#maeve fly

[phaedraismyusername]

Maeve Fly coming out swinging

[usercannibal]

- Maeve Fly, CJ Leede

[tailsbeth-writes]

Female Characters Poll: Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @run-for-chamo-miles 🫶🏻

Rules: Make a poll of your favorite female characters (no limits–as many or few as you want) and see which your followers like the most!

[Can't say my taste isn't eclectic 😂]

Tag You're It: @thighzp @taste-thewaste @onthewaytosomewhere @suseagull04 @judasofsuburbia @henryspearl @porcelainmortal & open tag 💛

[thechaoticreader]

Feminist Horror Masterpiece or Not Like Other Girls Manifesto?

Maeve Fly Book Review

Title: Maeve Fly

Author: CJ Leede

Genre: Slasher/Horror

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Start Date: July 29 2024

End Date: July 31 2024

Favourite Quote: “I have never understood, and still do not understand the notion that a woman must first endure a victim hood of some sort…to be monstrous. Men have always been permitted in fiction and in life to simply be what they are, no matter how dark or terrifying that might be. But with a woman, we expect an answer, a reason.” Page 130

What Iiked & general thoughts:

Before I say anything else I have to say the cover art is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, it is gorgeous and I just love looking at it.

I really liked this book and will read CJ Leede’s next work immediately when its published. The atmosphere, the imagery and the scene building was so good, I gained an appreciation of LA through Maeve and it perfectly mixed the disgusting imagery with the beautiful. The characters were also fully fleshed and felt so real. I knew Maeve, understood her, and it was so easy to get into her head space. She is a well-written, complex, interesting character who I couldn’t help but root for and forgive her horrific actions. It’s a love letter to 80’s/90’s horror and LA, with some interesting kills. It’s one of my top reads this year. It’s not perfect but its a book I will definitely recommend.

Criticisms:

I’ve seen a lot of comments about how she gives not like other girls and I agree, however I don’t have a problem with it in this case: she isn’t like other girls…shes a serial killer, we’re not supposed to relate, we’re not supposed to love her. All that to say, I understand why this turns people off, but its not something that turned me off of the book. The book takes a long time to really kick off 2/3 of the book is lead up, then the last 1/3 is pure gore. Personally, I don’t hate slow starts and really need to understand the characters to care about the story, but if you want a fast paced splatter punk then this is not the book. I would’ve liked it to go a little faster and there was a little too much description of surroundings that I ended up skimming.

SPOILERS BELOW

The Ending: I understand why Maeve kills Gideon and it fits with the character, I just don’t know how i feel about it … in the moment I was pissed that he died but after reflecting I realized that its the best ending. Her character is trained to kill, shes had a mental snap and the guy she has complex feelings about that she doesn’t know how to cope with found her bodies, of course she didn’t hear him out. Also if they had ended up together: it would’ve been a dark romance not a horror, if the horrible person gets a happy ending and can suddenly control her urges, that would’ve made me hate the book if we’re being honest. Maeve is a complex, but ultimately horrible person who doesn’t deserve a happy ending and would never be able to control her urges and emotions enough to have a happy ending make sense. So idk I don’t hate the ending but I understand why people do.

The Doll: This is my biggest criticism, I don’t understand why the dolls were there. They were placed in the story randomly, weren’t focused on and didn’t get a resolution. The whole doll ‘storyline’ could be taken out of the book and nothing would’ve changed.

[devilsskettle]

🪰🔪 “My name is Maeve Fly. I work at the happiest place in the world.” 🪰🔪

[scaredy-fox]

[whatcha-reading-today]

Summerween Day 5: Horror that Horrifies

This is part of the Summerween 2024 recommendations. See the masterpost here.

These are stories that worked their way under my skin. Heed any warnings!

Maeve Fly | C.J. Leede: American Psycho, if Patrick Bateman worked at a Disney-adjacent place. I also had the pleasure of reading American Rapture as an ARC and holy shit it's good.

The Long Walk | Stephen King: 100 boys compete in a walking competition and the winner gets anything they want. But that's too easy, if you walk too slow or take too long a break, you buy your ticket.

Hypnagogia | Michael F. Simpson: This one doesn't have a traditional plot but is a nasty exploration of the self, identity, and the body.

The Reformatory | Tananarive Due: Horror based in fact on the 'schools' where Black boys were sent during Jim Crowe times. Ghosts abound, but even death doesn't let you escape.

The Indian Lake Trilogy | Stephen Graham Jones: An absolute love letter to slasher movies of the 80s/90s. Jade is an amazing final girl.

The Ruins | Scott Smith: Don't bother with the movie, it doesn't capture how vile and fun the slasher turns out.

[eggcatsreads]

my friend seeing my bookshelves: Oh, I just read that book! It was so messed up I had to go read something really cute and nice to recover, haha!

me, shoving that book Significantly higher on my tbr list: Is that so?

[admiralgiggles]

“We were two wolves in a flock of sheep.”

If you’re looking for something fun and lighthearted, this isn’t the book for you. It’s gory, gross, and hard to put down once you’ve cracked it open. The ending offers a bit of a twist that kind of made me a little mad. I suppose it’s not realistic to give a serial killer a happy ending. 😂

There was a book referenced quite a bit in this story (Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille), so naturally I had to snag a copy and see what Maeve was on about. More on that eventually.

[skyeventide]

I didn't think it was possible to experience being bored by a splatter book on a serial killer, but here we are. maeve fly by cj leede is like what if they didn't market a YA harlequin novel as a YA harlequin novel so that they could push the horror angle and hide that it reads like the thoughts of a 2000's teenager writing on myspace

[hasmoneanbulbasaur]

Currently reading Maeve Fly by C. J. Leede

I love this section that asks: "Where are the brutal women with no abusive backstories?"

[rowan-is-reading]

[SPOILERS FOR MAEVE FLY BY CJ LEEDE]

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰

Mans just needed to search up “how to tell your gf you’re a serial killer without her serial killing you (she is also serial killer)” and all his problems would have been solved

[its-me-vixen]

Hardcore considering doing a couples cosplay of Maeve Fly and Gideon Green for a horror con later this year 👀

[wild-words-and-wounds]

[thechaoticreader]

🌞July Reading WrapUp🌞

Stats

Total Read: 4

Average Rating: 4.5⭐️

Most Read Genre: Horror

Most Read Format: Physical Book

DNF Count: N/A

Books

Title: Cemetery Boys

Author: Aiden Thomas

Genre: Y/A Paranormal Queer Romance

Format: Physical Book (Library)

Rating: 5⭐️

Start Date: June 17

End Date: July 3

Title: Mr. Harrigan’s Phone

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Short Horror

Format: Physical Book

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Start Date: July 23

End Date: July 23

Title: The Life Of Chuck

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Short Horror

Format: Physical Book

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Start date: July 26

End date: July 26

Title: Maeve Fly

Author: CJ Leede

Genre: Horror/Slasher

Format: Physical Book

Rating: 4⭐️

Start date: July 29

End date: July 31

PS. I’m counting each short story in an anthology as its own separate book!

[tuungaq]

maeve fly by cj leede is a 5-star read that has seen me screaming, crying, throwing up, etc., but also laughing and with my jaw dropped wide open. it is a horror masterpiece and a delight