Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

136 reviews

sarahkate333's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

3.75

Veryyyyy slow until it's not. The last 50 pages are crazy but it's a slow road to that. I almost dnf but im glad I did. I do like that it is connected to his other book. Not sure I'd read it again though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Self harm, and Blood

blyndwolf's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

review soon

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

brennsteez's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

after a clunky first thirty pages (wherein i nearly dnf’d this) this novel finds its footing and i couldn’t put it down. there were some questionable aspects certainly but i found it thoroughly entertaining 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Death, Physical abuse, and Self harm

emnicoleh's review

Too many red flags in the first 20 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Death of parent, Murder, and Violence

Mentioned freud in the first few pages, unethical therapy practices, and a poorly written female character written by a male author. The intellect of the readers is continually insulted through the internal dialougue of the narrator with redundant explanations of common sense ideas. Chapters were only like three pages long??? Ive never dnf'd a book this fast.

daybreakreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

5.0

I finished this book in a day and a half. It was impossible to put down. I haven’t read his other book — I find it interesting that most of the negative reviews simply say that this one isn’t as good as The Silent Patient (makes me wonder how great that one is if I loved this one so much) — but I’m happy I read this one first because there’s a subtle connection between the two.

I actually suspected the right person early on (ultimately for the wrong reason), but mostly dismissed it because of a very powerful red herring (even though I at one point suspected the red herring as being such). I would say the true ending would be very difficult if not impossible to guess the first time through; I almost want to re-read it again now that I know how it ends.

The audiobook was fascinating to listen to; they used a different voice actor for the alternate perspective.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Murder, and Death

Minor: Infertility, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual violence, Animal death, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Forced institutionalization

beeper's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Really enjoyed the first 3/4 of this book. The last 1/4 fell flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death of parent, Addiction, Alcohol, Physical abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sashea's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Blood, Murder, and Self harm

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

mushymargo's review

slow-paced

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

2.75

So predictable, slow, depressing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Self harm, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Infertility, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

joensign's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Violence, Death, Gore, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Infidelity, and Sexual assault

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, and Self harm

apriltrepagnier's review

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

3.5

Pros:
Inclusion of Greek mythology
English phraseology
Psychological twists

Cons:
A little slow in the middle
Somewhat flat characters
very little diversity

I am glad I read it but I preferred The Silent Patient

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Child abuse, and Self harm