The Silent Patient
By Alex Michaelides
- Release Date: 2019-02-05
- Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers
Description
**THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**
"An unforgettable—and Hollywood-bound—new thriller... A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy."
—Entertainment Weekly
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.
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....
Reviews
Quick Read
3By Is@belle VictoriaA quick read but the ending was a bit predictable.Wow!
5By kayhumesSuch an amazing read. You will not be disappointed in this book. Once you dive in you can’t put it down.Silent Patient
5By Brea0621It started slow but not in a boring way. It eased you in so you were invested and it was an amazing and suspenseful read. Highly recommend.10/10
5By TyraPouWtf. I am obsessedClever turn of events
4By Lover of litKept me focused through the last page.HOLYYY
5By an unpublished authorAbsolutely brilliant. i have no words. a phenomenal author. beautiful writing.Ok listen..
5By Abbyluv 😊(Spoilers!) This book had me and… wow, was not expecting that ending. Not like any book I’ve ever read, but maybe I just need to read more. Very interesting to be reading from the perspective of the perpetrator and the victim simultaneously throughout the story…but you don’t know which is which until the very end. As soon as Theo began crossing some confidentiality boundaries and doing some of his own digging, the answers to what really happened to Alicia seemed to always be just out of reach. As I was reading I really felt like the lead up was taking forever, I got a little bored with so much ground being laid for a story that seemed to have all the dots connected already, until I realized I was an idiot because Theo and Alicia were living in a world where they were the only two people in the world that could make sense of the whole story, yet the readers don’t get to fully experience the weight of each of Alicia’s experiences described until the last few pages of the book. It’s much easier to not believe a person’s narrative when they’re deemed clinically psychotic and schizophrenic, but it makes you feel even more horrible when you find out they were telling the truth all along and just in redoble misunderstood. I’m ultimately amazed by Theo’s character. We get the story from his perspective 70% of the time. He lets us in on all the facts. He reveals new knowledge of Alicia’s life as if he is discovering her for the first time step by step. You also get to experience the depth of all of his immediate emotions throughout his relationship with Kathy(only to find out he stays with her in the end..? What?) You get to feel all of his emotions with him as he continues to discover more and more secrets about Alicia and Kathy, trying to make sense of these women independently until you realize that they’re completely connected and intertwined. And the only reason why they’re intertwined is because of Theo…which makes you hate him a little while also having complete understanding for the acceleration of his actions. Anyways, yeah, great story, incredible character development. Obviously can’t read this one again, absolutely would not hit the same a second time. But very well done.Boring and anticlimactic
1By SnatchedTeaWhy is there so much hype around this?! It was so slow and only got slightly exciting towards the very end.A real page turner
5By eej6361Could not put this book down, a real page turner.I didn’t see it coming …….
5By Jsmwoods…….. a tapestry of deception. Excellent mysteryA good read
5By kattisuglyFirst book I have read in years and the first chapters caught my attention immediately. The twists were 10/10Fun read
5By Joel DirtThis is flat out the best book I’ve read yet.Veryyyy slow read
1By Kenzie0721Everyone raved about the crazy plot twist and so I persevered through the book thinking it would get better but it is truly the slowest book I’ve ever read. The crazy twist which wasn’t that crazy in my opinion happens in the last chapter which didn’t make the book any better. I struggled to finish this book.Amazing
5By NateTheGreat1776Really good book, couldn’t put it downWait what!!!
4By chorcor'everything about this book was well done. All details that were had written meaning.Well…
1By McCluremomThis book had a few plot holes and a number of instances where the reader is asked to take a leap of faith - woefully disappointing particularly considering the hype.Amazing!
5By sopherswAmazing read!!Thumbs up would recommend
5By maynedmGood read, loved the story. The ending is rough.. only because I wish there was more to it but overall I enjoyed his book.Couldn’t Put It Down
5By HAJS29The Silent Patient provided me with a story that is not only extremely well written, but chilling to the bone. The short chapters made me continue reading long into the night, with my excuse being “one more won’t take that long.” I thought the dynamic between Alicia and Theo was extremely interesting to pursue, despite one of the characters not uttering a word. The only gripe I can think of is the lack of a specified timeline, never indicating the book takes place in chronological order, which was no doubt intentional.
