Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

201 reviews

lottieingham'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Death of parent

_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

beccaburchett's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Animal death and Drug use

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

devlev7's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.0

Honestly I was very into this book right up until the ending. It was definitely scary and creepy, and kept me on my toes wanting to know what would happen next. I would still maybe recommend it if you like spooky thrillers. But the ending was a bit of a let down. *SPOILERS AHEAD*

I started to have an inkling that Zoe had something to do with the murders about midway through the book, but the way this was revealed was just bizarre and felt surprisingly unnuanced compared to the rest of the book. It felt like a lot of the buildup about the Maidens and Fosca was for nothing since it didn’t end up having anything to do with the actual murders. I will also say that listening to the audiobook caused a bit of a spoiler since the villains narration wasn’t in an American accent so I knew it couldn’t be Fosca from the beginning. Speaking of the villain portions, I was left with some confusion about Sebastian and his past, and why he was doing all that writing, what crimes he was referring to, etc. I don’t feel that was wrapped up or explained very well, nor was Fred’s “book” he was writing, nor who was following Mariana earlier on in the story (I guess it’s implied that it was Henry?). In general, I was left with a lot of loose ends, and one of the satisfying joys of a mystery novel is seeing them tied up. I also felt there was just so much that wasn’t believable or explained, like how the school kept allowing Mariana to talk to their students unsupervised, or how no one had suspected Fosca of any weirdness with his students before. Mariana was such an unprofessional and irresponsible therapist time and time again, putting herself and others in danger. Maybe this was part of the point, but it wasn’t really acknowledged as her main flaw. Lastly, I thought the themes of childhood sexual abuse were hit a little too hard. Not that this doesn’t happen in real life, but was it really necessary to make so many different characters have this in their past to explain their poor actions? I’m not sure.

Definitely check the content warnings for this one! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

sfulabhai's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Blood

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

radlizareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault and Death of parent

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.0

I enjoyed the first 75% of this novel. I like the references to Greek mythology, but it never really added anything to the plot. I like that the plot gestures towards dark academia; that was my initial draw to it. But again, it never went passed “old college = spooky.”

I enjoyed the mystery until the stupid twist in the final 25% of the novel. It feels like the author decided a twist was needed, but it really wasn’t. It would’ve made more sense if the killer had been one of the three actual suspects, or perhaps a less fleshed-out secondary character. It made me go, “Well that was stupid.” And soured me on the preceeding 75% of the novel.

This novel is what I’d call “just okay.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Classism