Horror ABCs: Maeve Fly
Written by Emmapanada: 1/7/2025
Hello and welcome back to the horror novel review series, Horror ABCs! In this series I go to the horror section of various Bookstores near me and use a random number generator to find a random horror novel to read and review! Today’s entry is Maeve Fly, CJ Leede’s debut novel from 2023.
Have you ever wondered how it would feel to have a raw egg nestled in your asshole only for you to slowly crack it and let the juices flow out of you? If you have, then good news! You’ll feel seen when you read this book! The book itself is full of wild and disturbing concepts similar to the previously mentioned ass egg as we explore the life and actions of our titular main character, Maeve Fly.
Maeve is a self-described misanthrope who lives in California with her similarly minded grandmother while working at a thinly veiled theme park as an “ice princess.” Her love of her family friendly day job radiates through her during the day. At night, however, she drifts through strip clubs and dive bars together with her best friend while haunted by dark thoughts of torture, murder, and sexual deviency. Things change when her best friend’s brother Gideon moves to town and “awakens something dangerous within her.”
Various reviews about Maeve Fly denote Maeve as a female Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. This worried me when I first saw one of these quotes on the cover of the book as I’ve never seen American Psycho. I wasn’t sure if it was something I should watch and familiarize myself with before reading, and I opted not to until I had finished reading. Afterward when I watched it, the comparisons, references, and influences immediately jumped out at me. From the actions she takes as she breaks to how she casually answers that she’s into “murders and executions” when asked what she’s into, a lot of it can be easily compared to the torturous fantasies and actions that Bateman makes throughout the film. However, and perhaps this is because I haven’t read the American Psycho book and only seen the film, Maeve comes across as much more human to me than Bateman ever did.
From the very beginning of American Psycho Bateman is a despicable person wearing a thin mask to hide his true nature. This is something that we, the viewers can see through, though the co-workers around him conveniently look past. To the outside world (with the exception of the times she finds herself in costume), Maeve appears as a dark, brooding, and standoffish figure who is aggressive and hard to approach. Her internal monologue for a lot of the book reflects this as well, but we get glimpses of a person beyond that persona that make Maeve a much more interesting character for me. Her genuine love for her job and making kid’s days as well as her forays into romance shed light on these deeper parts of herself that make her dark actions even more brutal once they occur.
The main criticisms levied against this book that I’ve seen are that it’s too “edge-lord” and seems like something a teenager would write in high school, but those criticisms, to me, miss the point. A common thing that Maeve Fly points out is that when an audience is given a dark and flawed male character they don’t question it, but when the same is done for a female character the audience needs a reason and an explanation for why she is the way she is. Rather than get caught up in those questions (although the book does address them softly), they just give us a female character reminiscent of Patrick Bateman that follows a similar thematic journey. The book and its narrative have a point and a purpose, and to dismiss it as too edge-lord is to not truly look at what it’s trying to say.
Maeve Fly does have flaws in my eyes however. Despite the fact that I really enjoyed this book and it was an easy page turner, there are some aspects that don’t land. In American Psycho ambiguity is a big part of the narrative. Did Patrick Bateman actually kill all those people or not? Does Patrick Bateman even actually exist? Maeve Fly doesn’t have as many ambiguous elements, but the narrative does dip its toes in that field briefly via one plot thread. Unfortunately, it’s not explored in a satisfying enough way to the point that the entire thread comes off as a bit irrelevant and unnecessary by the end.
With all that said, I still very much enjoyed my time with Maeve Fly. I regularly giggled out loud at some of the dialog and awkward moments of the book and really enjoyed exploring Maeve as a character. At times she came across as a bit unbelievably misanthropic in light of the circumstances she found herself in, but I also found her to be a really interesting, flawed, and fun character to follow. If you want to read about a “Dosney” Princess committing horrible acts of violence against people, I’d recommend checking this out! I’ve gotta give huge props to one of the more fucked up kills I’ve ever witnessed occuring toward the end of this book involving Mickey Mouse (if you know you know).
For all that, I’m giving Maeve Fly 4 Stars on the Emmapanada scale. A really fun book with good characters and an interesting narrative that kept me engaged all the way through.
The Emmapanada Rating Scale:
5 Stars means that I thought this book was excellent, and it had a profound emotional impact on me.
4 Stars means that this was a really, really good book. The characters and narrative were well established and explored, and I had an amazing time reading it.
3 Stars means that this was a solid book. I had my problems with it, but overall I would still recommend it to certain people and I think it’s worthwhile.
2 Stars means I was disappointed by the book for a number of reasons. However, there were still one or two things about the book that I enjoyed and I can understand that even though I didn’t enjoy it fully, I could see others liking it.
1 Star means that I really just did not connect with this book in any way.