Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Maidens

Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

226 reviews

kellyisntcool's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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boop123's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.25

Read this via audiobook, and I gotta say this is one of those books that makes you create many theories about what actually happened. Personally, I enjoyed figuring the ending out as I read along, but honestly, almost all of the characters here are annoying and/or stupid, especially Marianna (sorry to say).

The ending was also unexpected but at the same time, did not give clues throughout the book at all??? So, although the third act of the book was intense and gripping, I was not expecting the ending to go that way at all, which was lowkey dissatisfying. Also, I rarely read books by male authors, but why are adult-minor/age gap relationships such a prevalent theme here???? Kind of a side eye, and like all of the male characters, they are major creeps and extremely annoying lmaooo

Anyway, this was alright. I still read the whole thing, keeping me engaged until the end.

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ivella553's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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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filipa_maia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I'm not a huge fan of 'The Silent Patient' and I found this book even less enjoyable. I definitely don't like Alex Michaelides' writing, I always feel like his books could be movie scripts. That is something that don't work for me.

Overall I liked the plot. The story is well built and the characters are interesting with complex and very dark backgrounds but the ending... my God... Why? I didn't like it one bit. It definitely subverted expectations but was completely unnecessary.

I enjoyed the "crossover" with 'The Silent Patient' though.

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annajoyreed93's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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sophiecarbs's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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abmoore88's review

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mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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soswiin's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-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

2.75

the more i think about this book the lower i rate it

the good

- loved the setting and the way it was written almost worshipfully. i too idolize cambridge and all its uneven cobblestones and river-soaked undergrads

- + 1 star because the best breakfast spot in the city was mentioned: the copper kettle

the bad

- the way mythology was used. OKAY yes i picked this up because it was so “heavily versed in greek mythos”. it just felt very elementary. i wasn’t opposed to the vengeful almost teenage-bully nature of persephone but i didn’t love it. fosca’s lecture on the cult of eleusis was a great mythology-centric plot point but it was only truly relevant that one time.

- for a book called “the maidens” the actual maidens really aren’t that prevalent. there’s not much of a cultish/abuse of academic authority vibe going on despite the fact that it’s a selling point of the book (it was for me)

-the red herrings; spent the entire book trying to guess who the bad guy was because the wrong choices were so obvious. i did get fooled but it wasn’t satisfying or well done in the slightest.

- maybe i’m just looking for things to complain about but a lot of the phrasing was just very cliche

the ugly

- the ending. rushed, confusing, and unnecessary. also really gross

- the characters. i’ve walked on floor tiles with more personality. there is not a single person in the entire story that i was rooting for or who’s downfall i was praying for

- where do i even begin with the pedophilic/incestuous subplot. what?? thrown out there without an ounce of comprehensible elaboration. made no sense to the story despite it basically causing the entire thing. just a nasty shock grabber

there were so many aspects of the book that would’ve been so interesting if they hadn’t been brushed over; henry’s role in the story, morris’s blackmail, the actual maidens themselves, the abuses of power. the author spends the entire book reiterating how terrible men are but never shows any woman successfully winning against the circumstances imposed on them. an amazing concept with poor execution

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mxdegroot's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

There's so much still unclear, and I think that that's exactly the point.

Michaelides knows exactly how to write a fucked up story with fucked up characters without making it fundamentally problematic. In a lot of books with storylines centered around violence against women, you will see language that is inherently offensive. In The Maidens, this is not the case. For all the violence and manipulation, Michaelides has manages to write the story with respect. Every single character is messed up in a way, but they're still human.

The ending was all but perfect.

If Fosca had turned out to be the actual murderer, it would have been very satisfying, but Zoe's story and her motivations were a wonderful and yet heartbreaking plottwist, which is why I was so happy to see that she was not completely demonized in the epilogue. She was manipulated and used for such a long time and in such a fundamental way that she was still under its influence after her abuser died, and while this in no way excuses the murders she committed, she doesn't deserve to be completely villainized. Simultanuously, while Fosca isn't a murderer, he is still a pedophile and an abuser, and this is not erased, which I was very happy to read.

I am still confused about the character of Henry. He is severely messed up and straight up stalks Mariana throughout the book, and it is never really explained, nor does he appear much in the book after he 'attacks' Mariana. He is just never explained. There are some more small things that I felt could have been handled better, but I'll spare anyone reading this the excrutiatingly elaborate details of that.

While the ending is open and a little confusing, it worked perfectly for the story. Mariana already had trouble dealing with what she knows, and now she's expected to deal with revelations she couldn't have dared to imagine before. A lot of characters have a lot of recovery and development to go, so an open epilogue like this worked perfectly.

January 29th, 2024 - January 31st, 2024.

Reading about life was no preparation for living it; [Mariana] had learned this the hard way

Let me tell you something - this is what those old Greek plays are about. What it means to be human. What it meanst to be alive. And if you miss that when you read them - if all you see is a bunch of dead words - then you're missing the whole damn thing. I don't just mean in the plays - I mean in your lives, right now. If you're not aware of the transcendent, if you'ren ot awake to the glorious mystery of life and death that you're lucky enough to be part of - if that doesn't fill you with joy and strike you with awe... you might as wel not be alive. That's the message of the tragedies. Participate in the wonder. For your sake - for
Tara
's sake - live it."

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ericasbookshelves's review against another edition

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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? Yes

3.0

I liked the book, didn’t like the characters and hated the ending. Which all made for a semi strange reading experience. I’m unsure on if I’ll read another book by the author but I might

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