Review: Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

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The Book: Maeve Fly by CJ leede

Content warnings

• Yes (it’s extreme horror/splatterpunk, so it’s to be expected).

The Synopsis (from memory)

Maeve Fly works at the Happiest Place on Earth and has a dark side no one knows about. That’s right, she’s a serial killer. Things seem to be going well in her life until all of a sudden they aren’t, and she takes things into her own hands.

The Review (TLDR)

I LOVED this so much! After DNFing American Rapture, I was a little worried because I was so excited about this one but I ended up loving it! It’s weird, it’s gross, and it called to my Halloween music loving heart perfectly.

The Good

Halloween music. I love Halloween music and I’ve listened to it for years, so getting to see it play such a prominent role in this story made me very happy, especially seeing Riboflavin Flavored Noncarbonated Polyunsaturated Blood, one of my favorite Halloween songs!

AND, even better, the author made a Maeve Fly playlist on Spotify! There is a short one with songs mentioned in the book and a longer one for a party. I love it so much.

The setting. I don’t have any particular feelings about LA or Hollywood type of stories, I usually tend to avoid them, but I loved it in this case because of the weirdness. It played up the odd, kitschy side of LA and I liked that. I’ve never been like, I NEED to go to LA, but this made me want to to see the old weird stuff. And the tar pits.

The weirdness. I kind of mentioned it in the last point, but I love the weirdness of Maeve Fly, as a person and as a book. Her love for Halloween. Her love for the tar pits. The silly kitschy bars and buildings around LA. The retro nostalgic descriptions of old Hollywood. I love it.

The grossness. I haven’t read a ton of splatterpunk/extreme horror yet, but I have dabbled and this is the first one that I’ve loved in a fun way. This one was gross and I actually liked the grossness of it. I would say the very gross stuff comes after the 200 page mark and before that it’s not too bad.

The cover. Need I say more?

The Happiest Place on Earth. I love the contrast of the weird and gross to the Happiest Place on Earth job. And I love how much Maeve actually loves her job as a princess. It’s unexpected from someone that weird and dark and I love it.

The Bad

I can’t even think of anything to put here!

Should you read Maeve Fly, too?

If you like weird and gross things and Halloween, then yes! (Emphasis on the very weird and gross). Otherwise, probably not.

Buy Maeve Fly here

Have you read Maeve Fly? What did you think of it? Would you recommend it? I want to hear your thoughts!