Book Review: Who Is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews

 

Who Is Maud Dixon
by 
Alexandra Andrews
Title: Who Is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews

Rating: 4 stars (🌟🌟🌟🌟)

Publisher: Little Brown & Company

This was fun! This was a fresh twist on the Imposter trope & I couldn't stop tapping my screen for the next page. I don't want to give away spoilers because that's the real fun here but do know that it is a little slow at some points. 


Honestly, the parts when Florence had any sort of hookup liaison felt like it lingered aimlessly for a bit. They both reached purposeful ends but I felt they could have arrived there sooner. The first especially has a good payoff that propelled her trajectory worthily. Helen proved a good character and by about the midway point of the book, things take an interesting turn between the women and things get even wilder in the final quarter of the book.

I highlit a fair amount and Andrews definitely has a wonderful turn of phrase on display here. I can't do a favourite quote for an ARC review because something may change in the final version but there are many I hope make it to the final cut because they're gems.

As I've mentioned in past reviews, I enjoy a good ingratiator book as such types both fascinate and repel me so I was likely just the audience for this one. In book likes this reminded me of Anna Pitoniak's Necessary People, Tara Elizabeth Burton's Social Creature, Stephanie Clifford's Everybody Rise and of course Highsmith's Ripley. I can't stress enough though that I haven't come across a book before that had this particular twist but I surely hope I run into it again. I look forward to more from Andrews.

Great debut. Recommended.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an Advanced Reader Copy.


Summary: For readers of The Silent Patient - a taut, twisty, character-driven suspense novel about a famous novelist and a small-town striver locked in a struggle for fortune and fame.
Florence Darrow is a small-town striver who believes that she's destined to become a celebrated writer. When she stumbles into the opportunity to become the assistant to "Maud Dixon," a celebrated-but anonymous-novelist (think: Elena Ferrante), she believes that the universe is finally providing her big chance. The arrangement feels idyllic; Helen can be prickly, but she is full of pointed wisdom on both writing and living. She even invites Florence along on a research trip to Morocco, where her new novel is set. Florence has never been out of the country before; maybe, she imagines, she'll finally have something exciting to write about herself. But when Florence wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car crash, and Helen is dead, she begins to imagine what it might be like to 'upgrade' into not only Helen's life, but also that of Helen's bestselling pseudonym, Maud Dixon...





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