Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

47 reviews

emilianordland's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad 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

3.5


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mmikadze's review against another edition

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  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

Not bad. 

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joramous's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious 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

4.0


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killerpancake's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-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

2.0

Things I did not enjoy about this book:
  • Every bit that involved psychotherapy. It seems in order for this topic to be interesting in books that it always has to be approach unethically.
  • The Greek tragedy themes feeling like window dressing
  • The extremely obvious red herrings

This just didn't do it for me on any level. 

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beforeviolets's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

What a fun and thrilling read! I had the pleasure of getting to read this while dog/cat/housesitting and just lounging in a pool by myself all day and immersing myself in this story and frankly, I'm a little upset that I can't read all books like that.

Let's start with the things I loved about this book. Firstly, I really appreciated that our narrator was a therapist. It was such a different perspective for a thriller novel that I felt added a whole deeper level to the reading experience. Being able to hear our narrator's thoughts on the whole scenario come from a place of psychological training offered an angle that wouldn't normally be shared.

I also was an absolute sucker for the dark academia aspect. I personally love Greek mythology and the way that it was woven into the mystery was beyond exciting and forced me - in a good way - into a higher level of thinking. It showed that the people of this world were smart, and needed to be to keep up with all of the happenings. Plus, it would only make sense that all these characters are so witty when the book takes place at such a high-ranking university. And that university setting should not go without its own praise. Setting the story in such an intimate and complex space - both for the current students' and faculty's present experience and for our main character's past - allowed for an appropriate amount of emotional claustrophobia, heightening senses but also panic.

Something that I have mixed feelings on is the men of the story. I, as a woman, appreciate that this book showed how truly creepy, unhinged, and terrifying men are on a day to day basis. Essentially every single man in this book was problematic in one way or another. And nearly all of them, if not all, took advantage of the women and crossed several boundaries throughout the story, mostly with unwarranted advances or generally presumptive and selfish behavior. Unfortunately, it felt accurate. However, the book is written by a man. To me, if you are a part of the community that perpetuates the problem - which is in this case, the disgusting way that men treat women - it isn't your place to provide the commentary on it.

I also wish there had been a bit of a clarity earlier on as to whether this was a mystery meant to be solved or not. Since our narrator was so focused on catching a particular character as the murderer, it was unclear what our role was as a reader. This kept me from feeling like an active part of my own reading experience, which is something that I think is a crucial aspect of reading thrillers and mysteries, or frankly books in general. It's hard to be excited when I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be excited about or what I'm supposed to be rooting for.


Overall, a fascinating read and a contender for any dark academia/thriller fans.


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wai's review against another edition

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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. 

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dsaiz's review against another edition

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

3.0


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