The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Genre: Thriller
Blurb (on back of book): 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....
The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.
MY OPINION: ****
Aww my first review of 2023 and it wasn't a terrible book!
*Disclaimer: I think for 2023, I will be writing shorter-ish reviews for the majority of the books I read simply because I do not have the time to write in-depth essays about everything. Some books will still have lengthy reviews but those will probably be the ones I actively hated or loved.*
I really enjoyed this book, despite being unsure about it before starting it. It's been on my TBR for a really long time but for some reason, I kept putting it off. However, I'm glad I finally got around to it because it turned out to be quite an entertaining read. I finished it in a day and it was certainly a way to start off the new year.
I'd say that it's more interesting to go into this book without any prior knowledge about it. I feel like by setting expectations on thrillers especially, it makes it a lot more underwhelming if it's not as "perfect" or "crazy" as people hyped it up to be. For that reason, I will not be providing any backdrop other than what the blurb gives.
I didn't predict the plot twist but for some reason, it wasn't as jawdropping or shocking as I had hoped it would be. I love reading thrillers for the little moments when they get your heart racing or your mind exploding but this one didn't really do that for me, which was quite disappointing.
I will say the first half is very slow-going so there were times when I was questioning when the real action was going to start. The book is told from a mixture of Theo's (psychotherapist) first-hand narrative and Alicia's (the silent patient) diary entries. I actually liked this structure because it kept the book going and you got to see both sides of the story as you slowly started to piece everything together. I liked the diary entries because it showed a whole new side of the story that would have been lacking without it.
I feel like a lot of the characters felt a little flat but when you're thinking about it, this is from the perspective of Theo who's only just met these people and doesn't really have the full story. I can understand that a lot of the one-dimensionality was very deliberate and for the characters that were fully developed, they were all very unique and realistic, which I enjoyed.
Overall, this was a pleasant surprise. I had a small thriller phase last year but it ended really quickly, and I hope that this year I will look more into the genre because it actually is quite interesting and fun. For a debut, this was interesting and appealing and I definitely had a fun time reading this one.
Main Character: Theo, Alicia
Sidekick(s): Friends, etc
Villain(s): Murder, suspicion, etc
Thriller Elements: This was a thrilling and suspenseful novel.
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