The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides –336 pages
ARC from Celadon Books in exchange for an honest review.
Book Blurb:
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.
My Review: 4 stars
The Silent Patient offered a well written storyline that was different than any other thriller I’ve read. Many books in this genre are the same formula, just reworked into different settings and circumstances. Not this one. A patient in a psyche ward, accused of murder, refuses to talk. She’s as violent as she is quiet so knocking her out with ridiculous drugs seems to be the path she’s forced to take?
Why is she silent? Why so violent when people are trying to help her? And why a mental institution? There’s definitely a story behind the story, behind the story. That’s how the book sucks you in: the reader is hooked until you have the answers.
The characters were described with great detail in both looks and personalities that I could clearly imagine them each in my head. As well as I could imagine them, I wish some were more fleshed out so I could know even more about their backgrounds.
There are a lot of themes running through the book: investigative validity, lies, mental health, art, adultery, murder, criminology, fashion and duplicitous behavior. The author pulls out some twists that will surprise any reader. For fans of this genre, I highly recommend.
Quotes I liked:
Remember, love that doesn’t include honesty doesn’t deserve to be called love.”
-“Choosing a lover is a lot like choosing a therapist. We need to ask ourselves, is this someone who will be honest with me, listen to criticism, admit making mistakes, and not promise the impossible?”
-“We often mistake love for fireworks – for drama and dysfunction. But real love is very quiet, very still. It’s boring, if seen from the perspective of high drama. Love is deep and calm – and constant.”
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