THE SILENT PATIENT

BY ALEX MICHAELIDES

“No one is born evil. As Winnicott put it, “A baby cannot hate the mother, without the mother first hating the baby.”
Alex Michaelides

SYNOPSIS:

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 THOUGHTS:

The Silent Patient is a deep, dark thriller of a murder with the main suspect locked up in an asylum where she refuses to speak. And there comes the savior: psychotherapist Theo Faber who will try his best to make her speak. The book starts really well and I didn’t find any boring parts.

WHAT I LIKED:

– The writing is addictive and swallows your attention whole. I couldn’t put the book down until the end. I lost hours of sleep because of this book!

– The premise holds your attention immediately

– The alternate chapters between the past and the present keep you engaged.

– The ending is mind-blowing. For me the end has to blow my mind, mess with my emotions. A good end is essential for a book and this one is completely nailed with a huge twist. I still think of how shocked I was with that twist.