Maeve Fly

By: CJ Leede

Narrated by: Sosie Bacon

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

"This is gory and brutal and beautiful and painful and terrifying and a pure delight."—Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author

“Leede’s words and narrator Sosie Bacon’s voice imbue Maeve with thought-provoking realism and earnestness, even as her violent acts become more savagely creative.”—Library Journal

A provocative debut that is both a blood-soaked love letter to Los Angeles and a gleeful send-up to iconic horror villains, Maeve Fly will thrill fans of My Heart is a Chainsaw and Caroline Kepnes’ You series.

By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess.

By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.

But when Gideon Green—her best friend’s brother—moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.

Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.

"An apocalyptic Anaheim Psycho."—Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire.

©2023 CJ Leede (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Leede’s bloody and gory debut will make readers clutch their metaphorical pearls in the best way possible. Horror fans who enjoy villain-origin stories, social commentary, terrifying female characters, and unreliable narrators will devour each deliciously morbid and shocking page.”—Booklist, starred review

“An apocalyptic Anaheim Psycho, a guidebook to the dead spaces of Los Angeles, a Hollywood black mass, an occult ritual that cracks the earth, Maeve Fly oozes enough anguish, alienation, and angst to drown the world.”—Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How To Sell a Haunted House

“This is gory and brutal and beautiful and painful and terrifying and a pure delight. Child of God has nothing on Maeve Fly. But I think they might be cousins. Just, let’s not let them Mickey and Mallory across the world, ok?”—Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of My Heart is a Chainsaw

FANTASTICALLY GRUESOME

The daughter of all your transgressive heroes. I haven’t been so invested into a grotesque love story like this since Chandler Morrison’s Dead Inside.

Couldn’t stop listening

This book was by far one of the best i have listened to on audible in a while. I wish i could have more but where it ended was exactly right

I will read more from this author

Great homage paid to Bret Easton Ellis. The author does an excellent job of making a protagonist and antagonist out of the same character. Everything is a metaphor for the serial killer from the Disney princess, to Halloween, etc. I am surprised that some were shocked by the ending, as the author does a great job foreshadowing this, and the ending is inevitable. Very well executed story. Look forward to reading more from the author. Definitely recommend.

Captivatingly Gory Debut

Maeve Fly is captivating and sucks you in from page one. I love that Maeve's Los Angeles adventures give a unique view to a city that is oftentimes overused in novels and the detail given to even the most mundane of LA attraction kept things fresh. You just can't help but fall in love with Maeve, the perfect sociopath.

As a reader of predominantly romance novels, I felt that this book was a good gateway into horror. The overall theme in the book is something that everyone wants for themselves; we all want to be seen for exactly who we are without the filter of others or society getting in the way. We all have wolves and monkeys pulling our strings. This is something that transcends genres and has left me with the worst book hangover I've experienced in quite a while.

Leede's writing is beautiful to read, even if it's simultaneously nauseating, and I can't wait to see what's next!

incredibly entertaining

this story was fun from the jump. I'm an instant fan and highly recommend this one!

Disturbing, Eloquently Written, and pays homage to a city riddled with a history of killer crimes

First off, Sosie does an excellent job narrating. She gives just enough in the narration that is isn’t too much or too monotoned. Second, I could not recommend this book more. If you are looking for a disturbing book with a plot and also enjoy a good love story, then give this book a listen. You can begin to draw some expectations, but truly you do not expect the ending.

it’s Adult and Filthy

It works as my Halloween read, but I couldn’t listen in public. It’s too filthy.

Excellent!

While it has been compared to American Psycho, and I will admit has some American Psycho vibes among it's pages, Maeve Fly is completely its own unique story. As a whole I loved American Psycho but to be honest it was a boring read for me. Just too much on and on and on about the clothing and food and who is sporting what jewelry and cards and yada yada. And I understand that is largely the point, Bateman's obsession with things and objects along side his apparent indifference for human life, but I digress. This was NOT the case with Maeve Fly. It was exciting from start to finish and the ending was beautifully brutal. I love when I don't really like a main character but am still so hooked I can't walk away because I need to know how it ends. That is how I felt with this book. While you may not love Maeve you can't help but feel something for her and for me personally I could identify with her lonliness even if much of it was self imposed. CJ Leede has written a wonderfully bleak and bloody work of art. Great story! I definitely recommend it. Also because I must give her credit, Sosie Bacon did an amazing job. And if you haven't seen Smile, go watch it she was wonderful in that, and it was a great movie.

Wow

Insane ride from start to finish! Started and finished today I could not stop listening

50 Shades of Blood and Gore

I started out giving this book one star. But then something compelled me to listen to it again... and I enjoyed it much more when I went into it with adjusted expectations.... A short novel with a lot to unpack and take in. I'd recommend giving it a try, as long as you can handle EXTREMELY explicit "adult situations".... I'll say again, for the cheap seats, it's A LOT!

GREAT narration by Sosie Bacon.