Hello, bookworms!

How's your week going? Mine's busy as always, but last week I finished a new ARC and today I am here to discuss it with you. The book in question is The Maid by Nita Prose, which is out by now, but I only managed to read it now, because I had some technical problems with the Netgalley link and whatnot. I want to premise this review by saying that I highly recommend you check out reviews by own voices autistic readers, because I had some issues with the way a certain thing was handled, but they will certainly offer a better insight and judgment on the matter.

Disclaimer
I received an e-ALC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley; this does not affect my rating nor my opinions in any way. Everything you'll find in this review is what I actually think and it wasn't influenced by anyone. Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this book.

About the book
Title: The Maid
Author: Nita Prose
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication date: 20 January 2022
Pages: 352

Plot, as stated on Goodreads
Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by. Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection. But Molly's orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what's happening, Molly's unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it's too late? A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.

My rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Review
As I already mentioned, I highly recommend you check out reviews by readers on the autism spectrum, as they will surely be better suited than me at addressing this. However, I cannot — in good conscience — not talk about the elephant in the room: I think Molly is on the autism spectrum, but never once in the book is the word autism or neurodivergence used. Now, I am not saying things must be labeled at all times, but seeing as the whole book rested on this fact and that Molly seemed to me like the butt of the joke most of the time, I would have liked if the whole thing was better handled.

Other than that, it also felt like the author just decided to google "autism" and build her character around what came up. Maybe it's just me, but it didn't read like a kind of rep written in earnest; I hate when in thrillers and mysteries mental health and/or neurodivergence is used to further the plot, so I don't know… It didn't sit right with me. 

The character of Juan Manuel (which the narrator read as One Man Well, and it took me like half of the book to get what the heck they were saying) was also something that didn't sit right with me. I cannot explain, as usual because of spoilers, but let's just say… How convenient and how stereotypical of a white author. I'll leave it at that.

Now, onto the actual plot: it was basic and extremely predictable, except the very last twist, which I didn't like because it was out of the blue and I would have preferred a different one, which I actually thought was gonna be the shocking reveal. In general, I feel like the reader knew from the start what was happening, while Molly didn't, so it became quite boring to just sit there and wait for her to figure it out. It isn't Molly's fault that she did not understand she was being used, of course, but the whole book was weirdly structured, for me. I was not engaged to see what was gonna happen, because I knew the solution from very early on and I did not care about the characters or what happened to them. Not that I thought anything too bad was going to happen to them, because it didn't seem likely.

As I was saying, I did not care very much for the characters, nor did I feel particularly worried for any of them. They all seemed a bit one dimensional, maybe because we only saw them through Molly's narration. Also, can we please talk about the fact that the surnames in this freaking book were like Gray, Black, Brown and Snow? And that the only Latinx character was named Juan Manuel? What is it? A joke? I can move past the sad joke of Molly the maid, as it was indeed a joke, but… Black? Brown? Are we playing Clue or what?

Style-wise, the book was okay. It wasn't an outstanding style, in my opinion, but it conveyed Molly's character quite well, all in all. I much prefer other styles, but there was nothing inherently wrong with it.

So, I don't recommend this book, because in my opinion the fact that the author (and not only her characters, mind you) only ever referred to Molly as quirky, strange, special and so on is borderline problematic, if you ask me. There's nothing wrong with the words neurodivergent and autism, so if you wanted to "use" an autistic character you should have said so, at least in interviews and Q&As, if not on page.

That's all for today, I'll see you soon with a new review (the mystery of the month, which I can already tell you, was yet another disappointment, to my dismay).