Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Maidens

Going through booktube and bookstagram, I always saw people mentioning The Silent Patient as one of the best thrillers they have ever read. So I ended up putting it and his other book, The Maiden, on my future reading list. Finally, I saw this book on sale at the bookstore and I ended up buying it.

Now let me be quite honest with you all, I enjoyed the book for literally a good 90% of it. Michaelides' decision to make the chapters short and use a simple writing style—not too simple cause that would make me lose interest—greatly helps with making this book addicting. Like, I knocked out 130 pages in one night, that's very incredible feat for my neurodivergent ass. I was hooked and trying to figure out the mystery myself.

But as you see, everything came crashing down in the end. One of the first critiques I'd say is that this is definetly not the book for people who need good characters. All of them were pretty one note for the most part. Mariana, the main character, felt 3 emotions of self-doubt, depression, and anger throughout the whole novel. With fellow book people always talking about how much they need character driven stories and pick that over plot, It made me curious to think how a book with the exact opposite of that would look. That's this book.

And for the grand reveal of what ruined everything about this book for me: the ending.

Call me a snowflake all you want, but using grooming and rape of a child as a twist is high key very trashy to me. It turns out that Mariana's niece Zoey, who I clocked as being super suspicous, turned out to have been the killer. But you find out through some love letter that came from none other than Mariana's dead husband. This twist came out of fucking left field. Like there was no way for us to see this coming which makes it just cheap shock value. And the fact that both of them were planning on killing Mariana before he did, sick. Like it's all so gross and just ugg. Also that ending battle was pretty anticlimatic. Zoey nearly stabs Mariana, Mariana tussle for a second and knocks her off, Fred tries to help but gets stabbed, Mariana hits Zoey with a rock, boom it's all over. Like this is a time where this simple writing didn't work whatsoever.

It sucks to see another novel I liked so much fall apart in the end, I lowkey hate it more than i hate The Song of Achilles, which is really saying something. I may still try The Silent Patient but this novel may have made me want to never read this author again.

Final Score: 2/10

Content Warnings

jamie99louw's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

mirandathebatchelor's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Oh my God what was that ending?! So many things left unresolved. Ver frustrating.

Content Warnings

trumpetlion909's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Content Warnings

doodlebeanz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow... Alex Michaelides has done it again. Left me completely confused and grasping at straws and then wanting to throw the book across the room when the twist inevitably reveals itself. I actually DID throw The Silent Patient across the room and proceeded to pace around my bedroom for 10 minutes before I could continue reading... but with this one, I was on a packed train and had to keep my total shock and 'omfg' moment to myself but oh BOY I was floored.

I read The Silent Patient a few years ago and I have never been able to find a mystery/thriller that got me the way that book did. Other books came close, but nothing surprised me like that twist. I read The Fury by Michaelides back in March I think, searching for that same WTF moment, but it did not impress... in fact, it fell so flat and horrible and so I thought that Michaelides was just a one hit wonder and didn't rush to grab this one. I came across it at the library over the summer and figured I'd give it a shot... I put it off for a few months and finally picked it up for spooky szn since it's dark academia and all that, and I read it in just a little over 24 hours. It FLOORED ME.

I liked all the characters. I was suspicious of everyone, feeling tense and putting my head in my hands very often. I was convinced certain people were the killer, but nothing compared to the truth. I had some inklings that the murderer was indeed the murderer, or at least an accomplice in some way, but... even my thoughts did not come close to what was actually going on.

I saw some people online say that the book was pretentious, but I never felt that way. I loved the whole Cambridge scenery and the nods to Ancient Greece and Greek mythology. It was perfect for cozy autumn reading which is exactly what I was looking for (if you consider murder/thrillers to be cozy like I do!). Other people said it was boring and drawn out, and I could not disagree more. I thought the writing was so smooth and it flowed so well, it was such a page turner and it left me wanting more after every single chapter. There was never a moment where I was bored or felt like a scene could've been cut out, especially knowing what I know now. I especially loved the random journal entries thrown in, giving a look into the murderer's mind. I get goosebumps looking back at them now and knowing... fuck, this book was SO GOOD!

There are some dark and heavy topics covered in this book and I would suggest reading the TWs before going in.

Content Warnings

beccaburchett's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Content Warnings

maryconney's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

hmatt's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

I did not get on with this book. I think it was trying to do too much.

It felt to me like the author had a really interesting concept in mind but struggled to execute it fully. Alternatively, the original manuscript was about twice as long and the author had to pare it down (and if this is the case, I think it was done poorly). There were also some aspects that I feel like "other" the reader: the Cambridge setting feels very surreal and elitist, as does the Greek tragedy... theme?

My biggest issue, though, is that the MC keeps sticking her nose into a police investigation very obviously and everyone just lets her. She is very clearly unwell and crossing so many professional lines and she doesn't try to hide her actions... but she just isn't called on it

until, just a little, and then it doesn't come up again

. This really prevented me from buying in to other aspects of the story.

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