Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

174 reviews

stardustedb's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Murder

sydneydecker's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

The pacing of the book was better than his other book, Silent Patient. It also had a great twist. The evidence and the creepy suspects of the murders kept you on your toes. Michaelides ends his books with answers, but simultaneously wanting more about what happens next! Also you get to see a little bit of Theo (pre-Silent Patient)! 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault

_scvvter's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

1.0

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

mirandathebatchelor's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Murder

h4n3lle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

kirbrary's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• 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

4.0

um unpredictable per ushe, i think im 0/3 on predicting the end of his books, but this one was particularly haunting, for reasons that may trigger people. it also tackles the idea in a much harsher way, that people who do bad things are always a result of bad things being done to them, but people who have bad things happen to them, don’t always end up doing bad things as a result. incredibly challenging by the end. also, the whole time i was reading, i couldn’t help but think this took inspiration from a secret history by donna tartt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

crowbiz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal death, Sexual assault, and Stalking

morganeua's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.0

I think I preferred this book to The Silent Patient. And I thought it was cute and clever to set it in the same world as The Silent Patient. This book is pretty classic dark academia, with stories of a secret society, lots of plot points tied to classic Greek texts, action taking place in dormitories, graveyards and a folly. I had an inkling I knew who the killer was, but I did not predict the twist of WHY they were killing. I definitely recommend this one for lovers of mystery/thriller/dark academia!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault

samgyupsal's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

3.75

Since it was Alex Michaelides, I already expected a plot twist but I still didn't see it coming. I just don't understand why the FMC was so nosy in the first place, I get that she was protective of her niece and her psychologist background made her really invested but, she was so nosy???

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

probablypsychic's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Infertility, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Suicide attempt