Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

33 reviews

erinhanso's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Rape, Animal cruelty, Murder, Stalking, Animal death, Infertility, Mental illness, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Drug use, Drug abuse, and Car accident

jessiebertram's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Blood, Mental illness, Murder, Alcohol, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

allisonwonderlandreads's review

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

Sometimes I just need a psychological thriller with an atmosphere that is tense and anticipatory with a side of dark academia. Aka this exact book. A serial killer with a fondness for Ancient Greek plays and a cult of personality surrounding a literature professor set the stage for the story.

Mariana is our protagonist, a group therapist that I found to be unreliable but empathetic as narrator, a winning combination in the genre. I personally appreciated her healthy dose of suspicion and was intrigued by the way she interacted with others through a therapist's lens, interpreting behaviors and motivations. Did I doubt every person she interacted with, including her? YES of course I did. So naturally, I was partially correct at the end while also being wildly not correct, which I enjoyed immensely. I appreciate the author for his sleight of hand and the way he manages what I notice as a reader to lead me astray.

The last 10% of the book was a wild ride. At first, I was irritated at where I thought the big reveal was headed and started to adjust my expectations for the finale and the book as a whole (thrillers more than any other genre hinge on the ending for me in terms of how I feel towards it). Luckily, I was being tricked ~again~ and a quick shift left me surprised and much more satisfied.

I was impressed by the range of the audiobook narrator with sinister interludes from the serial killer's perspective from a different voice actor. I liked the way this obscured his identity by separating the main performance from the way his writings were read, i.e. I wasn't able to match voices to guess who he is.

Finally, I loved the unexpected The Silent Patient tie-in, a brief easter egg that was clever and enjoyable while remaining subtle enough to not detract from the reading experience if you aren't familiar with the author's other book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Infertility, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

abbs15norm's review

dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, Infertility, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, and Suicidal thoughts

rocketcityreader's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

Oh boy, where to start. I can’t say that I hated it, but I also thought it was ironically pretentious, and just a *little* boring? I rolled my eyes several times over the course of the story, annoyed with both how the young women outside of Mariana’s circle were written as vain and vapid, and at how the men were written as engaging, intelligent, and charismatic. 

Fosca was irritating, which I assume was the point. Mariana, however, was also annoying, and incredibly stupid. And they didn’t feel fleshed out to me—they felt like the author had *tried* to write interesting and believable characters and then heroically missed the mark.

And I hated how every man made a point to talk about how beautiful they all found Mariana, only to be counteracted by her own internal thoughts and disagreements.

Her continued insecurities and naïveté didn’t feel natural. I was surprised when she admitted to another character that she was 36 because she didn’t read that way at all. This was extra bothersome in context—Mariana is a group therapist, and therefore she should be sensible and intuitive. She was neither. However, she was continuously written off as being crazy (another therapist friend of hers suggested she seek help at one point), even though she was trying to present pieces of a puzzle and help solve the murders. So, the men found her beautiful, but quickly dismissed her whenever she wanted to talk.<spoilers>

It was also, irritatingly, predictable.

Though the reveal of the real murderer was a nice surprise twist, I had put enough of the copious red herrings together to know who the murderer wasn’t, and to have guessed a lot of things about the actual murderer that were meant to be alarming.<spoilers>

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, and Pedophilia

CW for grooming.

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-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

2.0

This slogged on for the first 140 pages and I almost DNF'd a bunch of times. This was, for the most part, so boring that I wanted to cry. It hit its stride *sort of* toward the middle and end, but God, these characters were flat, the perpetrator of the murders was too predictable for me (though, to the book's credit, the reasoning behind it was not). One thing I did really like was the incorporation of literature and Greek Mythology in the narrative, but Overall, this really felt like a waste of time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Alcohol

Moderate: Infertility, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

Minor: Self harm and Xenophobia

iamaemmafan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Violence

nyailrac's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

2.5

This book had sooo many loose ends. Is there a sequel coming? I had a great deal of difficulty believing how the story resolved, primarily because of the diary/letter that was presented as being from the killer.   It's not badly written, but this just didn't work for me and I was disappointed and unsatisfied.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, and Incest

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, and Drug abuse

haleyreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Car accident, and Infertility

larareads's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Infertility, Death of parent, and Gaslighting