Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

160 reviews

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

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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

lucifer_morningstar13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed this one! I will say though that it started out slow, and it took me about a day after starting to really get back into it. I got this from Book of the Month club though and since I own it and I enjoyed The Silent Patient, I went on to finish it. I'm glad I finished it though. I would say it's slow to medium-paced, and I tend to enjoy faster-paced books, but I enjoyed the story that unfolded and trying to guess who did what. I actually guessed it towards the beginning of the book but then changed my prediction to someone else, and ended up being wrong! It's always fun to correctly guess who did it in a psychological thriller/mystery/etc., but it's also a sign of a good writer when you fall for the red herrings and aren't able to guess. 
The big reveal at the end was shocking and awful, poor Marianna... 
I also enjoyed the fact that

there was reference made to The Silent Patient!!! That was really cool and now I want to go back and re-read The Silent Patient with the new knowledge of how all of that began!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual assault

ekclar's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Death, Murder, Child abuse, and Stalking

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

hellandhogwarts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault

estherk809's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Minor: Sexual assault

whatsophsreading's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Murder

Minor: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault

lbg352'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

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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

edhyndman's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

ibbyyyyy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault

alba_marie's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

"Death was no stranger to Mariana. It had been her constant companion, keeping close behind her, hovering just over her shoulder. She sometimes felt she had been cursed, as if by some malevolent goddess in a Greek myth to lose everyone she ever cared about."

Not as good as the Secret History, but as dark academia and thrillers go, this one was very addictive and juicy. The Maidens follows Mariana, a recently widowed group therapist from Greece who receives a desperate call from her niece Zoe, a student at Cambridge. There's been a terrible murder, and Zoe is terrified that the victim is her friend Tara, who's been "missing" since the day before.

Upon arrival, Mariana gets swept up into the lives of the charismatic Greek professor, Edward Fosca, and his weird group of favourite female students known only as "The Maidens." As the days go on, Fosca gets weirder, Mariana gets obsessed, and the murders pile up.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that I HATED The Silent Patient . I mean, HATED. I think it might have been my worst book read of the year. I thought it was so poorly written, so amateur, so ugh. But I decided to try this one because the premise intrigued me and ever since The Secret History , I've been intrigued by dark academia. And I'm glad I did! I thought this one was SO much better than The Silent Patient. Better written, better characterised, better plotted, better setting. He actually described stuff this time! And made 3-D characters! Imagine that.

I also LOVED the Greek tragedy and literary elements. Michaelides included the just right mix of Greek tragedy, literary references and academia mixed with real world challenges and psychological drama to make the unbelievable somewhat believable. As thrillers go, this one felt like a step up from your usual cheap thrills and often, the academia side overtook the thriller side of the book, leaving the reader with the impression of reading something a bit more high brow than your usual thriller. This worked well for me!

If you like dark academia, thrillers and psychology, this book is perfect for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Incest and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual assault