trippalli's review against another edition
2.5
Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault
fennyisreding's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Mental illness, Incest, Violence, Death, Stalking, and Grief
Moderate: Rape, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Violence, and Toxic friendship
miggyfool's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Torture, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness
kccool12255's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
There are MULTIPLE adult-minor relationships in this book that make me feel icky (Fred and Mariana I don't count because that's a 7-year age gap, but they're both adults), and there's just a lot of sex this time around that I feel like was unnecessary. The Maidens is basically just a big orgy with Edward Fosca, one of the other professors is sleeping with one of The Maidens too, and Zoe and Sebastian had a relationship going while he was married to Mariana, and it's just...a lot. I haven't even mentioned the fact that one, Zoe and Sebastian have a 16-YEAR AGE GAP, and two, HE IS HER UNCLE BY MARRIAGE. It's fornication, infidelity, adultery, incest, adult-minor relationship, it's all the things. They also DON'T EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HE'S HER UNCLE. I just...feel SO bad for Mariana.
BUT THEO FABER IS IN THIS BOOK. HE IS IN THIS BOOK.
Spoiler
AND THIS IS A PREQUEL, BUT THIS IS AFTER HE KILLED GABRIEL AND IS ABOUT TO MEET ALICIA AGAIN. AND WE KNOW HE'S A KILLER, AND MARIANA DOESN'T, AND THAT...IS CRAZY.In conclusion, wow. Just wow. Alex Michaelides writes some messed-up stuff. (also, are you okay, dude? I'm not even that concerned about all the murder and sex and stuff, but your characters have some MESSED-UP families. Did you have daddy and mommy issues? Because your MCs do. Just some food for thought.) A lot of messed-up things, but I love them. These books have FANTASTIC plot twists, and I want to do something like that in my own characters, especially with the MCs meeting each other. Just incredible.
Moderate: Death, Cursing, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Incest, Grief, Infidelity, and Murder
Minor: Gore, Alcohol, Stalking, and Suicide attempt
alba_marie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Not as good as the Secret History, but as dark academia and thrillers go, this one was very addictive and juicy. The Maidens follows Mariana, a recently widowed group therapist from Greece who receives a desperate call from her niece Zoe, a student at Cambridge. There's been a terrible murder, and Zoe is terrified that the victim is her friend Tara, who's been "missing" since the day before.
Upon arrival, Mariana gets swept up into the lives of the charismatic Greek professor, Edward Fosca, and his weird group of favourite female students known only as "The Maidens." As the days go on, Fosca gets weirder, Mariana gets obsessed, and the murders pile up.
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that I HATED The Silent Patient . I mean, HATED. I think it might have been my worst book read of the year. I thought it was so poorly written, so amateur, so ugh. But I decided to try this one because the premise intrigued me and ever since The Secret History , I've been intrigued by dark academia. And I'm glad I did! I thought this one was SO much better than The Silent Patient. Better written, better characterised, better plotted, better setting. He actually described stuff this time! And made 3-D characters! Imagine that.
I also LOVED the Greek tragedy and literary elements. Michaelides included the just right mix of Greek tragedy, literary references and academia mixed with real world challenges and psychological drama to make the unbelievable somewhat believable. As thrillers go, this one felt like a step up from your usual cheap thrills and often, the academia side overtook the thriller side of the book, leaving the reader with the impression of reading something a bit more high brow than your usual thriller. This worked well for me!
If you like dark academia, thrillers and psychology, this book is perfect for you.
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Incest and Sexual harassment
Minor: Sexual assault
literaryinluv's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
0.2 seconds after meeting her: "marry me"
the red herrings were just so... forced. like,
Spoiler
oh fred has a picture with a dog, and the letter mentions "premonition," which he claims to have, it must be him!!! but like nobody thinks that, he's just some guy.everything felt forced, and like the author was booping my nose and saying, "catch that? let me explain!"
despite all this, i enjoyed the pacing and the ending, as well as the
Spoiler
actual culpritGraphic: Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Cursing, Physical abuse, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, and Grief
Moderate: Death of parent, Incest, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Alcohol, Abandonment, Rape, Sexual assault, Car accident, and Infertility
secretcistory's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Spoiler
a bacchanal, greek, secret academic society of students handpicked by a professor, god fucking damn incest.Spoiler
Graphic: Incest
carlys_currently_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Murder, Stalking, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, and Incest
joperceptions's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
twist. The writing style was easy enough to follow for me. The only comment on that is, I feel as though the character development for supporting characters (important ones too) was just not as strong as it should have been at points. I found myself confused on who certain people were once I hit the end of the book, but that could easily just be a me issue. I’m not going back to check but I feel like it had some minor plot holes, or at least things that weren’t wrapped up in a way that was at all satisfying, nor helpful to answering any questions that the plot twist may have evoked. I feel like the reveal was dropped and somewhere it was forgotten that we’d still want to hear the aftermath (beyond the few pages of whatever we got). And also understand more about wtf that plot
Line was even about and elaborating on it more?? But we got none of that. It’s not a VERY BAD book, it’s actually a really good concept and I like the authors writing style in a general consensus, i just think this book could have been articulated a bit better and it would have been a really good read.
⚠️SPOILER AHEAD⚠️
Spoiler
I really just don’t think Zoe being the killer made any sense to me, the whole ending sort of felt like it was decided last minute. I don’t feel like it had any build up, or things that happened prior to even create a sense of suspicion toward her at all, which sort of made the reveal, shocking yes, but a bit less interesting. TW: (pedophilia, grooming) Also the lack of conversation on the fact that Sebastian groomed a minor, was so incredibly concerning to me. Like i understand it was brought up mid “fight scene” or whatever that last bit was. But I still feel like that bomb was just dropped and not at all critiqued besides her being upset that zoe and Sebastian weren’t who she thought they were. Not the literal fact that Zoe was a minor, a literal CHILD when all of that shit happened. It was not approached in a way that was appropriate in my eyes.Graphic: Blood, Death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Medical content, Body horror, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Incest, Grief, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence
rosereadsalot's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Pedophilia, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Incest, Violence, Death, Stalking, Infidelity, and Blood