Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Die verschwundenen Studentinnen by Alex Michaelides

27 reviews

pagesofniru's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

qotd : Your favourite dark academia read? 

The Maidens by alex.michaelides

My Rating🌟🌟🌟🌟: 4/5
Pages: 360
Genre: Dark Academia, Psychological Thriller, Mystery.
{TW: child abuse, violence, stalking, murder, self harm, death and sexual abuse}

“ᴏ ʟɪꜰᴇ  ᴀꜱ ꜰᴜᴛɪʟᴇ, ᴛʜᴇɴ, ᴀꜱ ꜰʀᴀɪʟ! / ᴏ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜʏ ᴠᴏɪᴄᴇ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴏᴏᴛʜᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ʙʟᴇꜱꜱ!/ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʜᴏᴘᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴꜱᴡᴇʀ , ᴏʀ ʀᴇᴅʀᴇꜱꜱ?/ ʙᴇʜɪɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴇɪʟ, ʙᴇʜɪɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴇɪʟ…”
I read “The Maidens” while ago but couldn’t review it. I call psychological thrillers as adrenalines. It increases your heartbeat till the end.
I am a big fan of  Alex Michaelides  prior psychological thriller “The silent Patient”. so I couldn’t stop picking this book and this is absolute treat of Dark Academia X Psychological thriller.
The story revolve around six characters: Mariana, Zoe, Edward fosca, sebastian fred and clarissa and mostly intense and shocking.
Mariana is aunt of zoe(a student at uni) is the prime character who is a therapist trying save zoe from the murderer . Mariana is still processing the death of her husband Sebastian takes the roller coaster ride to solve the murder mystery of Uni students and who part of secret society.
“ɪ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛɪᴍᴇꜱ ʜᴏʟᴅ ɪᴛ ʜᴀʟꜰ ᴀ ꜱɪɴ ᴛᴏ ᴘᴜᴛ ɪɴ ᴡᴏʀᴅꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀɪᴇꜰ ɪ ꜰᴇᴇʟ; ꜰᴏʀ ᴡᴏʀᴅꜱ, ʟɪᴋᴇ ɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ, ʜᴀʟꜰ ʀᴇᴠᴇᴀʟ ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴀʟꜰ ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇᴀʟ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴏᴜʟ ᴡɪᴛʜɪɴ”
Edward fosca a charming professor  for greek mythology holds a private /secret study group only for women students. He is centred for the tragic murders of the women in the same group.
(Note: Greek goddess persephone in greek  is called as Kore - “The Maiden” and worshipped as goddess of death. The secret society refers to the persephone myth) 
I really loved every aspect of this book and the ending is surprising. Alex has woven this story so well It's perfect for DA and PT readers. I totally recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Body horror

lexslittlelibrary's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

4.0

I want to love this book so much! Up until the very last plot twist I was captivated by everything within the text. Given how convinced Mariana was that Fosca was a murderer I went into this going “okay so not him” but time and time again I was a bit unsure. I think there was one potentially really good red herring thrown in but he was too easy to dismiss. Same with the other attempts made at a suspect. 

Henry could have been such a great suspect if he wasn’t clearly too far gone to write that kind of text /

It was too easy as a reader to look at the letters of confession and know who could not have written them. However the plot twist at the end did nothing feel entirely earned. It came out of left field without much to substantiate it and honestly made a lot of the emotion I invested in some of the characters feel a bit wasted? 

Overall, the side characters who could have been compelling fell flat. We didn’t see enough of Fosca and the Maidens (in my opinion) and the Maidens we did see were hard to get a feel for. 

The two introduced Maidens who died just felt like a toss up of ‘oh I know that name. Didn’t contribute to who was a suspect or give much emotion for the victims /

Overall, I want to love this book. And it’s fun enough — until the very end with the very last reveal. That’s where it lost me. Solid read but fell a hit short for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Death, Incest, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

glutenfreemaggie's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Kept me guessing, but eh… The Silent Patient was way better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Stalking, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, and Violence

mfrisk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I can’t fully decide yet how I feel about this one but I’m going to try to capture my experience. I really enjoyed the world building, the character building, and the fast pacing due to the shorter chapters. Where I struggle is with the conclusion and the final reveal. I’d have to reread to see if it really makes sense but I’m not sure I feel the reveal was built enough into earlier details of the book. Which I guess could be intentional but the reveal seems overly reliant on the idea that our main character essentially didn’t see what was right in front of her within her relationship. It just seems a bit too neatly wrapped up and convenient. The prologue also could have gone a bit further as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Death, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Car accident, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Body horror, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Self harm, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Suicide

trycerabel's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Murder, Stalking, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Physical abuse

mykes's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Incest, Alcohol, Body horror, Stalking, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual assault

alomie's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

3.75

I really enjoyed this whodunnit. I did not see the ending coming and it kept things interesting. 
Some of the "origin stories" were a bit harrowing, and it's not easy going in that respect, however, as we are trying to understand the motives of a serial killer it makes sense contextually. These messed up childhoods absolutely might create a serial killer. 
Kept me guessing right to the end and was actually quite gripping. 
Found this to be a slow start but really picked up in the third act and personally I could have done with a bit more pace, potentially this is an audio-book issue rather than a book issue. I liked it overall but I don't think I would go back to it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Warning Re the Dog

The dad kills the lovely dog, it's really horrid.

erinlaura's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Infidelity

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, and Car accident

marie_is_reading'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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

jayisreading's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

1.0

Well, this was an infuriating read. I honestly don’t know what I was expecting, other than knowing this book got a lot of hype for some reason, but it was definitely… not what it ended up being.

First of all, Michaelides should be crowned King of Red Herrings because holy fuck, does he love and overuse them. It was incredibly annoying, especially when they’re all set up the same way. I also felt that this made it obvious who the culprit was from the beginning. Second, and if I’m using the idiom correctly, his characters are cut from the same cloth. The overwhelming majority of them have parental issues of some kind. I hated the way he wrote women. They were treated like objects, sexually assaulted (in such a casual manner too), and they’re given little to no personality. This was even the case for the protagonist, Mariana, who I found unbelievably frustrating. And with her, I get that one would be bereft after the loss of their spouse, but Mariana had such an unhealthy obsession with her husband before his death that the way her grieving was written really rubbed me the wrong way. Third, I was not a fan of was the way Michaelides used trauma and mental instability as shock factors, which I would argue includes the twist at the end. There are so many ways to surprise the reader without further stigmatizing and/or belittling something so sensitive and personal.

In relation to all of the above is this weird… smugness, I want to say, about how intelligent Michaelides comes across with all the pseudo-psychoanalysis (conveniently done through the protagonist being a group therapist) and use of Greek mythology and tragedies as the driving force of the story. And, don’t get me wrong, I will hand it to Michaelides for taking the time to make careful connections between what was happening his story to the Greeks. Of course, this was all done through the “charming” Professor Fosca, who happens to be an expert on the topic. It all came off as trying too hard to impress, though, and it got tiring a few chapters in.

Initially, I thought maybe I should have read The Silent Patient to understand the hype, but I probably won’t considering how annoyed I was with The Maidens.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Stalking

Minor: Alcoholism