I went into this thinking The Maidens by Alex Michaelides was going to be a dark academia read similar to that of If We Were Villains. I was wrong. The Maidens is not simply a dark academia book – its adult crime fiction. If you had the same thinking as me, then let this be a warning to you. Do no expect dark academia without some of the more mature aspects of an adult fiction.

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.

If you’re an adult fiction crime reader like I am, I may have intrigued you with this description. Let me entice you further. We have our setting, St Christoper’s College in Cambridge. Imagine the picturesque historical buildings nestled in a portion of English countryside. A quaint little town within walking distance, but largely the peaceful ambience bought with your enrolment into what I imagine is an incredibly expensive college. Any academic’s dream, right?

There’s an unsettling presence throughout this book that had me ever-anxious as to what would happen next. Who would act in peculiar ways, maybe sneak out when they weren’t supposed to? Who would say something to conflict with another character’s story? Why is it that so many men are acting with such delusion, such recklessness, such primitive desperation – or is that self-assured confidence that what they are doing won’t be challenged? The more I read the more I wanted to slap some of these characters and, I admit, Mariana was on that list a handful of times.

It still leaves me baffled, an hour after reading it, how eerily plausible this is. How it likely is and has been a real situation (in part) for centuries. Multiple aspects of this had me feeling incredibly protective of young women attending tertiary education, but most upsetting of all is how pissed off I am at absent parents and parental figures in the developmental years of childhood. To think this is normal for a psychologist to look into, for a psychologist to study and talk about. It’s harrowing and it’s an extremely necessary plot point that I think needs wider attention and care put towards it in the real world.

Alex Michaelides has written a masterful novel dripping in secrets, the classics, Greek tragedy, bloodthirsty crime and the depths of the human psyche. I will definitely be keeping him on my radar and you can rest assured knowing another review on his work will be on its way.