Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

75 reviews

mewfrosting's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Really captivating mystery, but some hand-holding and repetition in the details that I think was unnecessary. The wrap-up was much quicker than I would have liked. The MC feels a bit manic pixie dream girl-esque, where every man is obsessed with her for some reason and she "isn't like other girls." She also always has this intuition that steers the plot that is never really explained other than that she's good at reading people. Most of all, I think the author's interpretations of Greek myth were bland, only picked because they were useful and not necessarily the most well-thought through.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol and Adult/minor relationship

hcrawfo3's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual assault, Grief, Pedophilia, Murder, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail

wronglibrarycard's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Blood, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Pedophilia, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

cfoley's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Rape, Grief, Blood, Animal death, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Stalking, Death of parent, Pedophilia, and Mental illness

Minor: Suicide attempt and Self harm

readingwithtrey's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

3.0

I went back and forth between 2 and 3 stars. Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed The Silent Patient. It was, in my opinion, an excellent debut novel. I had such high hopes for this one but it was just not it.

The story is pretty fast paced which I like, and it started off so promising. Mariana wasn’t my favorite, but eventually I got used to her. The part that really bugged me is that the culprit was given away pretty early on and I was like “what the? That can’t be right.” It seemed so odd to make the culprit so obvious so early in the story. I kept reading to see how everything went down and not only was I right in my assumption, but the way the story ended was completely pulled out of thin air. The ending was insane in a bad way and super rushed. 

I will definitely be reading more of his books, but this one just really fell flat for me. I settled on 3 stars because it was a page turner, and I don’t regret reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Gore, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Minor: Infertility, Alcohol, and Adult/minor relationship

alexisgarcia's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

this was a fun mystery/triller. i’ve noticed with Alex Michaelides writing starts off incredibly slow for the first part of the novel and picks up in the last 50-100 pages. i loved the greek mythology in this but wished to see just a bit more. i wasn’t a fan of the reveal either which definitely knocks this down quite a few stars. i personally preferred The Silent Patient. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Murder, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Cursing, Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

louisegraveyard's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Death of parent, Child abuse, Misogyny, Death, Gore, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, and Suicide attempt

grrrlbrarian's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Love the premise, the tension, and the depiction of Cambridge University’s darker side … but I just feel let down by the ending. 

The conclusion to Henry’s obsession with Mariana feels laughably rushed. Then we are flung into the reveal of the murderer, which wasn’t necessarily predictable but just ended up a bit hollow.

I didn’t object to it being Zoe, but the motive felt cheap and, again, rushed. The epilogue was also kind of unnecessary and added nothing to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Animal death, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Grief, Murder, Death, Violence, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit and Sexism

layla_reads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

i did like this but why does mariana have zero reaction to anything 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Domestic abuse, Murder, Incest, Pedophilia, Gore, Infidelity, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Blood, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide attempt

graveyardreads's review

dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

1.5

300 pages of filler only for the book to climax and end in the last 20. The ending of this book left me feeling disgusted and betrayed by the author. Setting was cool, dark academia vibes and stuff but again the ending just really pissed me off. Also, Marianna, the main character is literally the most dumb, daft and clueless character I’ve read. This author truly had no idea how to write a woman dealing with creepy men. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Stalking, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Violence