The Maid

My rating is just based on my enjoyment reading it. I don't think it's a masterpiece or a particularly genius story, and I agree with other reviewers here about the slightly condescending / outdated / not mentioned but obvious (play on?) autism, somewhere on the spectrum. And that the depiction of that feels kind of basic. But who am I to say if there are people who experience it just like Molly does?

There were a few times where Molly's reaction made me think “well, she's not stupid, why is this written like she is?” and then I had to question myself and wonder if that was the intention. If the author was playing with my prejudice and the problem was not the writing, but me. But I don't think so. And that sounds arrogant, but I felt that it was still in line with the rest of the book, but in most cases she didn't seem or wasn't written as if she was stupid, just very literal. And sometimes she got things even though it wasn't literal. So it felt inconsisent, I guess. Like, if she got that part right, she would also have understood the meaning of this part.

Other than that, and sort of taking it for what it is, which I would describe as a warm and light-hearted mystery with human relationships at the center of it, I enjoyed the story. I wanted to find out what was going to happen next, the solution to the mystery, and how the relationships were going to play out. And I think it offered more depth on the relationship and feeling front, than I had expected. So for that reason, I'm giving it 4 stars. I'm generous like that :)