Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

116 reviews

hannah_steven's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Sexual content, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Animal death

blyndwolf's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

review soon

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

miggyfool's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

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

its_erin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.25

A decent mystery and an easy read, but I can't say that I truly enjoyed it. I personally didn't connect to the main character and didn't find any of the other characters particularly likeable - which made it more difficult to be invested.

That being said, there were some interesting plot weaved in, such as the threads of Greek tragedy. But that's all they were, threads. Threads that, by the end of the book, you find didn't weave together anything of import.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Drug abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse

gondorgirl's review

challenging mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse

sashea's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

Well, this book had dark, and academia. With an interesting setting, and plenty of murders, this had the main ingredients down- just half-baked in execution.

Initially intriguing but quickly got repetitive and almost boring. Only the short length of the book made me finish it. The men presented as suspicious have similar backgrounds

Spoiler

of abusive fathers

and the narrator pushes her professional observations/unfounded assumptions on them, making none of them particularly likeable in the process. Also just tons of lapses in judgement that don't make sense

Spoiler

if you keep getting threats of a guy you know to be unstable "watching you", and notice a man consistently following you at night... maybe stop going out alone at night for a little bit? Stay in and read something, maybe? Let the police know? Honestly Henry's whole inclusion felt unneeded. It felt like the author had wanted you to assume he was there to kill Mariana when he finally confronted her at Cambridge because he had the knife, but that part resolved so quickly and he already had a history of self-harm to get her attention so in effect it felt more like just wrapping up the loose end of "hey is this guy ever going to get any kind of help since obviously it is not coming from Mariana?"

. 

The twist at the end (for the motivation at least) was surprising but there was no connection to any of the characters and too many heavy-handed obvious red herrings that I wasn't even interested enough to guess at

Spoiler

why Zoe did it. Zoe wasn't even in it enough to make me care about her being a killer, let alone her affair with Sebastian - though to be fair she did need to be out of the narrative view to be committing the murders so maybe not much to be done there

Even with the reveal it was less of a "WHAT?!? I can't believe I didn't see it!" and more of a "uh, okay then." 

In summary, this book is "Daddy issues and the (two-dimensional) women who pay for it."

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Blood, Murder, and Self harm

Minor: Infertility, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, and Animal death

lauragreene352's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Death of parent, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Pedophilia

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Violence

kccool12255's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.75

That ending has me SHOOK. Literally what the heck. I LOVE these mysteries, they're so thought-provoking and well thought-out. I'm giving a 4.75 because I just feel like I should've paced my reading time better, it's not because of any faults with the actual book, although there were some things. 

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.

AND MARIANA TELLS HIM TO APPLY FOR THE JOB AT THE GROVE. AND SHE SEES ALICIA BERENSON, THE SILENT PATIENT HERSELF, IN THE END. AND ZOE AND MARIANA ARE NEVER MENTIONED IN THE SILENT PATIENT, SO SOMEONE DIES. Sorry that was in all-caps, but I didn't think these books were even in the same universe, and THEY ARE, AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH. 

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

ashleyvaleria's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

i read a few bad reviews before picking up this book and that usually affects my judgement but i for one very much enjoyed this book. very hard to put down and i couldn’t stop reading. i love the greek tragedy aspect of this authors writing which is what drew me to his other book The Silent Patient which i loved as well. i liked the little cameo with Theo, was a little shocked cause i didn’t know they were interconnected so it caught me off guard. ending is reminiscent to me of a Scream film. i guessed the killer but the backstory and motive was a complete shock to me.  i don’t care if the ending was abrupt and kind of out of nowhere cause my jaw was dropped and i was entertained and that’s all i need from a book at this point. only criticism is that many characters were introduced for no reason. the story could’ve done without their introduction and plot lines, kind of pointless to the story. but ending tied it all together for me and i loved it. his writing is great. would definitely read another one of his books. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, Death of parent, Grief, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, Gore, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, and Violence

chrstnlvly's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It’s important to keep looking ahead. You mustn’t forever look back, over your shoulder. Think about the future.

Well, I didn’t see that one coming. It caught me a bit off-guard (only a bit because I suspected all of them ha ha ha). 

I enjoy reading Michaelides’ books because 1) I love mystery, and 2) I like that psychology is always incorporated. However, I have yet to read a work from him that will satisfy me. He does his descriptions well (he's a good writer, no doubt about that), but the “reveal” is always unsatisfying. The ending felt rushed. I read The Silent Patient and I had the same problems.

Side note: what was the point of Henry's character? Personally, I think there will be no difference even if his character didn't exist.

I’ll still read his future books, though... because I have a lot of fun reading about crazy people.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, Abandonment, Addiction, and Child abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, and Suicide attempt