I have two. The Ritual and Drowning.
The Ritual is pure smut. 61 chapters and every one contains a graphic, demeaning sex scene. I’m convinced the author was an adult film screenwriter and decided to try their hand at writing a novel. There isn’t a single likable character in this book.
Drowning isn’t a great work of literature. I felt that the characters were very two-dimensional. I hated how naive the author made the protagonist. It made me have a lack of sympathy for her. The ending was series finale of Dexter bad.
The Silent Patient I am so furious I read this. It had an insane amount of ratings on GR and they were pretty good too, so I got in on sale. As someone who works in a psych ward I can tell the author has never bothered to do an ounce of research and if he did ID BE CONCERNED. Plus the twist didn’t even make fucking sense. The whole plot makes no sense apart from being a set-up for a mediocre twist. The whole book seemed written for that one “haha gotcha” moment you see coming from miles away and Im still annoyed by it.
This book pissed me off so much. I think because I kept giving it the benefit of the doubt that the twist would be incredible and when I got to it it just felt stupid and cheap. I felt like it betrayed my trust or something haha. It blows my mind when books like that get tons of good recs!
The author literally destroyed your trust in his ability. That’s exactly what happens. Always call it what it is, it IS a betrayal of trust. A lot of ‘authors’ don’t respect their readers’ time. And, a lot of their ‘reviews’ are paid to be five star. I always read one and two star reviews for this reason specifically: did this author betray a reader’s trust that they could tell a satisfying story?
It was complete garbage.
This is the best book I read all year lol and the author worked at a psych ward as well…
So on Libby, I have tags of loved audio books, awful, already attempted, what I listened to last year, and this year etc… I think I listened to this book last year and LOVED it I even recommended it to another person… Now, I cannot for the damn life of me even remember what this fucking book was about or how it ended or honestly anything about it 😂😂
That’s my answer as well! There’s a podcast episode of Terrible Book Club that I enjoyed because they hated it as well. Such a stupid book!
Yeah, it was pretty silly “gotcha twist” book. Honestly though, it could’ve been a lot worse. I read it for a book club and was scared to death that it would have tons of triggering ableism (my usual experience with thrillers that include mentions of “mental illness” stuff), but instead it was just run of the mill dumb, and certain details about the self-absorbed horribleness of the staff rang true to me.
Be concerned. Be very concerned.
“Michaelides decided to set his novel in a psychiatric unit as he had worked at a secure psychiatric facility for teenagers while he was a psychotherapy student.” From the wiki
God I hate this author so much I read The Maidens this year and it was even worse than this book. DO NOT read it - if you thought TSP was lacking research and if you hate poorly written plots with unnecessary red herrings that absolve to nothing and a twist that quite literally comes out of nowhere when there were soooo many other options, then do not go near this book
I absolutely HATED The Maidens! Nonsensical and infuriating, also just kinda gross???
lol was coming here to say this… hated the maidens so much I won’t go near anything else this author writes ever again
I originally gave it a good rating and then I actually sat and thought about it. My wife read it and we discussed and…yeah, what a waste of a great premise.
I couldn’t finish that book. Legit one chapter in and I just knew I’d hate my life if I kept reading it so I stopped. Awful book and terrible writing.
Well now I want to read it just to see how shitty it gets.
I’m so confused about why it’s so popular. It’s awful and it’s so bad it’s offensive. I figured out the twist in the first chapter
I DNF’d almost immediately
I hated this book so much it made me angry. I felt skeevy having read it.
I have bad news for you. He studied psychotherapy for three years and worked at a secure psych facility for two years.
I have strong theory that the author wrote this book out of spite for either a specific women in their life, or women in general
I am so glad to see someone else that hates this book! I’m not an expert but it seemed so wildly inaccurate on every level and the twist was just stupid.
I was so confused to find as many positive reviews as I did.