Book Review | The Maid by Nita Prose
If you’re thinking about checking out The Maid yourself, don’t worry about spoilers. The first part of my reviews are always spoiler-free so you can see if the book is your cup of tea. After a quick summary and a basic review, I’ll give a spoiler warning and do a deep dive into everything I loved and hated about The Maid.
The Maid is Nita Prose’s debut book, and it looks like she’s got another coming in 2023, called The Mystery Guest. According to Prose’s website, The Maid has sold more than 1 million copies and is a #1 New York Times Bestseller.
Content Warning
I always like to give a quick content warning for any sensitive topics. These are some content warnings for The Maid:
Ableism.
Abuse.
Alcohol or drugs.
Blood.
Death.
Murder.
Violence.
Quick Synopsis
The Maid by Nita Prose is the story of Molly, a maid who works at a luxury five-star hotel. Molly has an odd personality, and struggles to connect with the people around her. She often takes things incredibly literally, can’t understand facial expressions well, and doesn’t get it when people communicate using inferences and idioms. How she interacts with the world is great when it comes to loving her work and following the hotel’s rules, but causes her some problems when she discovers a dead body in one of the hotel suites.
My Rating
Everybody has to come up with their own system for judging and rating books, and here’s mine:
One star: I couldn’t finish the book. (DNF)
Two stars: I struggled to finish, but I did.
Three stars: This book was okay and worth reading.
Four stars: I liked this book and I would recommend it to a friend.
Five stars: I’d read this book again, and it’s going on my favorites shelf.
By no means do I think this is a perfect rating system, but I had to come up with something that would help me avoid arbitrarily assigning ratings. This provides a solid guideline for rating qualifications.
This books is a bit slow in the beginning, but it does start to pick up speed as you near the end. I gave The Maid a three-star rating, because I thought it was worth reading, but I wouldn’t read it again or recommend it to a friend.
If you liked The Maid for the mystery, these are some other books you may enjoy:
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
The Senator’s Wife by Live Constantine
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
If you liked The Maid for the main character, these are some other books you may enjoy:
Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang
The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Summary
We’re now entering the spoiler-y part of this review. If you think The Maid sounds like your cup of tea, click away, read it, and come back to see if you agree or disagree with my critique. If you like the sound of the book but you don’t want to read it, don’t worry, I’ll give you the full rundown.
SPOILERS
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SPOILERS -
Molly Gray is a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, where she works to cover her rent and other expenses. An ex-boyfriend stole her and her grandmother’s life savings, and after her grandmother got sick and passed away, Molly has been struggling to pay her rent on time.
Molly is incredibly prompt and exact with her words and her actions. She does everything exactly as she should, and follows a strict regimen when it comes to cleaning. She works with two other maids, and a supervisor who often steals her tips and leaves messes behind for Molly to clean.
She’s completing her rounds one morning when she discovers the dead body of an incredibly influential and special guest in the hotel, a man named Mr. Black.
Molly faints, then calls down to the front desk and asks for assistance. Molly worries because she’s friend with Mr. Black’s current wife, Giselle, and thinks others may accuse her of murdering her husband.
We meet some of the other characters in the hotel, including Juan Manuel, the dishwasher, Rodney, the bartender, Mr. Preston, the doorman, and Mr. Snow, the manager. Juan Manuel’s work visa expired and he doesn’t have a place to live, so Rodney asks Molly to help by slipping Juan a keycard each night. Molly does this partly because she believes it’s the right thing to do, and partly because she’s hoping to get closer to Rodney.
Mr. Preston, the doorman, knew Molly’s grandmother and is fond of Molly. He tries to look out for her and is one of the only hotel employees who’s actually nice to her.
The police question Molly about discovering the body and her relationship with Giselle. Molly omits information about how close she is with Giselle during the first interview with the police. After meeting with the police, Rodney asks to see Molly, and asks her about what the police said.
Later that night, Molly shows up at her apartment to find Giselle waiting for her. Giselle needs her help, and says that she stashed a gun she wasn’t supposed to have in the bathroom fan. She asks Molly to get the gun for her so she can have it as protection and so the police won’t find it and use it as evidence against her, despite that fact that Mr. Black was suffocated and not shot.
Molly returns to work the next day, and when her supervisor tells her to clean the suite where Mr. Black was found, Molly retrieves the gun and hides it in her vacuum cleaner. While hiding the gun, she finds Mr. Black’s wedding ring, which he’d thrown at Giselle before he was murdered. Knowing the police aren’t likely to look back in the suite, Rodney asks Molly to give him the card and help hide Juan Manuel in there.
Because Molly needs money to pay rent, and her landlord has been harassing her about it, she takes the ring to a pawn shop and sells it. Molly is nervous and calls Rodney, telling him about the gun and asking him for his help. She takes the rent money to the landlord, and the next morning, she’s arrested in her pajamas for possession of a firearm, possession of drugs, and the murder of Mr. Black.
Molly calls Mr. Preston, who brings his daughter, Charlotte, who’s a lawyer. Together, the three of them get Molly out of jail and go back to her apartment to make a plan. Molly confesses everything about Rodney and his betrayal and taking care of Juan Manuel. Molly realizes that Rodney has been using her to clean up messes, and has also been using Juan.
They contact Juan, who comes over and explains how Rodney took advantage of him and forced him to help with the drugs. Rodney and Mr. Black were working together to shuttle drugs in and out of the hotel, and Mr. Black had a temper. He would sometimes hurt Rodney, so it makes sense that Rodney would murder him. Juan Manuel also reveals that Giselle and Rodney are together, with a photo of the two of them kissing.
Charlotte, Mr. Preston, Juan Manuel, and Molly work together to form a plan that may allow them to prove Rodney has been behind everything. Molly calls Rodney and tells him that she told the police about Juan Manuel and their situation. She also tells him that they suspect Giselle’s guilty of the murder, and they plan to look through the suite again.
Rodney panics and rushes to the hotel, getting a card from Mr. Preston and Molly to get to the suite. Molly calls Giselle and learns that she knew nothing about Rodney’s abuse and involvement with Juan Manuel. Molly warns Giselle to get out of the hotel while she can. Giselle flees the country while Molly waits at a nearby café and watches as the police arrive and take Rodney away in handcuffs.
Molly and Juan Manuel testify against Rodney, and end up together, living in Molly’s apartment. Giselle sends her money she uses to refill the savings that were stolen from her. At the very end of the book, Molly reveals that when she found Mr. Black’s body, she saw his first wife there in the room with him.
Mrs. Black convinced Molly not to say anything, since they both knew Mr. Black was a bad guy and beat Giselle. So Molly agreed and wiped away all the fingerprints before anyone got there, then found a way to pin the crime on Rodney.
Deep Dive
This book was simple and easy to enjoy. It felt like a fairly straightforward mystery novel with a surprise twist at the end. If you’re a fan of mysteries, you may like this one. Molly is an interesting character and a unique perspective compared to other narrators.
Though it was a bit boring in the beginning, I liked how it picked up pace. I didn’t think the reveal at the end was particularly shocking or inspiring, and thought the most interesting part was the formation of the relationships between Mr. Preston, Charlotte, Juan Manuel, and Molly.