Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

132 reviews

cinderpot's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Amazing book! Amazing twist!!! I read the silent patient about a year ago and really like it. This book follows a similar premise and over all ties in greatly. Some professional decisions from the main character is questionable… but what can you get with a fiction.

The added cameo from Theo was my favourite

Will be ready his next book with anticipation!!!! JUSTICE FOR FRED!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Blood, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Violence, and Stalking

kaylokay_'s review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

positive points for the tense feelings I had during the last third of the book. I enjoyed the contemporary gothic vibes. However, I think the plot twist could’ve been tighter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Self harm, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Rape, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

timios's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.25

Don’t be fooled by the title, this books is about men told through traumatizing women. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, and Self harm

soswiin's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, and Self harm

Moderate: Rape and Body horror

gwenswoons's review against another edition

dark tense 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Incest, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual violence, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Violence, Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Torture, and Gore

weirdgirlcoded's review

dark 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? Yes

4.0

this book was astonishing. 

i was absolutely capitivated by the relationships that were built throughout the story, capitivated by the misdirection of the narrative. while a lot of my prediction was correct, i was also far off in integral ways to the plot. i am absolutely stunned by the way the story ended. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Grief, Gore, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide and Self harm

Minor: Pedophilia

ttnnllrr's review

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

I read somewhere that Michaelides meant for this book to be a beach read and for that, this book fulfilled its purpose very well. It was an easy, quick read that held my interest. That being said, I enjoyed The Silent Patient much more in terms of true mystery and thrill.

Maybe it’s just me but Mariana frustrated me to no end, she was really invested and truly hysterical about the whole thing (while it was annoying I understand the motivation for this, seeing as her husband had recently passed and somehow the entire situation was bringing back memories of her father) to the point where she used her job as a licensed therapist to interfere with an ongoing investigation and point fingers very publicly at a man with zero evidence to back it up. And in the end, she was not at all reprimanded for this…

Besides this, I found the subplot with Henry to be somewhat unnecessary, maybe it was written in to be another reason for Mariana to ultimately become unhinged towards the end, but it seemed like it had no place in the story, it was like I almost forgot about him until he was brought up again.

All in all, I enjoyed the twist ending, it was not at all what I was expecting (maybe I’m just not smart enough to see them, but I don’t believe the reader was given enough clues in order to be expecting that). I truly had myself convinced that it was Fred because he was just a bit too creepy for me. I guess he’s not a killer, just an uncomfortably forward guy…

I was absolutely shocked (and disgusted) when I realized it was Zoe and Sebastian. I hate that he groomed her and that she was manipulated so far into actually killing people… (also don’t love that Mariana refuses to acknowledge that, while Zoe murdered people and tried to kill her, she had been manipulated, taken advantage of, and abused for about five years by a father figure who was planning to kill multiple people in order to ‘be with her’) 
I didn’t think we knew enough about Sebastian’s upbringing to relate the parts of the letter to him, however I did think Zoe was annoying and unnecessarily rude and aloof about everything at the beginning when she was getting mad at Mariana for wanting to leave. It was also very suspicious hearing her complain that the male students are her school were ‘boys’, which I thought at the time meant she was seeing Fosca…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Stalking, Self harm, and Violence

Minor: Pedophilia and Adult/minor relationship

james1star's review against another edition

dark 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

2.5

2.5 ⭐️ 

This has an interesting synopsis and start but definitely fell flat (I’m writing this 2 months after finishing it and literally cannot remember like anything) and was kinda boring. We follow psychologist Mariana who gets a call from her niece saying her friend at Cambridge uni Zoe was found killed so she goes to visit her. Once arriving,  she discovers the weird but adored professor Edward Fosca and his posse of female students called The Maidens. Mariana becomes convinced Edward is the culprit despite having an alibi and basically what ensures is the investigation into what might be lurking behind the university’s dark academic beauty. 

A lot of the book is slow paced, there’s quite a few red herrings and on the whole not much really happens. It speeds up towards the end with a rather rushed conclusion which I found alright but yh, it was just a bit lacklustre and one I didn’t particularly like all that much. I couldn’t really relate to or like the characters all that much, they’re underdeveloped, lacked nuance nor any real complexity. Personally I wouldn’t recommend this but it’s quite a decisive book so you may enjoy it, for me it was rather meh but not terrible. I’m still intrigued to read Michaelides’s other book The Silent Patient which’ll hopefully have more substance to it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Self harm, Mental illness, and Grief

siennaflynn's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Grief, Violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Stalking

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Bullying, Child abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Rape, and Self harm

kim_reading's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

The complexities of the characters are comparable to the real world. Every character has a a complex history that impacts the way they are portrayed in the story. Part of the story from the first book written by this author are referenced as a new article, as well as, reappearance of characters that are integrated into the plot. Second Amazing read from this author, cannot wait for his new book in January 2024, will be buying asap :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse

Moderate: Drug abuse and Self harm

Minor: Domestic abuse and Animal death