Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

25 reviews

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

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

krdavis02's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

sadiefc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, and Stalking

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt