Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

دوشیزگان by Alex Michaelides

317 reviews

len_magoi's review against another edition

2.75

mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

i think this man should change careers

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Death of parent

bbriereads's review against another edition

2.0

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

---

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

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

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

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: Self harm, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder

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

phoebebird's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

This book kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I, quite literally, couldn’t put it down. The plot twist was satisfyingly shocking, but with every single character being suspicious (including characters that had absolutely nothing to do with the plot) there are very few chances to make educated predictions about the whodunnit of it all. Plus, all the women in this book are all easily manipulated idiots which doesn’t make for a totally enjoyable read. But despite all of this, it still kept me up late turning page after page. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Blood, Murder

tunameggle's review against another edition

1.75

mysterious 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Obviously knew there was a twist coming based on how the whole book was pointed at Fosca, so obviously it wasn’t actually him who did it. It got me though, I didn’t see it coming. Possibly because it came totally out of left field, with virtually no little clues throughout the whole book that would allow me to be able to figure out the mystery. Its lazy writing to add in these crazy details out of nowhere to direct the plot to be unpredictable. Plus, the details about Fred and Henry were scattered in and then not ever wrapped up. Overall, in my opinion, it was kind of a boring read up until the last ~10 pages, and the twist didn’t make up for how monotonous the rest of the book was. I didn’t really care for Mariana and spent a lot of the book wishing she would just go home. I will give this man props though bc the little references to his other book, the silent patient, made me want to look up the plot again to see if Zoe was actually in it and because I can’t remember Theo’s deal. Good advertisement. Overall this wasn’t my taste, but I was curious enough to keep reading

threadsof_kate's review against another edition

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

itisnatal's review against another edition

2.0

dark mysterious fast-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Drug use

whatiskatelynreading's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder

lara_crafford's review against another edition

3.0

dark 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: Yes

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse

ashleyvaleria's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

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

chrstnlvly's review against another edition

3.0

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

---

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

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

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Suicide attempt