Last book of 2021 - The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Reading date - December 2021

You know sometimes you see a book mentioned everywhere and then the author releases the follow-up book and you hear that mentioned everywhere, too?  That is how I came across this book.

It had been hyped up to death and I thought I should give it a try.  I will never, ever learn.  I know that these books that are hyped up always fall short for me but still, I fall for it.  Seldom have I read a book on the bandwagon which I have loved as much as everyone else.

Anyway, this book is a murder mystery which started out ok but the more I read, the more annoying and badly written it got.  

I am trying to be nice about this book but I struggling.  My book of 2021 is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I loved this book so much that I bought everything she has written.  This never happens to me with authors.  I have read The Little Friend and am working my way through the Goldfinch.  I LOVED TSH.

The Maidens is a book by a man who basically wants to just tell you that he went to Cambridge and that he knows the classics.  That's it.  It turned into a massive yawn-fest when the story took a back seat to the insider knowledge of Cambridge and Greek classics.  BORING.  The author wants so badly to be DT but is so busy showing off his knowledge that the story suffers.  Donna Tartt writes an amazing book in TSH and supplements the story with her knowledge of prestigious schools and texts.  The story of TSH stands alone even without the knowledge of schools and texts.  The Maidens does not. 

The storyline is boring and lazy.  Everything seems to be perfect and everyone is super intelligent.  The protagonist, who grew up dirt poor and thick in Greece managed to get into Cambridge, where she met her husband.  Her sister, who has a child, was killed along with her husband in a car crash and so the protagonist and her husband raise the child.  But then the husband also dies.  However, before then, it's made clear that the niece has gone to private school and surprise surprise, is also at Cambridge.  The protagonist and her husband have a house in Primrose Hill..it's just all a bit saccharine.

This book wants to be the Secret History so badly but it fails on all fronts.  Pointless characters, weak stroyline and just way over-egged in references to Cambridge and the classics.  BORE OFF