Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

252 reviews

thepurplepixel's review

dark mysterious sad 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

1.5

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narrators. The concept was interesting. The climax and resolution largely ruined the book for me, as it was so farfetched as to be laughable. There were also many side characters whose storylines were not wrapped up. I was left with a lot of questions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Mental illness, Death, Grief, Violence, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Death of parent, Abandonment, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, and Cursing

cookie239's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder and Death

Minor: Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

hazybee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Reads like you are watching a movie. You can picture every scene and character perfectly. My only complaint is that there are so many random side characters that only appear for a scene or two and it’s hard to remember all their names for when they get brought back up again later 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Grief, Death, Blood, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, and Self harm

mlander'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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Murder, Blood, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Minor: Animal death

cinderpot's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Amazing book! Amazing twist!!! I read the silent patient about a year ago and really like it. This book follows a similar premise and over all ties in greatly. Some professional decisions from the main character is questionable… but what can you get with a fiction.

The added cameo from Theo was my favourite

Will be ready his next book with anticipation!!!! JUSTICE FOR FRED!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Blood, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Violence, and Stalking

dblue236's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

Trigger warnings: Violence, gore, brief mention of an inappropriate relationship between an adult and a minor. 

This book vaguely ties in with this author's The Silent Patient, but you do not have to have read that book in order to follow this one, or vice versa. It amounts to a brief mention of a couple of characters who are included in the other book that doesn't relate to the story, and both books can be read as standalones. Having said that, I definitely felt The Silent Patient was the stronger of the two. This one certainly wasn't anything like BAD, but the pace was so painfully slow I struggled to follow the plot for about the first half of the book. It did finally pick up toward the end and it turned out to be well worth sticking it out, but of the three books I've read by this author so far, this was definitely my least favorite. It's still worth reading, but maybe don't make it the starting point by which you judge the author's work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, and Pedophilia

emma6544's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

I read The Silent Patient and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to this book. 

I was hesitant going into it because I have not enjoyed a lot of dark academia books but this book is different. It balances the academic and mystery lines really well so I felt that both areas were explored really well. I also loved Alex’s descriptive writing style which brought the characters and story to life. 

The plot was face paced and it kept me invested into who the killer is. While I wasn’t hugely shocked at one of the people involved as I had my suspicions on them for awhile, I was majorly shocked at the twist

we find out that Zoe, her niece, had killed the victims, influenced by her lover Sebastian, Marianas husband who she is grieving throughout the book. This came as a shock as the book builds up to Edward Fosca and I was also expecting Fred by the language of the last few journal entries. This shock blew me away and it flipped the book for me, like it did Marianas world.

I also really enjoyed the references to The Silent Patient

Theo, the therapist from The Silent Patient, makes an appearance towards the end of the book. Mariana recommends him for a job at The Grove, his place of employment in the book. Plus, after Zoe’s arrest, he is the one treating her and we get a little preview of that in the epilogue.

This book blew me away and this is my favourite book of his so far and I am looking forward to enjoying his latest book, The Fury. Despite the references to the last book, you can easily read this book first. I highly recommend reading this book, even if you are not a fan of dark academia. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Pedophilia and Death of parent

pedophila is brought up towards the end of the books

carolines's review against another edition

mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Blood, Physical abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Animal death, and Sexual assault

filipa_maia's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Incest, and Car accident

sophiecarbs's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Pedophilia, Stalking, Drug abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Death, Drug use, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent