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

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

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

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

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

[SPOILERS] What bothered me the most in the whole book was Fred, who is a complete creep that made my skin crawl for the entire book and if I met such a person in real life I would try to stay as far away from him as possible. I kept expecting him to be involved in the murders somehow, because there’s no way such a massive creep can be considered the main love interest. Is that what the author thinks good guys are like? Although at some point, I figured out that Zoe is the killer, not because of any real story related clues, but because the book kept hitting you over the head with statements like “The killer is obviously a man! This kind of crime can only ever be committed by a man! This is characteristic of MALE psychology! Get it???”, so much that at some point it became obvious that the killer was a woman.

This is how you know the video is a true rant. *Last 5th of the video* Murphy: So here's the setting of the book...

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

I had such high hopes for this book. Dark academia, Greek mythology, and a thriller/mystery? It sounded like such a good combo! But I HATED that ending. If Mariana is a therapist, how did she not recognize her lover (of many years) was a psychopath? How did she not pick up on that fact that her niece was going through abuse/grooming/trauma? AS IF. It also drove me crazy that in the end, the maidens and the mythology (aka. the very things that made people pick up the book) weren’t important for the story at all. Like they existed and died for no reason, because Sebastian and Zoe could’ve killed Mariana a thousand seperate times without the maidens being necessary or relevant at all. They were the ultimate red herring and I feel so cheated. Like you said, there was so much potential with the mythological/ritualistic stuff that was going on with the Maidens, but turns out it was all just pointless filler in a weak (and really far-fetched) murder plot about Zoe. Can I also add: the police and investigator are skeptical of Mariana the whole time, but at the end we’re supposed to believe that she called them and said, “I followed my niece to the woods and it turns out she killed the girls, and then she tried to kill me!!” …. and they just suddenly believe her? That chapter is so rushed - it would not have gone down that smoothly. The only way they maybe would’ve believed her is if Zoe admitted to everything…. but that just seems very convenient (villain confessions are so unrealistic, and just lazy writing IMO). So disappointed all around because I really wanted this to be a good one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I loved this book! So I feel like sharing why in a few jumbled thoughts… Mariana didn’t even know who her husband truly was so it wouldn’t make sense for her to be right about the murderer. It’s even revealed the image she had of her father was unreliable. So I was able to accept she was wrong about who done it, and still have curiosity about HOW she would find out she was wrong. That was enough to keep it interesting for me. You can say Mariana is a “dumb dumb”, but I see her as grieving, troubled, vulnerable, and used. A person who didn’t receive adequate love, and as a result married someone awful. After all, the plan was ultimately designed by Sebastian, who seemed to know what wounds of hers to exploit. It’s so cruel, and for that, I do feel for her. It makes me believe that somehow the constant emphasis on her being a group therapist, and someone who admittedly was not trained to examine individuals, was meant to show that she is an unreliable judge of character, or at least had a difficult time determining what people were the real threats. In her private therapy sessions with her professor, it’s shown how deeply in denial she was about her fathers cruelty. It was only through the group therapy session with the maidens that she unknowingly touched upon her own complicated dynamic with the men she held on a pedestal…like what she said to them about pledging loyalty to people out of a love that wasn’t truly returned. I believe her obsession with Fosca was tied to Sebastian; both were charismatic men that had held so much power over vulnerable women-the girls are unable to see in Fosca what Mariana was unable to see in Sebastian. To me, that makes it even more interesting that Sebastian picked him to be Mariana’s villain. I find all the ties between mother/father figures and family/group dynamics to be entertainingly ironic. So good!

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

Oh nooo, I just bought this. 🤣 We have similar tastes so I'm likely not going to like it as well... buuuut I'm committed, too. Will have to read it sooner than planned so I can come back and watch this asap lol.

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

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

The Maidens is a perfect example for my 2021 thriller releases...great premise poor execution. I really wanted to love it because I really enjoyed The Silent Patient.

You perfectly articulated the feelings that I've been having about this book lately. At first I really enjoyed it, but as I let it "steep" in my brain it's just not feeling the same. Mariana was annoying and the red herrings weren't the least bit subtle and it goes on and on. Great rant video! Look forward to watching more! :D

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

I was willing to put how stupid she was being to grief, I can suspend it enough or allow it if I try...but one thing I really liked was a woman protagonists grieving her husband, I personally haven't seen that a lot, usually the other way (but I don't read a lot of romances) I was so pissed at the end CAUSE other than the fact there was Z E R O evidence Zoe did it; why is God's name did sebastian have to be done like that? Can't we just once have a fictional husband who dies tragically and not be horrible trash? He was already dead! Like it was so shoe horned in, it literally made more sense for at least Fred to have been the one writing the letter if you wanted it to not be the Professor, why couldn't we just leave dead sebastian alone? Along with YEAH, that's kinda troubling if you're a therapist, meant to he intuned to trauma victims and not realizing what was going on in your own house between your own family.

Oh a 25 minute rant from Merphy. Me: Sips tea while grinning

ALWAYS love a rant review from merph

I saw this in my feed and got so excited! I also made a rant review about this book and so many people were talking about how much they loved this book… I feel vindicated

I felt so many of these things but couldn’t put a finger on all of it. You really helped me realize what I didn’t like about it and to open my eyes to so many problems. Thank you for your honesty

I didn't realize quite how bad this book was until I tried to explain the plot out loud. Only then did I realize how nonsensical it was.

I adore hearing people rant like this about books. This put such a smile on my face. Thank you

Something about rant reviews makes them very fun to watch 🤔

The What? Kitty t-shirt is my fave! :) Also a big fan of this rant review, as long as you explain what it was you didn't like, rant reviews can be as fun as positive reviews!

Rant reviews are always great

What timing! I was just considering whether to buy it or now

I enjoy a good rant every now and then, and Merphy's rants are always the best ones to indulge in!!!

Merphy does give some of the best book reviews I have ever seen! I really enjoy them!

SPOILER ALERT FOR SILENT PATIENT AND THE MAIDENS* I don't recall hearing anything about this book linking it to the Silent patient prior to reading it. However, getting into part four and beyond the author brings back characters and locations/situations from the Silent patient; Ruth, Theo, Alicia, The Grove, where Zoe ends up with Theo as her therapist. It honestly made The Maidens for me when these unexpected links to The Silent Patient began to happen. That being said I don't feel the links are strong enough to necessarily have to read The Silent Patient first but it absolutely made the last half of the book more exciting and enjoyable to read with those seemingly pointless weak links not being as pointless or weak because they are leading up to Theo/the Grove.

I actually loved this book, and I guessed Zoe did about half way through the book. There was a brief moment I thought I was wrong and that Fred was the killer (because his mention of the book he was writing about his "dead' mother and then the letter Zoe had mentioning a "premonition") but I'm glad it was Zoe and not Fred. But Sebastian being the reason came out of left field to me, which made me both love and hate the twist. The Silent Patient was better executed, but I enjoyed this book. That being said, I also very much enjoyed your rant hahahaha

I felt so similar to you about this book! I loved The Silent Patient and this one was so disappointing! Thanks for posting this. I enjoyed watching and ranting to my husband alongside your video!!

The way you say liminal is adorable 😅 definitely won't be picking up this one but this review was lit 👌

I'm SO glad I'm not the only person who couldn't stand this book! The worst part is that, not only is the MC such a dummy, she's also so pretentious about it! This book had so much promise and I was really excited to read it because I'm a history student and I was studying Greek tragedies when I picked it up, but it just fell so flat for me.

I'd always love a well constructed rant

Merphy ranting about a bad book is always an entertaining video.

I wasn’t planning on reading it. This was hilarious!!

I love the passive rage, please do more of these reviews!

oh my god you're literally speaking my heart out..!!! I just finished this book and was totally utterly disappointed and I thought why not check out some reviews maybe I am the one who's feeling this way... and it felt so good watching your rant about it.. :D

Now we need you to read the Silent Patient and review it for us also

This is my favorite review. I understand why you don't enjoy doing negative reviews but I loved this so much!

I do not like negative reviews of things that I like. Therefore I thank you for warning about it before hand. However, I like negative reviews about things that I either do not like or do not care, so I really liked this video. Thank you for saving me some time.

I was seemingly one of the few who wasn't crazy about the Silent Patient, so I was hesitent to pick up The Maidens. I totally agreed with your review, The Maidens was so disappointing (infuriating at times), and I don't think I'll be picking up this author again. Love your t-shirt though, where did you get it?

OK, Merphy, tell us how you really feel lol. I didn't plan to read this so am pleased to hear the big reveal without actually having to endure the book. I very much enjoyed this review.

The child grooming aspect was the final nail in the coffin for me. I am very against adult-minor relationships.

At a certain point while reading I assumed that it wasn’t going to be a whodunnit, but that The Maidens would turn out to be some kind of Greek cult, and the girls were killed for a sacrifice or something. Mariana was so convinced it was Fosca that I knew it wasn’t him, but I also couldn’t think of anyone else it could realistically be given the clues we had, so I guessed the twist would be “it was him but not the way you’d expect” The actual ending was terrible. It reminded me why I’m so hesitant to read mysteries. It felt like the author got to the end of the book and asked who would be the most shocking. I also doubt Mariana could have been married to Sebastian for years and never knew anything about his life, enough to recognize in the letter. So many plot points were dropped it felt like a first draft of a book. It could have been great if more time was spent in crafting the story and revising what didn’t work. Also, I hated how short the chapters were. It took me out of the story.

I read some of your other rants and they were very entertaining, so when I saw this one I was like: This is the video I’m gonna watch.

I love this so much!

I LOVE this rant! Laughed out loud. I was almost flushing out this book!

I need to see a video where you do book “rewrites”! I liked this book but I totally agree with your review it was hilarious!

More ranting videos, love ranting 😁💖

Loved the rant!

These can be some of my favorite reviews to watch casually. Especially because they don't appear as often on your channel.

Merphy, we LOVE rant reviews!!

I like that she gives clear reasons for why she didn't like something. Truly helps.

This is hilarious! I DNF it and just so happy that I did. I also had a lot of complains about this that I had to really stop reading to write my rants.

Time to time rant reviews do rock 😊

I was feeling kind of blue and this made me feel better, thanks.

I read this and absolutely HATED it, but everyone said The Silent Patient was better so I picked that one up. I honestly thought The Silent Patient was even worse, I definitely will not be picking up anything else by this author. I couldn’t stand any of the characters in either of the books (even if that’s the whole point, they were so frustratingly terrible that it ruined the whole book for me) and the plots had so many holes that finishing the novels are unsatisfactory.

I enjoy your Rant Reviews and think you should rant about books you don't like, just as often as you give positive feedback on books. I just really like hearing your perspective on all these stories.

I agree that the book had unfulfilled potential, but imo, especially as a Greek mythology/tragedy enthusiast, it was nevertheless a great read.

Hello! I read the Silent patient and I am not reading anything from this author again in my life! That was a good rant, Ms Napier! Thank you!

Okay, I'm just gonna admit it...I love a rant video. Don't judge me. I know I'm not alone. This brought a smile to my face and LOL. Thanks Merphy! 😁😁😁

Nice timing! I'm in the middle of The Maidens audiobook. 📒. I'll come back and listen to this after I'm done. So far, the only issue I have is that maybe the main character is too paranoid/superstitious.

Based on the synopsis, i can see the greek mythology influences with the goddess or siren vibes Mariana is giving off. Also it is a trope for some of these goddesses to be damsels in distresses and be really dumb/naive. Also the dude stalking her sounds like a mixture of Edward and Jacob and not a combination anyone wants.

I just finished this book and I totally agree with you!

Yessss totally agree with this review! So many obvious red herrings and next to no clues through the book that it could’ve been Zoe. Like you said, I did suspect Zoe but that’s because I suspected everyone

Hey, here from the One Piece content. I'm not much of a book guy, but it's fun listening to you talk about them!

Thank youuuu for doing this rant review!! I read this book because I LOVED The Silent Patient and was blown away by the ending, but I really disliked this one. I’d love to hear your thoughts on TSP if you end up reading it! (Which I hope you do, because it’s soooo much better!) This one was hard for me to get through…very slow-paced, with most of the characters adding absolutely nothing to the story. (Also, we don’t get any explanation why Fred brings up Naxos or things specifically related to Sebastian’s death, or why he just randomly proposes to Mariana like a creep?!) I did see the ending coming, which disappointed me because TSP totally caught me off guard while leaving enough clues for me to be satisfied. I agree with you that Mariana was very dumb, lol. I also didn’t like how the ending unfolded, with Zoe randomly creating this fantastical story about a mythological hazing experience that came out of nowhere with some lame excuse why she hadn’t brought it up before. And when she shows Mariana the postcard she got, why did Mariana say “I could’ve had Clarissa translate the Greek but I didn’t bother. What difference would it make”?! Um..it may give the clue to your niece’s potential murder?! So many holes and things that just didn’t make sense.

I was never really planning to read this, especially after Michael's eh review so I am happy this existed, way more entertaining than reading a synopsis and verifies that I should not have picked it up haha

I don't agree with everything you've said here, but I can definitely see where you're coming from with it. This book has an interesting tie-in with Silent Patient, but it definitely doesn't hold a candle to Silent Patient. I hope you do read that one, because I'd love to know if you enjoy that one. The Maidens was disappointing to me because they make such a big deal about this group/cult, yet they barely feature. I was expecting Mariana to become more and more entrenched in this group, really learning the ins and outs, while still being kept in the dark because she's an outsider. You're absolutely right that things weren't executed well. And as far as the reveal, I'd guessed Zoe from about a third of the way in, because I thought to myself, "Okay, they're throwing everything at wanting us to believe it's this professor, so it's obviously not him. Who's the most likely to not be suspected?" And I landed on Zoe. The reveal with the husband, though, I see what what attempting to be done, this kind of crashing down of the reality you thought you knew, but it just didn't work in this book. I'll still read more from this author, but I hope the next book is closer to the caliber that Silent Patient is. Because that book was amazing.

ROTFL! Merphy rants are the best.

I loved your review!! Not gonna read the book. Thank you for the review

I'm sorry but we need more rant reviews please! This was great

It's not a book (well, it's an adaptation of a japanese book), but I really recommend the movie "Perfect Blue" by Satoshi Kon if you want a good thriller/mystery story. I watched it recently and it was super interesting. Hope to read the book if I can find it.

What??? Men are creeps? Multiple men fall all over her? Her detective skills rival that of Shaggy and Scooby Doo? She impedes active investigations? Goes off into the dark multiple times alone with suspects? Hmm. Your review sent me into another world all right. "Zoinks! Rooby Snack!" "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for that meddling Marianna!"

Awesome review 🙃

My thing about this book is that it can never be proved that Zoe was actually groomed by Sebastian. Zoe could have been in love with Sebastian and he not reciprocate. It’s just infuriating that we will never know. I just want a clear ending.

The premise you wished it had sounds awesome, ngl😂😋

I've read Silent Patient. Seeking for this book

I haven't read The Silent Patient but a friend that did and hated it told me the twist and I was like me: but doesn't that make the whole novel before it make no sense? friend: yeeep So honestly I'm not surprised by anything you said here. Good review.

I saw "It's a Rant" and I clicked immediately.

Personally, I enjoyed this book because it made the point that even highly intelligent people can be complete morons. I was a little disappointed with the way it ended, but overall I didn't find it completely horrible.

I am amazed you actually finished that book 😂

You said everything I wanted to say in the exact way I wanted to say it 😂 “The entire book hinged on everyone being so stupid” 😂

Lol this was so fun to watch

I was thinking of reading this, but after this review I've changed my mind. Are there any other good thriller books you can recommend?

I think The secret history bij Donna Tart will be the book that you wanted this one to be

Hey Murphy just wondering where you got that T-shirt? It’s now right at the top of my Christmas wish list. 🙂

I love rant reviews

just had to know what made u rant when u mentioned it in the alabasta rereview :D

Thanks for your honesty and detailed explanation. I wanted to like The Silent Patient but ended up hating it and I was on the fence about whether or not to give the author another try. Based on your review I am very confident that I would also have hated this one.