I would like to thank Bahar from Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out now

Price – £8.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook

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.

The anti-hero has a long history in literature. We like Richard the Third showing us what they really think; get dazzled by Hannibal Lector putting the world to his design regardless of their view on his cookbook. Now in CJ Leede’s unusual horror novel Maeve Fly the eponymous anti-heroine shows us the darker side of LA that in many ways represents Maeve’s own heart and desires.

Maeve Fly is a young woman who children and families love as she is working in a famous LA theme part playing the role of the most popular Ice Princess, working closely with her close friend Kate playing her sister Princess. Kids love them; their boss though is less than impressed with their attitude and drug-taking but the current family ratings keep them employed. Kate seeks the next step to being a movie star doing whatever it takes, and Maeve just feels at home – this city of dreams and dark desires fits her like a glove she just can’t show that to anyone or her cover will be blown. She lives with her famous actress aunt and tied to savour the moment but life is changing and Maeve finds this dynamic now changing affecting her in unexpected ways.

So what jumps out here is Maeve’s unique voice. Someone who is dryly humorous, knows literature, LA’s history and is very much the outsider and likes being it. The drug-taking Princess gives us an immediate sign we are in for a different type of story, and we have this character who knows they aren’t normal and is absolutely fine with that. Indeed, as the story pans out, we get that Maeve is indeed towards the psychopathic end of the spectrum and its her connections like Kate, her aunt or Kate’s handsome strange brother Gideon that may keep her connected.

Unfortunately, I think the character and voice are the only things that stood out to me. There is a lack of plot to engage and me and ultimately, I did not finding myself caring that much for someone who just kills people when they feel it necessary. As a novella this could work as a character study but eventually, I felt I’d got the message early on and the rest of the novel didn’t add anything particularly new to this sub-genre and I felt the style sadly wins over the substance. Fans of black comedies who like things to get gory may enjoy this story and wish to seek it out.