The Silent Patient ✦ Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient

By: Alex Michaelides

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Morgan’s Rating:

“We’re all crazy, I believe, just in different ways.” -Theo Faber

Good Morning all! Or should I say goodnight? I’m sitting down to write this after a 16 hour shift. Yes, I know I’m a psychopath, I’ve heard it all before (eye roll). See above quote from said book. I’ve got nothing better to do than sit down and write while waiting on the melatonin to kick in. I hope everyone else’s week is off to a great start!

The grande finale to my weekend was finishing up The Silent Patient. I was a little disappointed to discover I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would! Picture it like the bunny slope. Slow paced and gradual. I have to give this first time author credit where credit is due though, that conclusion really was a shocker and made the book worth reading. It’s one I liked enough to read and maybe recommend, but wouldn’t read again. Allow me to introduce The Silent Patient!

“Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations―a search for the truth that threatens to consume him….”

As I mentioned before, this is a slow paced book. The search for the truth behind Gabriel Berensen’s murder is slow with little information doled out at a time. The big boom doesn’t come until around the last twenty pages or so. Mr. Michaelides interspersed pages from Alicia Berensen’s journal with Theo’s point of view throughout the book so as Theo becomes more and more obsessed with Alicia’s story, we can start to see the unravel of her idyllic life. The Silent Patient is one of those books where you begin to wonder if you can truly trust the narrator’s point of view. Is Theo actually stable? What causes his obsession with this particular patient? Is Alicia as innocent as she seems? If Alicia is guilty, what made her put a bullet through the best part of her life? Or was her husband just a little too slimy, her best friend just a little too fame hungry, her neighbors just a little too narcissistic?

I also appreciate the way psychotherapy is used to build our story. Theo is a psychotherapist who believes that our experiences in childhood form who we will be before solid memories even begin to form. His theories and explanations of how psychotherapy work are intertwined with the breakdown of Alicia Berensen’s barriers. Would it really be a psychological thriller if we didn’t explore the dark depths of people’s minds and determine how deep a rage can burrow?

Let’s talk about that ending for a second. I judge a book based on how loudly it makes me say WTF!? This one was a pretty solid shriek. I was not expecting the reveal to be quite so twisty! I’m impressed with the author’s ability to shock me; I can normally guess what’s going to happen. This made me think back through the whole book at all the red herrings I missed when I didn’t know what I was looking for. I love strong foreshadowing!

In conclusion, I like this, I don’t love it. It is enjoyable, although even tempered. But if you’re in the mood for a decent thriller with a sting at the end, I would definitely suggest The Silent Patient!