Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

دوشیزگان by Alex Michaelides

41 reviews

becwriight's review against another edition

4.75

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Honestly wow. This book was a slow starter for sure but it all makes sense why that is when you get to the end. I felt so connected to this book and involved in the plot like i felt i couldnt trust any of the characters and i think thats the whole point. That plot twist was probably one of the most unexpected events ive ever read I wish i could read it all over again for the first time

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Stalking, Murder

Moderate: Death, Blood, Death of parent

Minor: Addiction

marie_is_reading's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent

krdavis02's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment

rocketcityreader's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Oh boy, where to start. I can’t say that I hated it, but I also thought it was ironically pretentious, and just a *little* boring? I rolled my eyes several times over the course of the story, annoyed with both how the young women outside of Mariana’s circle were written as vain and vapid, and at how the men were written as engaging, intelligent, and charismatic. 

Fosca was irritating, which I assume was the point. Mariana, however, was also annoying, and incredibly stupid. And they didn’t feel fleshed out to me—they felt like the author had *tried* to write interesting and believable characters and then heroically missed the mark.

And I hated how every man made a point to talk about how beautiful they all found Mariana, only to be counteracted by her own internal thoughts and disagreements.

Her continued insecurities and naïveté didn’t feel natural. I was surprised when she admitted to another character that she was 36 because she didn’t read that way at all. This was extra bothersome in context—Mariana is a group therapist, and therefore she should be sensible and intuitive. She was neither. However, she was continuously written off as being crazy (another therapist friend of hers suggested she seek help at one point), even though she was trying to present pieces of a puzzle and help solve the murders. So, the men found her beautiful, but quickly dismissed her whenever she wanted to talk.<spoilers>

It was also, irritatingly, predictable.

Though the reveal of the real murderer was a nice surprise twist, I had put enough of the copious red herrings together to know who the murderer wasn’t, and to have guessed a lot of things about the actual murderer that were meant to be alarming.<spoilers>

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Pedophilia

CW for grooming.

cozywithbrina's review against another edition

3.5

dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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book genre: murder, mystery, greek mythology
pace: fast
overall rating: 3.5/5
storyline: ★★★✩✩
characters: ★★★✩✩
character development: ★★✩✩✩
writing: ★★✩✩✩
diversity: ★✩✩✩✩
attention to detail: ★★★★✩
ending: ★★✩✩✩ (a bit rushed)
originality: ★★★✩✩
is there smut? no, however, there is mention of sex but no description. 

Will I be reading the next book? Unsure. After two books from this author, the first being the silent patient, I am becoming acutely aware of how he enjoys putting his female characters in positions where they think they become paranoid - when they are, in fact, not. It's like every man (literally more than one male character per book harasses the main women) becomes a threat to his female characters. It's not only annoying, but it should not be used as entertainment. I thought it created great context in the silent patient, and felt that it was totally unnecessary in the maidens. To me, it did not add to the general ambiance or lifted the storyline. As a woman, please stop. 

However, I did enjoy the story. The plot was a bit more predictable, albeit not completely. Loved the little wink at the silent patient by meeting Theo. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment

Minor: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment

iamaemmafan's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment

vivmorris's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

jenns_library's review against another edition

1.5

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship

charlottes_library's review against another edition

3.25

tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Personally, I didn’t enjoy this book. It was alright but it felt juvenile to me. There was a lot of potential with the plot but i found the characters static and lacking motives. It is a murder mystery with a shock twist ending that was surprising and frankly the only interesting thing about the book. It is a very obvious attempt at creating a dark academia atmosphere but its done lazily (ie. chucking in ancient greek and mythology references). I understand this is supposed to create some deeper meaning considering the whole plot, setting and characters are related to greek mythology but it feels clunky and tacky. This story is Michaelides’ attempt at replicating the success of The Silent Patient and you know how I know that? A filler character was added to (for no plot or character driven reason) conveniently mention the main character and key selling points of The Silent Patient. Self-promo in the middle of a alright but not entirely gripping “thriller”. I recommend this for someone into YA fiction as it is not a difficult read. It is worded to get the plot across; this works for some but I prefer a book i have to think about. The literary equivalent of a lifetime movie: time-passer that requires minimal thinking but nothing mind-blowing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder

Moderate: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Blood

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Alcohol

its not technically incest but it feels like emotional incest/manipulation

dsaiz's review against another edition

3.0

emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Infidelity, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment

Minor: Child death, Terminal illness, Death of parent