pages

Audio: 9 hours 19 minutes

Confetti Rating: 4 stars

There’s a justifiable amount of buzz swirling around Alex Michaelides’s sophomore novel, The Maidens , given the success of his 2019 debut, The Silent Patient . Said buzz (and early reviews) made me wonder a few things before I even cracked it open, so as an act of public service I’m sharing my pre-read Q’s with my post-read A’s.

Q: Do you have to read The Silent Patient beforehand? Or in my case, if you have read it, do you need to remember anything about it?

A: Not really, though you’ll miss out on some things if you don’t. I found this Washington Post recap to be very helpful in jogging my memory of TSP ’s characters, plot points and twists.

Q: Do you need to be familiar with Greek mythology beforehand, since it plays a central role in the storyline?

A: Nope! Everything is explained (maybe even in a little too much detail for those who already know Persephone, “The Maiden,” is Queen of the Underworld).

Q: What’s this I hear about animals being harmed?

A: There are separate scenes of sheep and a family dog being slaughtered.

Q: Will I like it more than The Silent Patient ?

A: Probably not. It stands pretty well on its own, but the odds of it exceeding high expectations aren’t great. As with any thriller, your overall enjoyment will come down to if you see the twists coming and find the ending satisfying. I personally was surprised by the big reveals and thus appreciated the novel’s conclusion. I’m looking forward to seeing what this author does next.

I received advance copies of the book and audiobook courtesy of Orion Publishing Group and Macmillan Audio, respectively, via NetGalley. Both formats are recommended. The Maidens is slated for US publication on June 15th.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike — particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld? When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything — including her own life.

Remember ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭒

Falling ⭑⭑⭑⭒.

Australia edition
International edition
Europe edition

In brief: An Extra Pair of Hands; The Maidens; After the Silence – reviews

Kate Mosse’s eloquent new book reveals her other life as a carer, while two thrillers delve into secrets hidden in a university and an island community

An Extra Pair of Hands

Kate Mosse Wellcome Collection, £12.99, pp208

Over the past two decades, the bestselling author has been a carer three times: to her father suffering from Parkinson’s, to her widowed mother and presently to her mother-in-law, the exuberant Granny Rosie. Unafraid to depict the exhausting reality of caring, her timely story is compassionate and humane, judiciously blending the personal with the political; as she eloquently argues, “care is a feminist issue”.

The Maidens

Alex Michaelides W&N, £14.99, pp368

Following on from his global bestselling debut, The Silent Patient , Michaelides returns with a psychological thriller steeped in Greek mythology. London-based psychotherapist Mariana Andros is trying to come to terms with the death of her beloved husband. When a close friend of her niece, a student at the University of Cambridge, is murdered, Mariana becomes embroiled in the mysterious activities of a group of elusive students known as the Maidens and their enigmatic professor, Edward Fosca. Tautly plotted and impeccably paced, it’s an intelligent and propulsive second novel.

After the Silence

Louise O’Neill Riverrun, £8.99, pp400

Ten years ago, on the fictional island of Inisrun, a young woman was murdered but nobody was ever charged with the crime. A decade later, two documentary film-makers have arrived to interview residents and try to uncover the truth. Exploring themes of class, wealth, desire and coercive control, O’Neill’s psychological thriller is a meticulously researched and emotionally astute exploration into the far-reaching impact of domestic abuse.

To order An Extra Pair of Hands , The Maidens or After the Silence go to guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply

The Observer
Autobiography and memoir

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The Maidens

Fans of Alex Michaelides’ blockbuster debut The Silent Patient will eagerly dive into his newest thriller, The Maidens .

Fans of Alex Michaelides’ blockbuster debut The Silent Patient will eagerly dive into his newest thriller, The Maidens , which will immerse them in the world of Mariana Andros, a 36-year-old group therapist living in London and mourning the strange drowning of her husband Sebastian a year ago in Greece. (Mariana trained alongside Theo Faber, the criminal psychotherapist who unraveled the strange case of Alicia Berenson in Michaelides’ debut, and he makes an appearance or two here.)

Mariana is still overwhelmed by her grief when she is suddenly called to her alma mater, Cambridge University, after her niece Zoe’s friend is murdered. Mariana and Sebastian raised Zoe, whose parents died in a car accident. The distraught girl shares that her late friend, Tara, was part of a group of university students known as “The Maidens,” who are all devoted to their dashing American professor of Greek tragedy, Edward Fosca. The police have arrested a suspect, but Zoe proclaims his innocence. Mariana quickly gets swept up in the case, and soon is on the track of a serial killer as more Maidens are murdered. Each time, a strange postcard with a Greek quotation from a classical tragedy is found in the victim's rooms, and Mariana becomes increasingly convinced that the arrogant Fosca is the murderer.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Actors Louise Brealey and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith narrate as investigator and killer in the audio edition of The Maidens .

Michaelides’ page turner cleverly weaves together Mariana’s difficult and haunted past, her group therapy patients, Greek mythology and the increasing local tension as more girls are killed. He makes excellent use of the Cambridge University setting, with its Gothic architecture, traditions and hierarchy of students, professors and staff. As clues emerge and danger grows, Mariana becomes more and more sure of her sleuthing, although frustrated readers may often want to shake her and point her in other directions. A particularly needy patient named Henry seems obsessed with her. And then there’s Fred, a physics student whom Mariana meets on the train, who has fallen in love with her and keeps popping up—perhaps as friend, perhaps as foe.

The Maidens is a well-paced, suspenseful and easy-to-digest thriller. The Greek tragedy aspect is intriguing and Michaelides explains the mythology, so there’s no need to brush up beforehand. Be forewarned, however: There’s a supremely unsettling, sure-to-be-divisive twist at the end of this cliffhanger.

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ARC Review | The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Title: The Maidens Author: Alex Michaelides Genre: Fiction, Thriller Published On: June 15, 2021 Publisher: Celadon Books Source: physical Pages: 352

Synopsis: Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld? When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.

My thoughts

(Spoiler free)

The Maidens is the dark, twisty novel rooted in mythology that I wanted from The Secret History .

First, let me say that I have not read Alex Michaelides previous novel, The Silent Patient , so I have nothing to compare this book to except other novels. And the one that gave me similar vibes is The Secret History . Unlike most other readers, I didn’t love The Secret History . I wasn’t fond of all the unreliable characters. Oddly, The Maidens is full of unreliable characters, as well, but this time it worked for me.

“Unlike the other students milling around the faculty, these girls weren’t scruffy or eccentrically dressed. Their clothes were elegant and looked expensive. They all took care of themselves, and were made-up, well-groomed, manicured. Most distinctive of all was the way they held themselves: with an obvious air of confidence, even superiority.” Alex Michaelides, The Maidens

Michaelides has created characters I didn’t mind not trusting. With the exception of the notes woven throughout the novel from the killer’s mind, the reader experiences the events through Mariana’s point of view. Like the Greek tragedies that heavily influence this story, Mariana’s life has been full of tragic experiences. Most recently the death of her husband. It was fascinating to experience the events from someone who specializes in group therapy as a psychoanalyst, but who is also suffering through unimaginable grief herself. And as a former student at the school where the murders have occurred, her past memories are intertwined with her present experiences. She’s a complex, but informative character.

“We all secretly hope that tragedy will only ever happen to other people. But Mariana knew, sooner or later, it happens to you.” Alex Michaelides, The Maidens

I also found myself googling many of the places the author mentions in the book, which made the story even more atmospheric. The setting of Cambridge lended itself perfectly to the mysterious deaths, and I could feel Mariana’s fear among the shadows and beside the murky river.

The chapters are short and blunt, and I was a big fan of the style. It allowed me to stop if I needed and absorb what I’d read, the tension building as the past and present slowly meet.

I didn’t try very hard to solve the mystery as I was reading. There were several directions the plot could have gone, so I didn’t even try to guess. When the twist was revealed, I was shocked, but not so shocked that it didn’t make sense. But I did immediately go back to the beginning of the book when I finished to reread many passages—which is always a sign that I enjoyed a book.

I was nervous about picking this one up when I started seeing mixed reviews from my fellow readers, but I was happy to find this one lived up to my expectations. I’m excited to read The Silent Patient soon, as well. While The Maidens wasn’t perfect—and I still have a few unanswered questions—I thoroughly enjoyed the setting and characters in this spine-tingling thriller.

Thank you to Celadon Books for an advanced reader’s copy.

(All quotes are taken from the advance copy and are subject to change in final print.)

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About the Author

In the News

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell’s Stone Village Television has acquired the film and television rights to Alex Michaelides’ forthcoming novel #TheMaidens to develop as a premium television series https://t.co/nbB6nMGQDS — Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) February 1, 2021

A Song For A Book

I’ve chosen to highlight Conan Gray’s “Greek God” for obvious reasons. But the lyrics also work pretty perfectly. Oh, I don’t really care if you like me or not But I know that you want me to Oh, anythin’ I do, I know you’re gonna watch To rumor up that I’m a fool You and all your friends have to walk in a squad ‘Cause y’all are so insecure Oh, overcompensate ’cause you’re sizin’ me up The oldest trick in the book

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30+ Best Fiction Books About Greek Mythology (2024)

L ooking for a list of the best fiction books about Greek mythology? I’ve seen a lot of readers over the past few years who, after reading something like Circe or Song of Achilles , decide they’d love to read more Greek mythology stories. There really are a lot out there, but what are the best ones?

In this list, I’ll give you a ton of ideas, plus I’ll include the Goodreads and Amazon star ratings (out of 5) for each book so you can get a feel for whether or not you want to pick it up. Of course, these ratings can change after I publish this list, but you’ll get the idea.

I’m sure I’m missing a few great books featuring Greek mythology! Let me know in the comments what else I should add.

Let’s jump in. Happy reading!

30+ Awesome Fiction Books About Greek Mythology

The shadow of perseus by claire heywood.

Nationally bestselling author of Daughters of Sparta Claire Heywood returns with an imaginative and female-centered reinterpretation of the myth of the great hero Perseus, told through the voices of three women who are sidelined in the traditional version—his mother, Danae; his trophy, Medusa; and his wife, Andromeda—but whose viewpoints reveal a man who is not, in fact, a hero at all.

Danae: Banished from her homeland thanks to a prophecy foretelling that her unborn child will one day cause the death of her father, the king of Argos, Danae finds herself stranded, pregnant, and alone in a remote fishing village. It’s a harsh new world for a young woman who grew up as a coddled princess, and forging a new life for herself and for her young son Perseus will be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

Medusa: As a member of a reclusive band of women who live deep in the woods, known as the Gorgons, Medusa has eschewed all contact with the outside world. That is, until the day she finds an injured boy named Perseus in the forest.

Andromeda: When a harsh sandstorm threatens to destroy her nomadic desert tribe’s way of life, Andromeda knows that a sacrifice will be required to appease the gods and end the storm. But when a forceful young Perseus interferes, Andromeda’s life is set on an entirely new path.

As Perseus becomes increasingly obsessed with the promise of his own destiny, his heroic journey casts a shadow of violence and destruction across all three women’s lives. But even as he tries to silence them, the women may find that reclaiming their voices is their only hope for lifting themselves into a better future.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.0) | Goodreads (3.68)

Clytemnestra by costanza casati.

For fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe , a stunning debut following Clytemnestra, the most notorious villainess of the ancient world and the events that forged her into the legendary queen.

As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best…

You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offence against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot.

But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice.

Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So, you bide your time and force the gods’ hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did.

If power isn’t given to you, you have to take it for yourself.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.4) | Goodreads (4.26)

Circe by madeline miller.

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child — not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power — the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man’s world.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.6) | Goodreads (4.24) | LQ’s Review

The song of achilles by madeline miller.

Achilles, “the best of all the Greeks,” son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods’ wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.6) | Goodreads (4.33)

The king must die (theseus #1) by mary renault.

In myth, Theseus was the slayer of the child-devouring Minotaur in Crete. What the founder-hero might have been in real life is another question, brilliantly explored in The King Must Die . Drawing on modern scholarship and archaeological findings at Knossos, Mary Renault’s Theseus is an utterly lifelike figure—a king of immense charisma, whose boundless strivings flow from strength and weakness—but also one steered by implacable prophecy.

The story follows Theseus’s adventures from Troizen to Eleusis, where the death in the book’s title is to take place, and from Athens to Crete, where he learns to jump bulls and is named king of the victims. Richly imbued with the spirit of its time, this is a page-turner as well as a daring act of imagination.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.3) | Goodreads (3.98)

The bull from the sea (theseus #2) by mary renault.

This brilliant recreation of the story of the legendary hero Theseus begins with his triumphant return from Crete after slaying the Minotaur. Having freed the city of Athens from the onerous tribute demanded by the ruler of Knossos–the sacrifice of noble youths and maidens to the Labytinth’s monster–Theseus has returned home to find his father dead and himself the new king. But his adventures have only just begun: he still must confront the Amazons, capture their queen, Hippolyta, and face the tragic results of Phaedra’s jealous rage.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.5) | Goodreads (4.1)

Till we have faces by c.s. lewis.

In this timeless tale of two mortal princesses- one beautiful and one unattractive- C.S. Lewis reworks the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche into an enduring piece of contemporary fiction. This is the story of Orual, Psyche’s embittered and ugly older sister, who possessively and harmfully loves Psyche. Much to Orual’s frustration, Psyche is loved by Cupid, the god of love himself, setting the troubled Orual on a path of moral development.

Set against the backdrop of Glome, a barbaric, pre-Christian world, the struggles between sacred and profane love are illuminated as Orual learns that we cannot understand the intent of the gods “till we have faces” and sincerity in our souls and selves.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.6) | Goodreads (4.19)

Lord of the silver bow by david gemmel.

This is book one of the Troy series. The whole series is rated well!

He is a man of many names. Some call him the Golden One; others, the Lord of the Silver Bow. To the Dardanians, he is Prince Aeneas. But to his friends, he is Helikaon. Strong, fast, quick of mind, he is a bold warrior, hated by his enemies, feared even by his Trojan allies. For there is a darkness at the heart of the Golden One, a savagery that, once awakened, can be appeased only with blood.

Argurios the Mykene is a peerless fighter, a man of unbending principles and unbreakable will. Like all of the Mykene warriors, he lives to conquer and to kill. Dispatched by King Agamemnon to scout the defenses of the golden city of Troy, he is Helikaon’s sworn enemy.

Andromache is a priestess of Thera betrothed against her will to Hektor, prince of Troy. Scornful of tradition, skilled in the arts of war, and passionate in the ways of her order, Andromache vows to love whom she pleases and to live as she desires.

Now fate is about to thrust these three together; and, from the sparks of passionate love and hate, ignite a fire that will engulf the world.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.6) | Goodreads (4.34)

Autobiography of red by anne carson.

The award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents a genre in Autobiography of Red , a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional re-creation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present.

Geryon, a young boy who is also a winged red monster, reveals the volcanic terrain of his fragile, tormented soul in an autobiography he begins at the age of five. As he grows older, Geryon escapes his abusive brother and affectionate but ineffectual mother, finding solace behind the lens of his camera and in the arms of a young man named Herakles, a cavalier drifter who leaves him at the peak of infatuation. When Herakles reappears years later, Geryon confronts again the pain of his desire and embarks on a journey that will unleash his creative imagination to its fullest extent. By turns whimsical and haunting, erudite and accessible, richly layered and deceptively simple, Autobiography of Red is a profoundly moving portrait of an artist coming to terms with the fantastic accident of who he is.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.6) | Goodreads (4.28)

The penelopiad by margaret atwood.

Margaret Atwood returns with a shrewd, funny, and insightful retelling of the myth of Odysseus from the point of view of Penelope. Describing her own remarkable vision, the author writes in the foreword, “I’ve chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus, which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of the Odyssey: What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in the Odyssey doesn’t hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I’ve always been haunted by the hanged maids and, in The Penelopiad , so is Penelope herself.”

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.1) | Goodreads (3.72)

Weight by jeanette winterson.

Condemned to shoulder the world forever by the gods he dared defy, freedom seems unattainable to Atlas. But then he receives an unexpected visit from Heracles, the one man strong enough to share the burden . . .

Jeanette Winterson’s retelling of the myth of Atlas and Heracles asks difficult and eternal questions about the nature of choice and coercion. Visionary and inventive, Weight turns the familiar on its head to show us ourselves in a new light.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.4) | Goodreads (3.74)

Girl meets boy by ali smith.

Girl meets boy. It’s a story as old as time. But what happens when an old story meets a brand new set of circumstances?

Ali Smith’s re-mix of Ovid’s most joyful metamorphosis is a story about the kind of fluidity that can’t be bottled and sold.

It is about girls and boys, girls and girls, love and transformation, a story of puns and doubles, reversals and revelations.

Funny and fresh, poetic and political, Girl Meets Boy is a myth of metamorphosis for the modern world.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.2) | Goodreads (3.80)

A thousand ships by natalie haynes.

This is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s. They have waited long enough for their turn . . .

This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . .

In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.

From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.

A woman’s epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the center of the Western world’s great tale ever told.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.4) | Goodreads (4.08)

Stone blind by natalie haynes.

They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.

The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.

When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene’s temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge–on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon’s actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.

Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .

In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman–injured by a powerful man–is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa’s story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.2) | Goodreads (3.86)

Gods behaving badly by marie phillips.

Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse–and none too happy about it. And they’ve had to get day jobs: Artemis as a dog-walker, Apollo as a TV psychic, Aphrodite as a phone sex operator, Dionysus as a DJ.

Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees–a favorite pastime of Apollo’s–is sapping their vital reserves of strength.

Soon, what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills. Two perplexed humans, Alice and Neil, who are caught in the crossfire, must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed-but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.1) | Goodreads (3.4)

Piranesi by susanna clarke.

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.5) | Goodreads (4.23)

House of names by colm tóibín.

On the day of his daughter’s wedding, Agamemnon orders her sacrifice. His daughter is led to her death, and Agamemnon leads his army into battle, where he is rewarded with glorious victory.

Three years later, he returns home and his murderous action has set the entire family – mother, brother, sister – on a path of intimate violence, as they enter a world of hushed commands and soundless journeys through the palace’s dungeons and bedchambers. As his wife seeks his death, his daughter, Electra, is the silent observer to the family’s game of innocence while his son, Orestes, is sent into bewildering, frightening exile where survival is far from certain. Out of their desolating loss, Electra and Orestes must find a way to right these wrongs of the past even if it means committing themselves to a terrible, barbarous act.

House of Names is a story of intense longing and shocking betrayal. It is a work of great beauty, and daring, from one of our finest living writers.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.1) | Goodreads (3.58)

Salvage the bones by jesmyn ward.

A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch’s father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn’t show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn’t much to save. Lately, Esch can’t keep down what food she gets; she’s fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbull’s new litter, dying one by one in the dirt. Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child’s play and short on parenting.

As the twelve days that make up the novel’s framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family–motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce–pulls itself up to face another day. A big-hearted novel about familial love and community against all odds, and a wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.3) | Goodreads (3.96)

The silence of the girls by pat barker.

The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, which continues to wage bloody war over a stolen woman—Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman—Briseis—watches and waits for the war’s outcome. She was queen of one of Troy’s neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece’s greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles’s concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army.

When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position, able to observe the two men driving the Greek army in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate not only of Briseis’s people but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war—the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead—all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis’s perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker’s latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives—and it is nothing short of magnificent.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.3) | Goodreads (3.9)

The women of troy by pat barker.

Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with the spoils of an endless war—including the women of Troy themselves. They await a fair wind for the Aegean.

It does not come, because the gods are offended. The body of King Priam lies unburied and desecrated, and so the victors remain in suspension, camped in the shadows of the city they destroyed as the coalition that held them together begins to unravel. Old feuds resurface and new suspicions and rivalries begin to fester.

Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles’s slave, now belonging to his companion Alcimus, quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can, with Priam’s aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.2) | Goodreads (3.83)

Ithaca by claire north.

Seventeen years ago, King Odysseus sailed to war with Troy, taking with him every man of fighting age from the island of Ithaca. None of them has returned, and the women of Ithaca have been left behind to run the kingdom.

Penelope was barely into womanhood when she wed Odysseus. While he lived, her position was secure. But now, years on, speculation is mounting that her husband is dead, and suitors are beginning to knock at her door.

No one man is strong enough to claim Odysseus’ empty throne—not yet. But everyone waits for the balance of power to tip, and Penelope knows that any choice she makes could plunge Ithaca into bloody civil war. Only through cunning, wit, and her trusted circle of maids, can she maintain the tenuous peace needed for the kingdom to survive.

This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before. Beyond Ithaca’s shores, the whims of gods dictate the wars of men. But on the isle, it is the choices of the abandoned women—and their goddesses— that will change the course of the world.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.3) | Goodreads (3.71)

The wolf den by elodie harper.

Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii’s brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den…

Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father’s death plunged her family into penury. Now she is a slave in Pompeii’s infamous brothel, owned by a man she despises. Sharp, clever and resourceful, Amara is forced to hide her talents. For as a she-wolf, her only value lies in the desire she can stir in others.

But Amara’s spirit is far from broken.

By day, she walks the streets with her fellow she-wolves, finding comfort in the laughter and dreams they share. For the streets of Pompeii are alive with opportunity. Out here, even the lowest slave can secure a reversal in fortune. Amara has learnt that everything in this city has its price. But how much is her freedom going to cost her?

Set in Pompeii’s lupanar, The Wolf Den reimagines the lives of women who have long been overlooked.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.3) | Goodreads (4.06)

The house with the golden door by elodie harper.

The life of a courtesan in Pompeii is glittering, yet precarious…

Amara has escaped her life as a slave in the town’s most notorious brothel, but now her existence depends on the affections of her patron: a man she might not know as well as she once thought.

At night she dreams of the wolf den, still haunted by her past. Amara longs for the women she was forced to leave behind and worse, finds herself pursued by the man who once owned her. In order to be free, she will need to be as ruthless as he is.

Amara knows her existence in Pompeii is subject to Venus, the goddess of love. Yet finding love may prove to be the most dangerous act of all.

We return to Pompeii for the second instalment in Elodie Harper’s Wolf Den Trilogy, set in the town’s lupanar and reimagining the lives of women long overlooked.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.4) | Goodreads (4.24)

Ariadne by jennifer saint.

Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice.

When Theseus, the Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne’s decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?

Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a better world.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.3) | Goodreads (3.81)

Athena’s child by hannah lynn.

Daughter. Sister. Priestess. Protector.

Son. Brother. Demi-God. Hero.

Gifted and burdened with beauty far beyond that of mere mortals, Medusa seeks sanctuary with the Goddess Athena. But when the lustful gaze of mighty Poseidon falls upon her, even the Temple of Athena cannot protect her.

Young Perseus embarks on a seemingly impossible quest. Equipped with only bravado and determination, his only chance of success lays in the hands of his immortal siblings.

Medusa and Perseus soon become pawns of spiteful and selfish gods. Faced with the repercussions of Athena’s wrath Medusa has no choice but to flee and hide. But can she do so without becoming the monster they say she is.

History tells of conquering heroes. Tales distorted by time. Medusa’s truth has long been lost. Until now. Now it is time to hear her truth.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.3) | Goodreads (3.76)

A spartan’s sorrow by hannah lynn.

All murders must be avenged.

While the rest of Greece mourns for the war that has taken their husbands away, Clytemnestra fears the day it will bring hers back.

When her husband willingly sacrifices their eldest daughter to appease the Gods, Clytemnestra vows to do whatever it takes to protect her remaining children. But in doing so she faces losing them altogether.

A story of love, loss and bitter betrayals, A Spartan’s Sorrow shows that sometimes you must risk it all to protect the ones you love.

If you are a fan of vengeful Gods and fierce family rivalries you will love Hannah Lynn’s epic tale of ancient Greece’s most formidable Queen.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.3) | Goodreads (4.0)

Queens of themiscyra by hannah lynn.

Sisters. Mothers. Lovers. Warriors.

In ancient Themiscyra, Hippolyte rules as Queen of the Amazons. Feared throughout Greece, their skills on the battlefield are unrivalled. But when a ship lands on their shores, it brings something more dangerous than the threat of war. It brings a future Hippolyte could never have dreamed of.

Swept away to Athens, Hippolyte learns a love that transcends even the bond of the Amazon women. But can she forget her warrior past and forge a new life?

With her sister gone, Penthesilea is left with no choice but to rise as the new Amazon Queen. Forgoing her sister’s compassion and wisdom, Penthesilea rules with impulsiveness and ferocity that sparks terror throughout the Aegean.

But when Hippolyte’s world starts to crumble it is up to Penthesilea to decide how far she will go to defend their honour, family and way of life.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.4) | Goodreads (3.96)

Elektra by jennifer saint.

The House of Atreus is cursed. A bloodline tainted by a generational cycle of violence and vengeance. This is the story of three women, their fates inextricably tied to this curse, and the fickle nature of men and gods.

Clytemnestra

The sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon – her hopes of averting the curse are dashed when her sister is taken to Troy by the feckless Paris. Her husband raises a great army against them, and determines to win, whatever the cost.

Princess of Troy, and cursed by Apollo to see the future but never to be believed when she speaks of it. She is powerless in her knowledge that the city will fall.

The youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, Elektra is horrified by the bloodletting of her kin. But, can she escape the curse, or is her own destiny also bound by violence?

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.1) | Goodreads (3.70)

Atalanta by jennifer saint.

Princess, Warrior, Lover, Hero

When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. But even then, she is a survivor. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing.

Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. The Argonauts’ quest for the Golden Fleece is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves herself equal to the men she fights alongside. As she is swept into a passionate affair, in defiance of Artemis’s warning, she begins to question the goddess’s true intentions. Can Atalanta carve out her own legendary place in a world of men, while staying true to her heart?

Full of joy, passion, and adventure, Atalanta is the story of a woman who refuses to be contained. Jennifer Saint places Atalanta in the pantheon of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology, where she belongs.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.3) | Goodreads (3.80)

Psyche and eros by luna mcnamara.

Who said true love is a myth?

A prophecy claims that Psyche, princess of Mycenae, will defeat a monster feared even by the gods. Rebelling against her society’s expectations for women, Psyche spends her youth mastering blade and bow, preparing to meet her destiny.

When Psyche angers the love goddess Aphrodite, she sends Eros, god of desire, to deliver a cruel curse. After eons watching humanity twist his gifts, the last thing Eros wants is to become involved in the chaos of the mortal world. But when he pricks himself with the arrow intended for Psyche, Eros finds himself doomed to yearn for a woman who will be torn from him the moment their eyes meet.

Thrown together by fate, headstrong Psyche and world-weary Eros will face challenges greater than they could have ever imagined. And as the Trojan War begins and divine powers try to keep them apart, the pair must determine if the curse could become something more . . . before it’s too late.

A joyous and subversive tale of gods, monsters, and the human heart and soul, Psyche and Eros dazzles the senses while exploring notions of trust, sacrifice, and what it truly means to be a hero. With unforgettably vivid characters, spellbinding prose, and delicious tension, Luna McNamara has crafted a shimmering and propulsive debut novel about a love so strong it defies the will of Olympus.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.2) | Goodreads (3.77)

Daughter of sparta by claire m. andrews.

Sparta forged her into a deadly weapon. Now the gods need her to save the world!

Seventeen-year-old Daphne has spent her entire life honing her body and mind into that of a warrior, hoping to be accepted by the unyielding people of ancient Sparta. But an unexpected encounter with the goddess Artemis—who holds Daphne’s brother’s fate in her hands—upends the life she’s worked so hard to build. Nine mysterious items have been stolen from Mount Olympus, and if Daphne cannot find them, the gods’ waning powers will fade away, the mortal world will descend into chaos, and her brother’s life will be forfeit.

Guided by Artemis’s twin—the handsome and entirely-too-self-assured god Apollo—Daphne’s journey will take her from the labyrinth of the Minotaur to the riddle-spinning Sphinx of Thebes, team her up with mythological legends such as Theseus and Hippolyta of the Amazons, and pit her against the gods themselves.

A reinterpretation of the classic Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo, Daughter of Sparta , by debut author Claire M. Andrews turns the traditionally male-dominated mythology we know into a heart-pounding and empowering female-led adventure.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.4) | Goodreads (3.81)

Blood of troy by claire m. andrews.

A year after saving the powers of Olympus by defeating Nyx, the Goddess of Darkness, Daphne is haunted by still-looming threats, her complicated feelings for the god Apollo, and the promise she made to the Olympian gods that she would help them again when they called upon her. When their command finally comes, it is deceptively simple: secure herself a spot as one of Queen Helen’s guards.

A war is coming, and all of Sparta must be prepared.

In the midst of a treaty summit among the monarchs of Greece, Daphne and Helen uncover a plot of betrayal—and soon, a battle begins that leads to all-out war. As the kingdoms of Greece clash on the shores of Troy and the gods choose sides, Daphne must use her wits, her training, and her precarious relationship with Apollo to find a way to keep her queen safe, stop the war, and uncover the true reason the gods led her to Troy. But the gods are keeping more than one secret, and Daphne will be forced to decide how far she is willing to go to save those she loves—and whose side she’s on in a war that is prophesized to be the downfall of her people.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.6) | Goodreads (4.15)

Olympus, texas by stacey swann.

The Briscoe family is once again the talk of their small town when March returns to East Texas two years after he was caught having an affair with his brother’s wife. His mother, June, hardly welcomes him back with open arms. Her husband’s own past affairs have made her tired of being the long-suffering spouse. Is it, perhaps, time for a change? Within days of March’s arrival, someone is dead, marriages are upended, and even the strongest of alliances are shattered. In the end, the ties that hold them together might be exactly what drag them all down.

An expansive tour de force, Olympus, Texas cleverly weaves elements of classical mythology into a thoroughly modern family saga, rich in drama and psychological complexity. After all, at some point, don’t we all wonder: What good is this destructive force we call love?

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4) | Goodreads (3.75)

Lore by alexandra bracken.

Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.

Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man–now a god–responsible for their deaths.

Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.

The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost–and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

Lore Olympus Series by Rachel Smythe

Experience the propulsive love story of two Greek gods—Hades and Persephone—brought to life with lavish artwork and an irresistible contemporary voice.

Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love—witness what the gods do after dark in this stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of mythology’s most well-known stories from creator Rachel Smythe. Featuring a brand-new, exclusive short story, Smythe’s original Eisner-nominated web-comic Lore Olympus brings the Greek Pantheon into the modern age with this sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.9) | Goodreads (4.28)

The hidden oracle by rick riordan.

This whole middle grade series is rated really well!

How do you punish an immortal?

By making him human.

After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus’s favour.

But Apollo has many enemies—gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go… an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.7) | Goodreads (4.17)

Threads that bind by kika hatzopoulou.

In a world where the children of the gods inherit their powers, a descendant of the Greek Fates must solve a series of impossible murders to save her sisters, her soulmate, and her city.

Descendants of the Fates are always born in threes: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love and to life itself. The Ora sisters are no exception. Io, the youngest, uses her Fate-born abilities as a private investigator in the half-sunken city of Alante.

But her latest job leads her to a horrific discovery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill. To find the culprit, she must work alongside Edei Rhuna, the right hand of the infamous Mob Queen—and the boy with whom she shares a rare fate-thread linking them as soul mates before they’ve even met.

But the investigation turns personal when Io’s estranged oldest sister turns up on the arm of her best suspect. Amid unveiled secrets from her past and her growing feelings for Edei, Io must follow clues through the city’s darkest corners and unearth a conspiracy that involves some of the city’s most powerful players—before destruction comes to her own doorstep.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.2) | Goodreads (3.96)

Till we have faces: a myth retold by c.s. lewis.

In this timeless tale of two mortal princesses- one beautiful and one unattractive- C.S. Lewis reworks the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche into an enduring piece of contemporary fiction. This is the story of Orual, Psyche’s embittered and ugly older sister, who posessively and harmfully loves Psyche. Much to Orual’s frustration, Psyche is loved by Cupid, the god of love himself, setting the troubled Orual on a path of moral development.

Honorable Mention:

Stephen fry’s great mythology 1 – 3 ( mythos , heroes , troy ).

I promised you the best fiction books about Greek mythology, so I couldn’t include these on the list. However, these are nonfiction that often read like fiction and are really popular, so I had to include them!

Mythos is a modern collection of Greek myths, stylishly retold by legendary writer, actor, and comedian Stephen Fry. Fry transforms the adventures of Zeus and the Olympians into emotionally resonant and deeply funny stories, without losing any of their original wonder.

This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry’s distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural context

Celebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora’s box to Prometheus’s fire.

This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.6) | Goodreads (4.26)

There are Heroes – and then there are Greek Heroes.

Few mere mortals have ever embarked on such bold and heart-stirring adventures, overcome myriad monstrous perils, or outwitted scheming vengeful gods, quite as stylishly and triumphantly as Greek heroes.

In this companion to his bestselling Mythos , Stephen Fry brilliantly retells these dramatic, funny, tragic and timeless tales. Join Jason aboard the Argo as he quests for the Golden Fleece. See Atalanta – who was raised by bears – outrun any man before being tricked with golden apples. Witness wily Oedipus solve the riddle of the Sphinx and discover how Bellerophon captures the winged horse Pegasus to help him slay the monster Chimera.

Filled with white-knuckle chases and battles, impossible puzzles and riddles, acts of base cowardice and real bravery, not to mention murders and selfless sacrifices, Heroes is the story of what we mortals are truly capable of – at our worst and our very best.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.8) | Goodreads (4.32)

The story of Troy speaks to all of us – the kidnapping of Helen, a queen celebrated for her beauty, sees the Greeks launch a thousand ships against that great city, to which they will lay siege for ten whole and very bloody years.

It is Zeus, the king of the gods, who triggers war when he asks the Trojan prince Paris to judge the fairest goddess of them all. Aphrodite bribes Paris with the heart of Helen, wife of King Menelaus of the Greeks, and naturally, nature takes its course.

It is a terrible, brutal war with casualties on all sides. The Greeks cannot defeat the Trojans – since Achilles, the Greek’s boldest warrior, is consumed with jealousy over an ally’s choice of lover, the Trojan slave Briseis, and will not fight . . .

The stage is set for the oldest and greatest story ever told, where monstrous passions meet the highest ideals and the lowest cunning.

In Troy you will find heroism and hatred, love and loss, revenge and regret, desire and despair. It is these human passions, written bloodily in the sands of a distant shore, that still speak to us today.

Troy is a myth in which we seek the truth about ourselves, which Stephen Fry brings breathtakingly to life for our modern age.

Bookshop.org | Amazon (4.7) | Goodreads (4.35)

That’s the list! Did I miss something great? Please let me know in the comments.

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Looking for a list of the best fiction books about Greek mythology? I've seen a lot of readers over the past few years who, after reading something like Circe or Song of Achilles, decide they'd love to read more Greek mythology stories. There really are a lot out there, but what are the best ones? In this list, I'll give you a ton of ideas.

COMMENTS

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
This book review is being written from a bed at Mayo Clinic. If you follow me, I have been plagued with a mysterious condition this last year and finally have discovered that I have a very dangerous heart problem. ... The Maidens was the second book that I read by Alex Michaelides with The Silent Patient being my first. I do agree with other ...
THE MAIDENS
THE MAIDENS. Eerie atmosphere isn't enough to overcome an unsatisfying plot and sometimes-exasperating protagonist. A blend of psychological mystery and gothic thriller puts a psychotherapist in pursuit of a serial killer on the campus of Cambridge University. The author's second novel features a psychotherapist as its main character, as ...
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides book review
Don't believe the hype. Review by Maureen Corrigan. June 13, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. EDT. "The Silent Patient," Alex Michaelides's 2019 blockbuster bestseller, is all about a London-based ...
Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Book review and synopsis for The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, a mystery involving Greek mythology and a secret society. Synopsis. In The Maidens, Mariana finds herself the on idyllic campus of Cambridge University after her niece Zoe's closest friend, Tara, has been murdered. Zoe believes the murderer is Professor Edward Fosca, the handsome and ...
Book review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
The Maidens was one of my most anticipated books of 2021, driven by the success of The Silent Patient which spread like wildfire in the book community and quickly became one of my favourite Thrillers I have read to date. ... Book review: The Watchmaker of Dachau by Carly Schabowski January 20, 2021 Book review: I Know Your Secret by Ruth Heald ...
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides Book Review
From. $17. $17 at Amazon. The Maidens revolves around a group therapist named Mariana whose past has consisted of more death than life. After reeling from a rough childhood in Greece, Mariana goes ...
Review: A murder mystery with a twist of Greek tragedy and myth
The Maidens is entertaining as well as readable in a single sitting, which is the best way to enjoy a book of this kind. Take it all in all and on its own terms, and it will prove a very welcome ...
Book Marks reviews of The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Astute readers will thrill to some neat cross-references to Michaelides's earlier book. The Silent Patient had a fiendishly hard-to-guess twist; the one in The Maidens could have been flown down in a spaceship from another planet. The Maidens by Alex Michaelides has an overall rating of Mixed based on 7 book reviews.
Book Review
For The Maidens, I say stay for the dark academia vibes but temper your expectations on the murder mystery. CW: child abuse, domestic violence . I received a copy from the publisher and Netgalley for review purposes. The Maidens is out in the UK now and will be out in the US on 15th June.
Book Review: 'The Maidens' by Alex Michaelides
That said, Michaelides has once again woven a tight, compelling thriller with a twisty pay-off. This one follows Mariana, a psychologist and recent widow, who races to Cambridge when her niece calls with news that a fellow Oxford student has been brutally murdered. Pretty much immediately Mariana suspects the handsome, shady Professor Edward ...
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides- Book Review and Analysis
Alex Michaelides, author of the popular book, The Silent Patient, has written his second thriller novel. A suspenseful novel with ritualistic murders, Greek mythology, red herrings, and psychoanalysis The Maidens is an eerie page-turner! This book review will give you a brief book synopsis and some analysis about the twist ending.
Review: THE MAIDENS by Alex Michaelides
Review: THE MAIDENS by Alex Michaelides. FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own. I was very impressed with Alex Michaelides' debut psychological thriller The Silent Patient when I read it last year. It was a shocking and compelling read that I just couldn't put ...
Book Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Alex Michaelides once again proves his mastery of the psychological thriller genre in his gripping new book, The Maidens, set against the backdrop of Cambridge University, where Michaelides studied. The novel at once takes on an ancient, secretive note, as the interiors of the fictional St Christopher's College are based on Trinity College, one of Michaelides' favourite places on earth.
Book Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Honestly, up until about the last few chapters, it was a hit. Michaelides is a great visual writer. I adored the Cambridge setting and his detailed descriptions of the historical surroundings. 85% of the novel is an amazingly dark, gripping and claustrophic murder mystery about a group of young female students brutally killed as part of a ritual.
Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides features an intriguing premise but the final twists were pretty disappointing.. If you follow Book Club Chat, you might have noticed I've been let down by several books I've read this year (of course I have read plenty of great ones too!). Honestly, I believe it's due to many of the books written during the height of 2020.
Amazon.com: The Maidens: A Novel eBook : Michaelides, Alex: Books
An Amazon Best Book of June 2021: The Silent Patient is a hard act to follow, but The Maidens succeeds by leaning into the most enthralling aspects of The Silent Patien t—instability and manipulation—but also by exploring new ground. Grieving widow Mariana is at Cambridge University to comfort her undergraduate niece Zoe after one of Zoe ...
The Maidens: Recap & Summary
The Prologue introduces Mariana, who is certain that a man named Edward Fosca has murdered two people. She is determined to find a way to prove it. In Part I, the book flashes back to a few days prior.Mariana is a young widow who is grieving her late husband Sebastian, who drowned a year ago.On the news, it's reported that a young woman (Tara) has been murdered, who turns out to be a close ...
The Maidens Book Review
REVIEW: There's a justifiable amount of buzz swirling around Alex Michaelides's sophomore novel, The Maidens, given the success of his 2019 debut, The Silent Patient.Said buzz (and early reviews) made me wonder a few things before I even cracked it open, so as an act of public service I'm sharing my pre-read Q's with my post-read A's.
Book Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
3 min read. ·. Jun 27, 2022. --. About a year ago, I read Michaelide's debut novel, The Silent Patient. I quite enjoyed it as a psychological thriller and was excited to read his next novel ...
Amazon.com: The Maidens: A Novel: 9781250304452: Michaelides, Alex: Books
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient comes a spellbinding tale of psychological suspense, weaving together Greek mythology, murder, and obsession, that further cements "Michaelides as a major player in the field" (Publishers Weekly). Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain.
In brief: An Extra Pair of Hands; The Maidens; After the Silence
An Extra Pair of Hands. Kate Mosse. Wellcome Collection, £12.99, pp208. Over the past two decades, the bestselling author has been a carer three times: to her father suffering from Parkinson's ...
The Maidens
The Maidens is a well-paced, suspenseful and easy-to-digest thriller. The Greek tragedy aspect is intriguing and Michaelides explains the mythology, so there's no need to brush up beforehand. Be forewarned, however: There's a supremely unsettling, sure-to-be-divisive twist at the end of this cliffhanger. Fans of Alex Michaelides ...
ARC Review
The Maidens is the dark, twisty novel rooted in mythology that I wanted from The Secret History.. First, let me say that I have not read Alex Michaelides previous novel, The Silent Patient, so I have nothing to compare this book to except other novels.And the one that gave me similar vibes is The Secret History.Unlike most other readers, I didn't love The Secret History.
30+ Best Fiction Books About Greek Mythology (2024)
Best Books Set in Winter: Cozy Winter Books. Best Historical Fiction 2023: Epic List of New Releases. Best Books Set in the 1920s (The Ultimate List) 8 Hopepunk Books to Lift Your Spirits. Pin ...
E1
Watch Mysterious Disappearances The Cursed Book, the Maiden, and the Birthday, on Crunchyroll. Sumireko and Adashino work and chat together in the quiet of the bookshop where they're employed.

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In brief: An Extra Pair of Hands; The Maidens; After the Silence – reviews

An Extra Pair of Hands

The Maidens

After the Silence

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The Maidens

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