Audiobook Review - The Maid

This is one of THOSE books. You know the one. The one with all the hype and buzz for months before it’s publication. I remember the news breaking that this book had its movie rights snapped up (Universal) and Florence Pugh has announced that she would star and produce the movie.

So, like most book that has this level of buzz, you can either be very excited for it or very wary. I think we’ve all been stung by the hype train once or twice the past few months. I know I have (I mean, have you not seen my DNFs or my 1 or 2 stars reviews of late?). But there was something about The Maid that made me very intrigued about it. 

So yes, I managed to get my hands on an eProof (via NetGalley. Thank you UK publisher), but I was so intrigued, I actually bought the audiobook as well. It’s very rare I do this, FYI. So, let me get the details and a brief synopsis up and we can talk. 

Title and Author: The Maid by Nina Prose
Publisher: HarperCollins
Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review, and bought audiobook. 

Molly is a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel In New York. She’s invisible to the world. I mean, who pays attention to a maid? 

But when Molly finds the body of Mr Black, an infamous guest at the hotel, very dead in his bed, Molly finds her quiet life thrown under a spotlight and she sees that life isn’t as easy mess to clean as she begins to look for the truth. Who would look twice at a maid, after all?

I’m going to admit that, going into this, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into. I didn’t know if it was going to be more of the cosy or more dark and edgy. But, once I found my footing (will explain why in a moment), this sits more on the cosy side. It’s a fun and easy read. A whodunnit which, on the surface, looks quite simple to us readers but not to Molly. 

Why not to Molly, I hear you ask. Well, this comes back to my footing, and that takes a little while – a few chapters. Molly sees the world in a different way to everyone else. To me (any many other readers), Molly comes across as someone who is on the autistic spectrum and, because of this, we see how she treats people and how they treat her in return. To most readers, we see quickly how some characters treat Molly and how some see Molly as dumb, stupid or naïve and I found this quite upsetting as I grew to like Molly hugely and felt very protective of her within the first few chapters. 

The main chunk of the story takes place over the working week (Monday to Friday), but we see tiny memories of Molly with her beloved grandmother (and there are times Molly would say “That’s what Gran would say” that might irritate readers), which gives us more insight to Molly as a whole. 

I keep saying this is more on the cosy murder mystery side of crime, but this book has have a dark edge to it as it does touch on some heavy subjects, but due to Molly, these are touched upon quote lightly. 

I do have one big issue, which I think most readers will be annoyed over: the epilogue. Now, I’m not going to touch on why this will annoy some readers (spoilers but will discuss more on Goodreads), but some people might feel a tad cheated about what happens/is revealed. 

Not sure how to finish this review, but I devoured this book very quickly and I think Molly will linger in my brain for quite some time…