The Review

I finally have gotten around to reading listening to The Maid by Nita Prose. For those of you who keep up with my blog, I ranked The Maid as my number 5 pick of “Top 5 Books I With I Read in 2022” and while I was typing the post up, I decided I wanted to use this months Audiobook credit to download it. Boy was I happy I did. I had a 10-mile training run this morning and decided this would be the perfect thing to listen too. It did not disappoint. Since the moment I first pressed play, I did not stop listening until I finished the book. The Maid was enjoyable from start to finish. However, I personally wouldn’t say that this was a suspenseful mystery/thriller (and I would certainly not have voted this one to be the beat out the Paris Apartment for Goodreads Best Mystery Thriller of 2022).

The Maid is narrated in the perspective of Molly Gray, a 25-year-old hotel maid with social difficulties who takes pride in her job and her obsessive cleaning habits. When she discovers the dead body of a wealthy and infamous guest in one of the hotel rooms, the police immediately make her their lead suspect due to her unusual demeanor. Molly’s journey to clear her name is a heartwarming exploration of the human spirit, as she learns the importance of human connections and finds support from unexpected friends. The book delves into themes of individuality, social isolation, and the power of human connection to solve even the most complex mysteries.

The first thing I have to point out about this book is that Molly is certainly somewhere on the Austin Spectrum. She tends to take phrases literally, and has a hard time discerning social etiquette unless directly “taught” with a role. For example, Molly is taught that unless she is friends with someone, it is best that she stands “at lease one maid cart away” from them. She also has to genuinely ask people if they are laughing at her or with her. Though Molly is never explicitly described as having ASD, her character came off like Prose googled “Autism Symptoms” then tried to incorporate every one – right down to Molly’s obsession compulsive special interest of cleaning. And while I do love a good neurodivergent character in Mystery Thrillers (hello, we are so much better at pattern recognition), I do think Molly’s attributes came off too stereotypical to be believable when written by, allegedly, a non-neurodivergent author.

It is because of the caricaturization of Molly that I am glad that I listened to the Audiobook instead of having read it. Lauren Ambrose, the narrator, gave life to Molly. Her ability to perfectly encapsulate Molly’s thoughts, in a more natural expression, is what made me want to continue listening to the novel. This effortlessness continued through Molly the maid’s dialogue as well, and turned the “old-timely” speech patterns of Molly into a more enjoyable quirk than an off-putting stereotype.

Now time to talk about the plot. As I mentioned above, I would not rank this novel as a suspenseful mystery thriller. The novel may have had a twist ending, and it certainly was something I never saw coming; but nothing else about The Maid kept you on your toes. Prose tried very hard to make Molly seem like an unreliable narrator. However, it didn’t pan out because, again, Molly came off too much like a caricature of someone on the Autism Spectrum. When “a strong sense of morals/justice” is one of the top defining traits for us neurodivergents, it is hard to believe Molly would be lying to the reader unless she firmly believed it was the most correct thing to do. Instead, the novel came off more “Legally Blond” than “A Women in the Window”. What I mean by this is, it was a cute, coming-of-age story about the importance of developing trusting friendships and finding confidence in yourself, with a murder-trail subplot.

Overall, The Maid was a fun story to listen too and I do recommend it to readers if they are looking for a good road-trip audiobook for their next summer trip. It was easy to follow along, and there wasn’t much that someone could miss. You also will develop a soft spot for Molly, that will make you want to see her life pan-out for the best. The Maid was also a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Debut Novel 2022 and as mentioned before, the Winner for Best Mystery & Thriller 2022.

I’ll give The Maid 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounding down to 3 stars on Goodreads.