The Maidens
Ratings300
Average rating3.4
alex, we need to have a talk. first the silent patient, and now this? brb i'm in a state of shock that i presume will never go away.
Having read The Silent Patient, my expectations for this one were pretty high. But with expectations also comes familiarity, and I found myself sleuthing around, paying close attention to nitty details making the twist quite obvious and underwhelming. It felt like the author was trying too hard to me. Also, the characters were quite stereotypical though I did enjoy reading the book. It had a nice pace with dark academia vibes that I seem to enjoy more as of late. I liked certain parallels drawn too, which made for an enjoyable read. Plus Theo from The Silent Patient makes an appearance giving the book a familiar world feel. I'd give this a 3.5.
I had to stop at 30%, chapter 3 of part 2: “the monster was in pain” ... “He sacrificed his true self, all that unfelt pain and anger, to the Underworld, to the murky world of the unconscious. He lost touch with who he really was. And the man who lured Tara to that isolated spot was a stranger as much from himself as he was from everyone else...but Tara provoked him somehow - and the terrified child inside him lashed out, and reached for a knife.” NO sorry you are incorrect, do not blame the actual victim, do not give the villain victimhood/misunderstood status, when one's psychopathy, psychosis, or “childhood trauma” has a body count I am allowed to suspend my empathy; the fundamental social contract has been broken.
Mariana, similar to Theo, is incompetent as both a therapist and a detective.
I was very disappointed and unimpressed with Mariana; I felt that she was a very weak, passive character. I dislike the way Michaelides writes women also between the two books there's at least three sex scenes that take place outside, and I think two of them don't make sense, who wants to have 'aggressive, animalistic sex' on top of stone? but maybe I'm just a prude
I hadn't realized that she wasn't showing the police the post cards, Mariana WAS obstructing justice/an ongoing investigation, ugh she's awful
The twist, although disgusting, was not what I was expecting, but followed the usual motives for murder: sex/love and/or money However I find it VERY difficult to believe that Mariana didn't recognize her dead husband's handwriting. I guess that's maybe why he wasn't too psyched to have a kid with her? Also, I had hoped Fred was going to be the twist, but then again I also kind of rooted for Mariana's death
This book is 3 in plot but I like this author's writing skill so much I upgraded it
A twist that will stay with you for a while.
As with the previous novel, Michaelides has some serious talent.
This is a prime example of what “trash written well” looks like. The story was unimaginative, disjointed, and made little sense. The plot holes and mismatch of motive made it utterly impossible to enjoy. It seemed as he was writing he had no idea where he was taking the story.
Utter waste of paper.
This was a ride. I didn't like it as much as The Silent Patient, but it was still enjoyable. The acknowledgements thanked the Golden Age crime writers, which I liked; I made a couple notes of things that reminded me of Christie in particular. Overall, a good mystery and enjoyable ride.
3.75.. this book is great love greek mythology so that side of things was super interesting. Fast paced easy to read and a twist i only half saw coming. Not as good as the silent patient but still a good read
While this was a very fast read, I'd be hard pressed to recommend it to anyone. You have subplot after subplot that have nothing to do with the main plot. You'd think like most mysteries maybe they're there to misdirect, but you'd think wrong.
The ending is completely shoehorned in and one of the most contrived I can recall in recent memory. The novel is essentially nothing more than the serial killer you didn't see coming and only leaves you asking ‘why' to so many things.
The characters also suffer from the same type of shoehorning. The main character is a group therapist, but yet there are no boundaries you'd associate with therapy or even interactions that would remind you of therapy. Instead there is a massive amount of projection and inappropriate behavior from the main character that one would not expect from a professional. I understand an author is not necessarily an expert in the fields their characters are employed in, but there should be enough knowledge so the reader doesn't have to completely suspend disbelief. And given the huge role psychology plays in the book, you just expect something more then what felt like the depth of an intro to psychology clause.
None of the other characters are much better mind you so suffice to say I found it disappointing on nearly every level.
Goodreads Nominee for Mystery/Thriller 2021! Great characters, takes place at Cambridge Univ, multiple suspects, suspense and a big surprise! Really liked the location! You can read the book description and get a good idea about the plot. 337 Pages, well worth my week reading it! David N.
Ughhh I thought I had learned my lesson with the first book so I was reading this one super thoroughly but I didn't have enough evidence to guess the twist!
With that said, there were some plot points that repeated The Silent Patient, even a line I noticed said by the supervisor to Mariana: “where's your difficulty?”
It was cool that Theo and Mariana met, confirming the “universe” of the books.
I'm excited to read his next work!
Ok book. Not well written but gripping enough. I was obviously interested to find out who the killer was, and the twist at the end was unexpected. However, I think the ending kind of ruined it for me because of it's lack of believability. It was a short read and I would try this author again.
3 stars I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it...but I couldn't stop reading? How highly improbable though? wtf.
4.5. Finally finished this book since I'm reading less lately due to starting a new job back last month.
I was skeptical about this one for a couple of reasons. One, the extremely mixed reviews, and two, this is outside my comfort zone as far as genres. I predominantly read fantasy, but felt like reading some dark academia.
I'm glad I read it, I thought it was really good. I never guessed the outcome. Maybe I missed some signs, or maybe my mind doesn't go to those places. Who knows. That ending was disturbing! My rating is higher because of it. I will definitely check out more from this author.
Didn't love it but didn't hate it. A lot of prose which really boils down to personal opinion. For me, it was too much. I will say this: Kudos to Alex Michaelides for knocking me off my feet with the plot twist. I looked hard for it from the start, but not for a second did I think this. Yet, it made sense and I could see the signs looking back. Masterful!
3.5 star“You can't love someone if you're afraid of them,”So I finished this about a week ago and I have no idea what to rate it but I feel like it would be within 3 to 4 stars.I think this is an unpopular opinion but I like [b:The Maidens 45300567 The Maidens Alex Michaelides https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1608557750l/45300567.SY75.jpg 70020242] more than the [b:The Silent Patient 40097951 The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582759969l/40097951.SX50.jpg 59752778] and it's prob coz I had zero expectations for this, but for the [b:The Silent Patient 40097951 The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582759969l/40097951.SX50.jpg 59752778] my expectations were so high which is prob why I was so disappointed. So if you are thinking of picking this one up, or any hyped book for that matter go into it with no expectations and you might end up loving it.I must say tho I guessed the killer about halfway into the book and brushed it off coz it didn't seem possible but that didn't spoil the book for me.So here are a few things I loved in the book;1) The setting (I LOVED), was set in Cambridge in a Gothic atmosphere and it was described so well, I felt like I was watching a movie. And coz I'm jobless I did a bit of research on Cambridge and it is the 2nd oldest uni in the English speaking world!! What?! Also, I added it to my never-ending bucket list of the places I want to visit someday.2) Short chapters (it was so easy to read)3) Dual povs.4) Flashbacks to the past5) The silent patient references ( I love it when an author does that)6) The psychological aspect of it. ([a:Alex Michaelides 17621440 Alex Michaelides https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1526317750p2/17621440.jpg] knows what he is talking abt)7) Greek mythology- ever since I read Percy Jackson a few years ago I have been OBSESSED with Greek and Roman mythology, so much so that I wanted to do it for my ALs but my parents advised me against it.lolAs always every book has stuff I don't like too, here are some of them;1) Marianna2) Marianna 3) You guessed it- Marianna (she was so persistent to the point where it became so annoying) I think everyone who has read the book will prob agree with me about this.4) The book is called ‘The Maidens' but most of the plot was focused on Marianna I wish we had gone into depth about the maidens.5) I wish [a:Alex Michaelides 17621440 Alex Michaelides https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1526317750p2/17621440.jpg] had focused more on Edward Fosca too coz he seemed like an interesting character.6) I wasn't too satisfied by the ending.7) too many unwanted characters.I listened to a dark academia playlist while reading this and the experience was surreal!!This is one book I will be rereading in the future!
If goodreads would let us go half stars it would be 3.5. The ending helped it. But took me forever to read this one well the beginning did. Flew thru the last half.
