The Maid by Nita Prose *****

The Maid by Nita Prose. A novel in three acts starring Molly the Maid. Innocence, Betrayal, Revenge. Molly Gray has ASD (she can’t recognize smiles nor read social cues) and OCD (she loves rules and routines). In the first act, she has her best job as a maid at a fancy hotel. She is invisible while she returns guest rooms to “perfection.” In the second act, she discovers that her “friends” have framed her for the murder of a hotel guest. In the third act, she epitomizes the saying: The best revenge is living well. (Basically the same plot as Revenge of the Nerds).

Molly Gray looks to others to help her navigate through her social interactions- interpreting smiles and understanding conversations. While her Gran lives, she follows her rules. When her Gran dies, she reaches out to everyone else to interpret the world for her. In the first two acts, most of these guides take advantage of her, ultimately framing her for the murder of hotel guest Mr. Black. In the third act, she finds some real friends (Doorman Mr. Preston, his lawyer daughter Charlotte, and dishwasher Juan Manuel) and they lead her out of trouble.

ONE-LINERS:

We are all the same in different ways.

The longer you live, the more you learn.

People are a mystery that can never be solved.

Life has a way of sorting itself out.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it is not okay, it is not the end.

SPOILERS FOLLOW:

However, she does three things on her own.

1.     When it is time, she suffocates her Gran with a pillow.

2.     She warns the second Mrs. Black that the police are after her, allowing Mrs. Black to flee the country.

3.     She never tells the police that she saw the first Mrs. Black holding the pillow that asphyxiated Mr. Black.

Though she can not read faces or social cues, she can still recognize the women in her life that need help and she reaches out to them on her own. Her allegiance to these women goes beyond her neurodivergent challenges.

On one level this is a book about a neurodivergent woman navigating life in the big city. On another level, this is a story about sisterhood overcoming all other challenges.

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