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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Ik was alweer vergeten hoe snel de boeken van Alex Michaelides lezen door de korte hoofdstukken. Dit boek dan ook in één middag uit gelezen/geluisterd.
Helaas was het alleen niet helemaal mijn ding. Ik had gehoopt op lekker veel secret society, maar kreeg een therapeut die op zoek ging naar wie de moordenaar was. Voor mij helaas erg ongeloofwaardig.
Alsnog heb ik me wel met het boek vermaakt (ik ben er niet voor niets doorheen gevlogen), maar ik denk niet dat het een boek is waar ik nog vaker aan zal denken.
Helaas was het alleen niet helemaal mijn ding. Ik had gehoopt op lekker veel secret society, maar kreeg een therapeut die op zoek ging naar wie de moordenaar was. Voor mij helaas erg ongeloofwaardig.
Alsnog heb ik me wel met het boek vermaakt (ik ben er niet voor niets doorheen gevlogen), maar ik denk niet dat het een boek is waar ik nog vaker aan zal denken.
Underwhelming. I couldn't care less about Mariana and Sebastian. The book's title makes you believe it's about a sort of on-campus cult led by man-bun Fosca. There's little to no talk of these girls. The red herrings did not make it any better for me. I was hoping against hope that the 'the twist' was not what it was converging towards but it did. I read ALL of THAT for this plain pickle.
Only redeeming thing about the book is the atmosphere Michaelides creates. It's a fast paced book and yes...it did end my reading slump. So now I will go re-read The Secret History.
Only redeeming thing about the book is the atmosphere Michaelides creates. It's a fast paced book and yes...it did end my reading slump. So now I will go re-read The Secret History.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars. Mariana is still grieving for her late husband a year later, when her niece, Zoe, calls upset that her best friend was murdered at university. Mariana packs her bags and sets aside her group therapy counseling to go up to the university. Although Mariana is at the university to provide support to her niece, she decides to investigate the murder on her own. Mariana comes to believe that an American professor has killed Zoe’s best friend. However, the police do not believe her, so she works to gather her own evidence. I found the book intriguing, and it kept me turning pages to see what would happen next. However, some ideas were a bit far-fetched. Also, the ending seemed rushed and didn’t make sense to me.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"There was a word for this moment in Greek tragedy: anagnorisis - recognition - the moment the hero finally sees the truth and understands his fate - and how it's always been there, the whole time, in front of him."
I have been thinking about how to properly review this book all day and have discussed my qualms with it with others who have read it. I loved The Silent Patient. I was totally blindsided by it and typically recommend it to people. I was aware the odds of Michaelides writing a book as good as The Silent Patient with such a twist at the end again were probably not in his favor, so I decided to go into this not judging this in comparison to The Silent Patient.
Mariana is a group therapist who is mourning the loss of her husband, Sebastian. Her niece Zoe calls her from Cambridge and is requesting her to come because Zoe's friend has been murdered. Mariana is very close with Zoe, they are after all, the only family they have, so she goes to be with her niece during this time and immediately gets swept up in the investigation. Zoe hints that she believes her professor, Edward Fosca is the murderer and soon, Mariana believes so too, so much so that she becomes obsessed with proving his guilt. This is the premise of a good story since the reader is going into this from the viewpoint of Mariana, that this professor is guilty. I was really into the book and the story and flew through it and then the last thirty pages or so happened.
The ending is so disjointed from the entire book. The entire time, you are fed this information about Fosca or the red herrings thrown in there, which are so obvious, you believe Fosca had to have done it. The big reveal is unrealistic and it seems like Michaelides spent so much time writing the majority of this novel and at the end just gave up. I don't even know if I went back and reread it, if I'd realize the ending. There's also so much Greek mythology weaved into the story. I had a hard time with it because there are so many different names and words and I tried to pay proper attention to it, but it truly didn't have anything to do with anything. Mariana is also just able to leave her group therapy to go play detective at a college? She has no credentials to be a part of the investigation, but somehow is able to go to crime scenes and see the bodies. She finds things the detectives missed. This seemed unrealistic to me. I also wished there was more about the actual maidens in the story. I enjoy reading about cults and dark stories about brain washing and there was very little of this. It's called The Maidens after all, so I figured there would be more about that. There's also the case of Fred. Is he a psychic? He had these visions and he knew things about Mariana without her telling him. I would have liked more about that. And what on earth was the point of Henry? And I needed more about Morris. I could go on and on! This was executed so poorly. I also want more from the ending. Mariana loved Zoe so much, like a daughter. What was the conversation they had at The Grove? Was Mariana able to see Zoe for what she was?
My rating is really 2.5 stars and it's rounded up to 3. I really enjoyed the psychological aspect of this and some of the background of the characters and my heart jumped with delight over the mention of Theo from The Silent Patient and basically how Mariana helped him find a job at The Grove. Maybe some people are just cursed to lose everyone. Or maybe people are just blind. "Love isn't conditional. It's not dependent on jumping through hoops to please someone and always failing. You can't love someone if you're afraid of them, Mariana. I know it's hard to hear. It's a kind of blindness, but unless you wake up and see clearly, it will persist throughout your whole life affecting how you see yourself, and others too."
I have been thinking about how to properly review this book all day and have discussed my qualms with it with others who have read it. I loved The Silent Patient. I was totally blindsided by it and typically recommend it to people. I was aware the odds of Michaelides writing a book as good as The Silent Patient with such a twist at the end again were probably not in his favor, so I decided to go into this not judging this in comparison to The Silent Patient.
Mariana is a group therapist who is mourning the loss of her husband, Sebastian. Her niece Zoe calls her from Cambridge and is requesting her to come because Zoe's friend has been murdered. Mariana is very close with Zoe, they are after all, the only family they have, so she goes to be with her niece during this time and immediately gets swept up in the investigation. Zoe hints that she believes her professor, Edward Fosca is the murderer and soon, Mariana believes so too, so much so that she becomes obsessed with proving his guilt. This is the premise of a good story since the reader is going into this from the viewpoint of Mariana, that this professor is guilty. I was really into the book and the story and flew through it and then the last thirty pages or so happened.
The ending is so disjointed from the entire book. The entire time, you are fed this information about Fosca or the red herrings thrown in there, which are so obvious, you believe Fosca had to have done it. The big reveal is unrealistic and it seems like Michaelides spent so much time writing the majority of this novel and at the end just gave up. I don't even know if I went back and reread it, if I'd realize the ending. There's also so much Greek mythology weaved into the story. I had a hard time with it because there are so many different names and words and I tried to pay proper attention to it, but it truly didn't have anything to do with anything. Mariana is also just able to leave her group therapy to go play detective at a college? She has no credentials to be a part of the investigation, but somehow is able to go to crime scenes and see the bodies. She finds things the detectives missed. This seemed unrealistic to me. I also wished there was more about the actual maidens in the story. I enjoy reading about cults and dark stories about brain washing and there was very little of this. It's called The Maidens after all, so I figured there would be more about that. There's also the case of Fred. Is he a psychic? He had these visions and he knew things about Mariana without her telling him. I would have liked more about that. And what on earth was the point of Henry? And I needed more about Morris. I could go on and on! This was executed so poorly. I also want more from the ending. Mariana loved Zoe so much, like a daughter. What was the conversation they had at The Grove? Was Mariana able to see Zoe for what she was?
My rating is really 2.5 stars and it's rounded up to 3. I really enjoyed the psychological aspect of this and some of the background of the characters and my heart jumped with delight over the mention of Theo from The Silent Patient and basically how Mariana helped him find a job at The Grove. Maybe some people are just cursed to lose everyone. Or maybe people are just blind. "Love isn't conditional. It's not dependent on jumping through hoops to please someone and always failing. You can't love someone if you're afraid of them, Mariana. I know it's hard to hear. It's a kind of blindness, but unless you wake up and see clearly, it will persist throughout your whole life affecting how you see yourself, and others too."