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mmikadze's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
Not bad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Sexual assault
thecriticalreader's review against another edition
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
0.25
I picked this out as my June Book of the Month because the premise sounded interesting. It was listed as a thriller.
Plot:
I had a hard time suspending my disbelief regarding the plot, even at the start. As the synopsis states, one of the professors at Cambridge has a “secret society of students known as the Maidens.” However, this secret society doesn’t seem that secret, and no one at the school seems concerned with this obviously inappropriate society. Michaelides is good at making the plot seem intriguing (everyone seems suspicious), but in general, it is completely nonsensical. The ending is especially absurd. So, the main character (Mariana)’s husband is secretly having sex with their adopted niece, and he wants to kill Mariana so he can get rich. So instead of coming up with a normal plot to kill her, he decides he is going to have the niece kill a bunch of college-age girls, frame a professor, and count on Mariana investigating and eventually getting killed???? This plan has so many variables and so many ways it would not work. What if the security cameras caught the niece killing? What if Mariana, like a normal human being, simply took Zoe out of school to get away from the murders? What if the police actually suspected the professor (as they should have) and arrested him before Mariana got too deep into the investigation? The more I think about it, the more it makes absolutely no sense.
Characters:
Michaelides is good at making characters seem suspicious and off, which made the thriller interesting for the first part of the book. However, all the characters are ultimately one-dimensional. The worst character is Mariana, the main character. She makes the absolute most terrible decisions. It’s like she wanted to die, and I was kind of disappointed she didn’t. Additionally, it was clear that Mariana was written by a man, which made her character seem ersatz. For example, she falls in love with a random young man who is creepily stalking her and harassing her. Now, this might have been fine if the book painted this as unhealthy or abnormal, but instead it’s portrayed as romantic. This is NOT romantic. This is creepy, and it only sends the message to men that they should harass and stalk women until they get what they want.
Setting:
The book mostly takes place at St. Christopher’s College, probably because it is a dark academia book. Michaelides manages to convey the beauty of the location well enough, although I never felt like I could picture it vividly.
Themes:
The Maidens is way too focused on outmoded Freudian psychological theories. There is a lot of talk about father/mother complexes, split evil/good personalities, etc. This sort of thing might fly in the 1950s, but in 2021 it really doesn’t make sense. At first I thought it would be a powerful mediation on death and grief, but that all ended when Mariana reveals that her dead beloved husband was actually ~evil~. And then the book pretty much just ends.
Writing Style:
Michaelides’s writing is fast-paced and engaging.
Conclusion:
The Maidens pulled me into the mystery, and I was hooked until the last fourth of the book when everything all fell apart. The main character is hard to root for because she makes terrible choices. For example, she agrees to meet a man she thinks is a serial killer ALONE in a NON-PUBLIC place and EATS HIS FOOD and gets mildly DRUNK. Clearly, she wants to die. . The plot is ridiculous and ruins the entire thriller.
Other Points:
· The cover is gorgeous
· The police in this book are absolutely useless. Any sensible person would suspect Edward Fosca, at least after the second murder. He has a secret, creepy cult of young women who follow him around, and two of them ended up dead. Sebastian’s plan relied heavily on the police not suspecting this, which seems like a huge oversight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Grief, Death, Murder, Stalking, and Violence
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content
rissyoung's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Stalking
wai's review against another edition
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
1.0
This book was my June 2021 BOTM pick, and while I hadn't read the author's first novel, I had seen enough praise of it and the synopsis was interesting enough for me to give it a chance. What I didn't realize is that this is one of the many instances in media in which someone who has absolutely no concept of the mental health profession trying to write the character of a therapist/psychologist. Like, this man did zero research. He has not spoken to a single therapist/psychologist, much less anyone with a mental health condition. The level of ableism and professional negligence (at BEST, misconduct at worse) is abhorrent. Here are just the most egregious moments that stood out during my reading:
- Within the first 10 pages, the main character who is a therapist, Mariana, quotes Freud. This is never a good sign, as Freudian theory has been discredited for a good long while now and modern therapists quoting him always rings false.
- Mariana has a client with a substance use disorder who is actively in crisis. It's written that it's "not her place" to advise him to go into rehab for his addiction, which apparently is only for his GP/psychiatrist to say??? Then he reveals that he has cut himself terribly to elicit sympathy from her because he is obsessively in love with her. She then gives him a first aid kit and tells him to leave, because she is not a physical doctor who can stitch up his wounds. Does England not have crisis services, or inpatient facilities????? As a therapist you literally have an obligation to ensure that someone who is clearly in a crisis gets to acute intensive services considering he is obviously showing that he is a harm to himself and others. This is within the first like 40 pages of the novel and shows that Mariana should actually have her license revoked for malpractice/negligence. Not only that, but this character later shows up (as a potential suspect - demonizing mental illness as does the whole book) after stalking Mariana and makes an attempt on his life that makes Mariana feel guilty, as she should for not doing her job during this first incident.
- She just goes around lying to everyone that she's been asked by the dean to help students process the deaths on campus, which is obviously a lie because she just asks the kind of questions you hear in a Law & Order episode which is basically the opposite of what you should be doing to try and help potentially traumatized people.
- The hot youngish American Professor of Greek Mythology has a "secret" study group of female undergrad students who are all gorgeous that he calls "The Maidens" and for some reason none of the other professors, department heads, deans, and anyone else in charge has no idea about this or the fact that he's having sex with all of them.
- The actual murderer is a character with no foreshadowing who ends up committed instead of imprisoned because this was all due to a psychotic episode despite not portraying any symptoms of a psychotic episode prior to the reveal. Plus this only furthers the concept that mentally ill people are violent, just like with the character with substance use disorder. Oh no, someone is exhibiting symptoms that are difficult and upsetting, time to look at them with suspicion and wonder when they are going to start stalking and killing people!!
- The actual murderer is supposed to be a plot twist but there is absolutely no foreshadowing at all and instead comes off as unplanned and sloppy writing. It actually makes very little sense when considering the entire novel as a whole. All other characters introduced to be suspects are left with no resolution or understanding behind their actions. It is an unconvincing and shallow ending that was only disappointing, not shocking.
There is a lot more that I could say but that is the gist of it. The only reason I finished reading it was that it was not very long and written very plainly so I was able to read it very fast...and honestly, I wanted to see just how bad it would get. I only get it 1 full star due to the fact that I did get through it all. But ultimately this is a book written by someone who wants to be way more clever than they actually are and trying very, very hard to pull off something Genius And Complex(TM). It doesn't work and you can feel the desperation of "I'm So Smart You Didn't See That Coming Huh???" in every scene. Of course we don't see it coming if you don't set it up and just make it up as you go. Please stop writing about psychology and maybe write about a topic you know something about next time.
- Within the first 10 pages, the main character who is a therapist, Mariana, quotes Freud. This is never a good sign, as Freudian theory has been discredited for a good long while now and modern therapists quoting him always rings false.
- Mariana has a client with a substance use disorder who is actively in crisis. It's written that it's "not her place" to advise him to go into rehab for his addiction, which apparently is only for his GP/psychiatrist to say??? Then he reveals that he has cut himself terribly to elicit sympathy from her because he is obsessively in love with her. She then gives him a first aid kit and tells him to leave, because she is not a physical doctor who can stitch up his wounds. Does England not have crisis services, or inpatient facilities????? As a therapist you literally have an obligation to ensure that someone who is clearly in a crisis gets to acute intensive services considering he is obviously showing that he is a harm to himself and others. This is within the first like 40 pages of the novel and shows that Mariana should actually have her license revoked for malpractice/negligence. Not only that, but this character later shows up (as a potential suspect - demonizing mental illness as does the whole book) after stalking Mariana and makes an attempt on his life that makes Mariana feel guilty, as she should for not doing her job during this first incident.
- She just goes around lying to everyone that she's been asked by the dean to help students process the deaths on campus, which is obviously a lie because she just asks the kind of questions you hear in a Law & Order episode which is basically the opposite of what you should be doing to try and help potentially traumatized people.
- The hot youngish American Professor of Greek Mythology has a "secret" study group of female undergrad students who are all gorgeous that he calls "The Maidens" and for some reason none of the other professors, department heads, deans, and anyone else in charge has no idea about this or the fact that he's having sex with all of them.
- The actual murderer is a character with no foreshadowing who ends up committed instead of imprisoned because this was all due to a psychotic episode despite not portraying any symptoms of a psychotic episode prior to the reveal. Plus this only furthers the concept that mentally ill people are violent, just like with the character with substance use disorder. Oh no, someone is exhibiting symptoms that are difficult and upsetting, time to look at them with suspicion and wonder when they are going to start stalking and killing people!!
- The actual murderer is supposed to be a plot twist but there is absolutely no foreshadowing at all and instead comes off as unplanned and sloppy writing. It actually makes very little sense when considering the entire novel as a whole. All other characters introduced to be suspects are left with no resolution or understanding behind their actions. It is an unconvincing and shallow ending that was only disappointing, not shocking.
There is a lot more that I could say but that is the gist of it. The only reason I finished reading it was that it was not very long and written very plainly so I was able to read it very fast...and honestly, I wanted to see just how bad it would get. I only get it 1 full star due to the fact that I did get through it all. But ultimately this is a book written by someone who wants to be way more clever than they actually are and trying very, very hard to pull off something Genius And Complex(TM). It doesn't work and you can feel the desperation of "I'm So Smart You Didn't See That Coming Huh???" in every scene. Of course we don't see it coming if you don't set it up and just make it up as you go. Please stop writing about psychology and maybe write about a topic you know something about next time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Grief
Moderate: Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Incest
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