You’d think people who dress up as cartoon princesses at a World-Famous amusement park would be chipper and upbeat. Especially if that person lives at no cost in the mansion her grandmother, a former starlet of the golden days of Hollywood and gets to pal around with her best friend Kate all day at work. You would be wrong, especially when that person is Maeve Fly, because Maeve is most definitely the opposite of well-adjusted.
By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess.
By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.
But when Gideon Green – her best friend’s brother – moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.
Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.
Her “quirks” become evident early when she draws in a friend through an online forum only to dox them or publicly share her private text massages with them as a form of punishment or revenge to ruin their lives. Maeve and her friend Kate’s boss in the costumed world of amusement parks is one of the thorns in Maeve’s side, but she and Kate are allies as this boss tries to find ways to get rid of them despite Kate and Maeve’s overall popularity at the World Famous Amusement park. When Kate’s brother Gideon arrives, Maeve finds herself both drawn to him and put off by him. But she can’t turn away from him. Maeve gets further unhinged as her grandmother’s health severely declines, leading to some very violent acts.
What to say about this novel…it isn’t a pretty novel by any means. Well, strike that, there’s something very entrancing about Leede’s first-person narration as we see the story through Maeve’s eyes. I won’t say it is like a car-wreck on the side of the road that you have to view, but the same kind of morbid fascination is what I felt with this novel. I’ve seen several comparisons between this novel and Fight Club and American Psycho, especially since both are directly referenced in the novel. I hadn’t read either book, but I’ve seen the films multiple times and those two stories definitely resonate with Maeve Fly. What I felt a stronger was a stronger resonance was an equally unflinching film, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Perhaps that stronger resonance because I watched it for the first time around the same time I read Maeve Fly, but I there were similarities between Henry and Maeve especially in their approaches to their violent acts and how some of the story unfolded.
Maeve Fly is one of the most unflinching novels I’ve ever read, there are very graphic descriptions of violence, including sexual violence, including torture. This book is not for the squeamish, to say the least. I’m a long-time fan of horror in all forms of media and some of the scenes in this novel hit a nerve for me. I struggled through some of these scenes, trying to determine if they were being graphic and profane just for shock value or if they were necessary to truly know Maeve, who is a profane and unhinged person. I think the fact that I struggled with my thoughts on that crucial element of the novel, and I don’t dismiss the shock outright, speaks to the power that Leede has in her storytelling ability. Society and art’s reflection of violence is often seen with a male character, so the fact that we’ve got a female character as the instigator of this violence is itself a shock, which was very much intentional on Leede’s part, as she noted in her Big Idea piece on John Scalzi’s blog. This, of course, adds the unsettling nature of the story.
Leede has a very strong voice, she comes at her story with intention, and a unique point of view. Maeve Fly is a novel to experience. As I said, I struggled with some of my feelings and reactions to what I read, but ultimately, I think I’d like to see more from Leede and admire her uncompromising sense of story.
This is a difficult novel to recommend without reservations, because of the graphic violence depicted in the story. Nevertheless, if you aren’t too squeamish, I’d say give the novel a try.
Hardcover | 288 pages
June 2023 | Published by Tor Nightfire
Excerpt: https://www.tor.com/2023/05/18/excerpts-maeve-fly-by-cj-leede/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
© 2023 Rob H. Bedford
