Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Maidens

Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

228 reviews

hannahleewhite's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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aheinicke27's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Having read The Silent Patient, I knew that this book was bound to have an interesting and dark twist at the end. Throughout the entire story, I contemplated who could be murdering The Maidens of Cambridge and whether I could really trust the narrator. It’s safe to say that despite my best efforts, I was totally surprised by the twist and definitely did not expect the story to take the turn that it did. Wow. Well done.

This story is dark and distributing in a way that you can’t look away. As an English nerd, I loved all of the nod’s to classic Greek literature, which really added interesting layers to the story and foreshadowing. I also really liked the connections to The Silent Patient. Since it has been a while since I listened to that book, I didn’t notice them at first, but once I made the connection, it was so fun to return to that world. Overall, this is an excellent thriller and one I will definitely recommend!

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kellyisntcool's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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boop123's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.25

Read this via audiobook, and I gotta say this is one of those books that makes you create many theories about what actually happened. Personally, I enjoyed figuring the ending out as I read along, but honestly, almost all of the characters here are annoying and/or stupid, especially Marianna (sorry to say).

The ending was also unexpected but at the same time, did not give clues throughout the book at all??? So, although the third act of the book was intense and gripping, I was not expecting the ending to go that way at all, which was lowkey dissatisfying. Also, I rarely read books by male authors, but why are adult-minor/age gap relationships such a prevalent theme here???? Kind of a side eye, and like all of the male characters, they are major creeps and extremely annoying lmaooo

Anyway, this was alright. I still read the whole thing, keeping me engaged until the end.

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ivella553's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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filipa_maia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I'm not a huge fan of 'The Silent Patient' and I found this book even less enjoyable. I definitely don't like Alex Michaelides' writing, I always feel like his books could be movie scripts. That is something that don't work for me.

Overall I liked the plot. The story is well built and the characters are interesting with complex and very dark backgrounds but the ending... my God... Why? I didn't like it one bit. It definitely subverted expectations but was completely unnecessary.

I enjoyed the "crossover" with 'The Silent Patient' though.

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annajoyreed93's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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sophiecarbs's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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abmoore88's review against another edition

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mysterious 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? No

3.5

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soswiin's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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

2.75

the more i think about this book the lower i rate it

the good

- loved the setting and the way it was written almost worshipfully. i too idolize cambridge and all its uneven cobblestones and river-soaked undergrads

- + 1 star because the best breakfast spot in the city was mentioned: the copper kettle

the bad

- the way mythology was used. OKAY yes i picked this up because it was so “heavily versed in greek mythos”. it just felt very elementary. i wasn’t opposed to the vengeful almost teenage-bully nature of persephone but i didn’t love it. fosca’s lecture on the cult of eleusis was a great mythology-centric plot point but it was only truly relevant that one time.

- for a book called “the maidens” the actual maidens really aren’t that prevalent. there’s not much of a cultish/abuse of academic authority vibe going on despite the fact that it’s a selling point of the book (it was for me)

-the red herrings; spent the entire book trying to guess who the bad guy was because the wrong choices were so obvious. i did get fooled but it wasn’t satisfying or well done in the slightest.

- maybe i’m just looking for things to complain about but a lot of the phrasing was just very cliche

the ugly

- the ending. rushed, confusing, and unnecessary. also really gross

- the characters. i’ve walked on floor tiles with more personality. there is not a single person in the entire story that i was rooting for or who’s downfall i was praying for

- where do i even begin with the pedophilic/incestuous subplot. what?? thrown out there without an ounce of comprehensible elaboration. made no sense to the story despite it basically causing the entire thing. just a nasty shock grabber

there were so many aspects of the book that would’ve been so interesting if they hadn’t been brushed over; henry’s role in the story, morris’s blackmail, the actual maidens themselves, the abuses of power. the author spends the entire book reiterating how terrible men are but never shows any woman successfully winning against the circumstances imposed on them. an amazing concept with poor execution

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