“Rage does not do it justice. Fury. Frenzy. Savagery. Madness. Spleen. Bile. Wrath. There is no word for what fills me.”

Plot Synopsis

Maeve Fly is living a double life. She spends her days working as a princess entertaining children at the happiest place on Earth. She spends her evenings haunting the Sunset Strip and exploring her morbid fascinations. Maeve lives with her comatose grandmother, old-Hollywood royalty Tallulah Fly, in an elaborate mansion in the hills. She’s strange and off-putting, but seemingly harmless.

Or so you’d think.

When her best friend’s brother Gideon moves to LA, he unearths the darkness dwelling within her. As her life begins to drastically change around her, she begins to unleash her rage in the most nefarious of ways. Inspired by one of her literary heroes, Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, Maeve finally cracks and acts on the violent and depraved impulses that have been hidden within her all along.

My Thoughts

Maeve Fly was one of my most anticipated reads this year. I’ve had my eye on it for a while, and all of the hype it’s received on TikTok and Bookstagram has only strengthened my interest in the book. I always enjoy books about unhinged women finally losing their shit, and I just knew that Maeve Fly would scratch that itch.

This book is incredibly nihilistic and brooding, following a main character who has a strange worldview and some…questionable interests, to say the least. Maeve is a woman who celebrates and finds comfort in the morbid things in life. She works at a theme park as a princess that meets with and entertains children all day long; the juxtaposition of her day job versus her exceedingly anti-social behaviors and habits she takes part in during the evenings is darkly comical. It’s almost surprising that she enjoys working as a princess so much, considering she also enjoys watching videos of animals being tortured and attempting to ruin strangers’ lives for the hell of it. I found Maeve to be a pretty fascinating main character to follow, and even found myself thinking that she’d actually be a pretty cool person to hang out with…as insane as that may sound.

Maeve’s story is one of a slow descent into madness. The signs are there that something is not right, that she is just on the verge of cracking. She desperately clings on to her friendship with Kate (her co-worker at the theme park) and her relationship with her sick grandmother. Her job means everything to her. While she attempts to navigate the changes in her life that threaten her peace and happiness, you can see that she begins to lose her grip on reality more and more. She becomes more nihilistic as the pages turn, and eventually she hits her breaking point in which she begins torturing and killing anyone who has contributed her downfall. These events really don’t ramp up until the last 80 or so pages of the book, so I understand that some readers may have felt like the ending was rushed. For me, it really captured just how fast everything was ripped from Maeve. She jumps right into torturing and killing people because in her eyes, everything she enjoyed was taken from her in a second. The pacing felt very appropriate for her character arc, and I honestly loved just how fast she devolved into absolute insanity.

Maeve Fly also offers very poignant commentary on the difference in society’s reaction to unhinged male characters versus unhinged female characters. Maeve often reflects on how male characters in literature and cinema are allowed to perform as many depraved acts as they wish, with little to no justification expected. These characters (such as the aforementioned Patrick Bateman, Tyler Durden, or The Joker) are often heralded and celebrated in their debauchery. However, female characters of the same caliber are often seen as unlikable or just straight-up-insane. Women in literature and cinema aren’t allowed to lash out without a tragic backstory justifying their actions. We accept disgusting male characters at face value, while we vilify female characters that feature similar traits. Maeve reflects on this concept in terms of the characters in the books she reads, as well as her own budding rage at the world around her. Maeve is not supposed to be read as a sympathetic character getting revenge; she instead is a woman who’s lost grip of her mental health and her moral compass. She is unapologetically depraved and disgusting, and she should be celebrated for being so.

I had so much hope for Maeve Fly, and it lived up to my expectations. I anticipate that this will end up being one of my favorite books of the year.

Warning: this is not a book I would recommend to general audiences; it errs on the side of extreme horror in terms of the sexual and physical violence featured. It becomes very intense at times, so please proceed with caution. Please check trigger warnings (or contact me with concerns) prior to reading it if you are sensitive to certain subjects.