Taking inspiration from an array of male authors, CJ Leede created a female sociopathic serial killer to rival them all with “Maeve Fly.”
Leede references “Story of the Eye” by Gorges Bataille, “Notes from Underground” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and “American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis as role models for Maeve Fly’s actions.
The daytime Disney princess unrepentantly embraces excessive drinking, casual sex and everything Halloween. Maeve views herself as a lone wolf who can never truly connect with anyone besides her glamorous grandmother and best friend.
“Maeve Fly” is by turns amusing, disgusting and wholly engrossing.
Character Analysis
Main Characters
Maeve Fly
Tallulah Fly
Kate Green
Gideon Green
Liz
Maeve Fly, 27, doesn’t believe you need to be bereaved in order to commit acts of violence. While she spends her days dressed as Princess Elsa at the happiest place on Earth in Los Angeles, Maeve’s nights involve debauchery.
She dropped out of Stanford University after two weeks, is estranged from her parents, and lives with her equally cold grandmother. Maeve knows she’s unlike anyone else besides old Hollywood actress Tallulah, who shares her predilection for violence and distance from others.
Tallulah Fly is Maeve’s paternal grandmother who’s dying of cirrhosis of the liver that led to hepatic encephalopathy. During the events of “Maeve Fly,” she’s comatose receiving in-home care from nurse Hilda. Like Maeve, Tallulah exudes mystique, sexuality, and a desire to hurt those who wrong her. Her star may have dimmed, but photographs of Tallulah posing as a dead playboy bunny lying on a car act as a motif throughout the novel Maeve uses for inspiration.
Kate Green’s the vain, hypersexual redheaded best friend of Maeve. She plays Anna to Maeve’s Elsa at Disney where they met. The 26-year-old shamelessly flirts and sleeps with producers and directors in the hopes of moving ahead in her acting career. Early in the novel, she introduces Maeve to her brother, Gideon.
Gideon Green serves as a nearly perfect foil to Maeve’s slender, feminine intellectual nature. The broad-shouldered hockey player with a figure eight tattoo and replacement teeth, combines athleticism and artistic talent to charm Maeve. He knows the two share sinister impulses and wants to share them.
Liz antagonizes both Maeve and Kate as their supervisor. The curvaceous woman outgrew the Disney princess costume and was promoted–out of pity–to manage the princesses. She holds particular grudges against Maeve and Kate for playing popular princesses and for misbehaving during their breaks.
Plot Summary
“Maeve Fly” is the main character’s first-person account of six weeks between mid-September and Nov. 1.
Written in intimate detail, the novel examines Maeve’s current life, her expectations of losing Tallulah and Kate after two more years, and her libidinous desires that often take turning savage. Many of her actions are inspired by literary works written by men depicting violence as retribution.
Maeve engages in illicit drug use at work, drinks heavily at numerous bars across L.A., and thinks nothing of casual sex when she can muster enough energy to be around other people. She’s immoral, unethical and proudly limits her social circle.
The appearance of Gideon, Kate’s brother, changes Maeve almost immediately. Gideon is more than his jock appearance and knows he’s found a kindred spirit in Maeve after seeing her read “Story of the Eye” and her desire to reenact some of the more disgusting sex acts described in the 1928 French novella.
Soon, Maeve and Gideon are spending nearly every night together in a special Halloween-themed room he created for her at his luxurious home. He indulges her fascination with all-Halloween playlists, while they invite bartenders and Gideon’s fans to join them for group sex.
Gideon’s appearance in Maeve’s life also means encountering strange distorted doll figures with animal features glued together with blood. She’s by turns awe-struck and appalled by the figures and cannot determine who created them or how they keep crossing her path.
Like fashionably unreliable narrators, Maeve often misconstrues what those closest to her mean and underestimates her enemies. She bases her life on the idea that her grandmother’s illness and Kate’s career trajectory will give her two more years to enjoy their company.
Maeve’s jarred into a painful reality when she’s fired from her job, and her relationship with Kate begins to sour.
The loss of her beloved job and her friendship incites Maeve to break up with Gideon via text. She then commits acts of violence against Liz and her boyfriend, then a local band that used one of Tallulah’s famous photos for its promotion.
“Maeve Fly” depicts the explicit violence of each kill in gory detail, especially the revolting misogynistic revenge taken on Liz. The perverse pleasure Maeve takes in detailing Liz’s torture to her is undeniably stomach-churning.
Upon returning home after taking out the band and having several drinks, Maeve learns Tallulah’s succumbed to her illness and only her cold, frail corpse remains. She then decides to crash the Chateau Marmont Halloween party Gideon and Kate are attending dressed in one of her grandmother’s most famous costumes.
Maeve avenges the harm done to Kate by her director boyfriend before taking over the dance floor, and eventually leaving with Gideon. They return to her home where they have a night of passion.
Despite their intense attraction, Maeve believes she cannot trust Gideon. This choice leads to a heartbreaking ending that will leave readers sympathetic to the murderous Maeve.
Final Thoughts
Leede’s debut is disturbing, immensely readable and haunting.
“Maeve Fly” unabashedly addresses violence perpetrated by a woman against both men and women. With gross-out sex and murder sequences, the book will polarize audiences who prefer violence only be alluded to on the page.
Readers seeking an entertaining tale of serial killing, promiscuity and revenge will find a thrilling read in “Maeve Fly.”
No matter how you feel about the violence depicted in “Maeve Fly,” you certainly won’t forget it.
Rating
My rating is 4 stars out of five.
Book Details
Title: “Maeve Fly”
Author: CJ Leede
Year of Publication: 2023
Number of Pages: 271
