Book Review: THE MAID by Nita Prose

 

Title: THE MAID

Author:  Nita Prose

Publisher:  Harper Collins Australia

Read: December 2021

Expected publication: 20 January 2022

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

 

Molly the maid is all alone in the world. A nobody. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. She’s just a maid – why should anyone take notice?
 
But Molly is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers an infamous guest, Mr Black, very dead in his bed. This isn’t a mess that can be easily cleaned up. And as Molly becomes embroiled in the hunt for the truth, following the clues whispering in the hallways of the Regency Grand, she discovers a power she never knew was there. She’s just a maid – but what can she see that others overlook?

What attracted me to this book:

 

I read some fantastic reviews about Nita Prose’s debut novel THE MAID, so of course I couldn’t resist, even though “cozies” are not usually a genre I read very often.

My musings:

 

 

Molly Gray is a socially awkward twenty-five year old woman who has been living with her grandmother until she passed away from cancer a few months ago. She is still feeling her absence and misses her guidance dearly, and barely makes ends meet as a maid at The Grand Regency Hotel, a job Molly loves because she feels a lot of satisfaction in creating order.  One day she finds a dead guest in one of the rooms she regularly cleans, and her life is turned upside down.

 

THE MAID was a light, borderline humorous read with some deeper themes of loss, grief, friendship and finding your way in the world. Molly was a quirky if slightly naive character, and I kept picturing her as a kind of female Forrest Gump – kind-hearted and honest but always slightly behind the eight ball.  Unfortunately I never quite connected to Molly as much as most readers whose glowing five star reviews can be found everywhere on Goodreads and social media.

 

Unpopular opinion: I found Molly to be an inconsistent character, totally naive one moment and quite streetsmart the next. I also found the plot quite predictable and not very original, but perhaps that is the characteristic of a cozy mystery and I am simply not the right reader for the genre. I much preferred the snarky honesty of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant, the original protagonist who seems to have sparked an avalanche of books with neurodivergent characters. All side characters felt like wooden caricatures to me, their relationship to Molly only ever skimming the surface without real background or depth. If I am totally honest, I struggled to finish the book because I did not feel invested in any of the characters. However, I think that this book would make a perfect screenplay / TV series!

 

 

Summary:

 

All in all, THE MAID has received high praise by countless readers on social media and will appeal to people who appreciate a gentler, less snarky version of Eleanor Oliphant. Personally, I found it a bit slow and predictable, and wanted more character development, even though it ticked the boxes for a light, slightly humorous read.

 

 

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.