Alicia wasn't mentally stable, but Theo wasn't either. The happenings of our childhood do have a say in how we turn out in life and both Alicia and Theo proved it.
This is a review of The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.
Table Of Content
The Silent Patient Plot Summary
The life of Alicia Berenson appears to be ideal. She is a well-known painter who is married to a well-known fashion photographer. She resides in a lavish home with large windows that look out onto a park in one of London's most prestigious neighbourhoods. Gabriel, her husband, arrives home late one evening from a fashion assignment, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face before going silent.
By being silent and refusing to offer any explanation, Alicia elevates a family tragedy into a mystery that captivates the public's interest and makes her famous. She, the quiet patient, is kept out of the spotlight and tabloids at the Grove, a secure forensic facility in North London, as the value of her artwork soars.
A criminal psychologist named Theo Faber has been eager to work with Alicia for a while. He embarks on a perilous journey into his own motivations to get her to open up and reveal the mystery of why she shot her husband. His quest for the truth threatens to overwhelm him.
In the unsettling psychological thriller The Silent Patient, a lady attacks her husband, and the therapist becomes fixated on finding out why.
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Review
Wow. Alicia wasn't mentally stable, but genuinely speaking, Theo wasn't either. What happens to us in our childhood has a way of shaping the person we become and both Alicia and Theo proved it.
More than once I paused to recollect what I was reading because it was equally suspense as it was mystery. This is one of the most gripping mystery books I've read this year and will be added to my book recommendations for 2023.
Starting from the synopsis of the book, I think it was well written because no one likes a book that tells you everything before you start reading. I liked it cause it didn't prepare me for what was to come.
The idea of hazy distinctions between sanity and insanity is explored throughout the story. There is constant tension and psychological suspense due to the characters' actions, perspectives, and intentions. You will be kept on the edge of your seats and eager to learn the truth.
While I haven't read a ton of psychological thrillers, The Silent Patient was a fairly new and original plot to me. Character development-wise, I liked that the author didn't portray Alicia finally speaking again as something miraculous that happened once Theo appeared. Alicia had appropriate pacing of character development between the beginning of the story and the end.
Aside from the plot of The Silent Patient, the author's writing is good. I think all readers can agree that what makes a book an all-arounder is its writing and I think Alex Michaelides novels are written beautifully.
While reading The Silent Patient at night, I couldn't turn my lights off, it is funny even to me. To have written characters at such a level of "crazy" what does it have to say about the author?
Most especially, what does it say about me that found it every bit entertaining?
And you reading this The Silent Patient review and have it on your reading list must be using the same water as I am.
This won't be the last Alex Michaelides book review I write because he is a good author and look forward to reading more from him.
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| Alex Michaelides |
Alex Michaelides
is a bestselling British Cypriot author and screenwriter. The Silent Patient
is Alex's debut novel and is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller,
with over 6.5 million copies sold.
His debut novel, the psychological
thriller The Silent Patient, is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller,
with over 6.5 million copies sold.
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Spoilers
Before reading this part, I suggest that you read the book and come back to join the conversation or you can read on if you are comfortable with spoilers.
I found that certain behaviours of Alicia's were not realistic and relatable. Are you gonna tell me that you know you are being watched by someone but still stayed in the house for a longer time? You didn't pack a bag and leave, at least till you felt better and had gotten someone involved. But who knows, might just be the black in me talking.
Ignorance is not bliss. Her husband Gabriel is simply devious for shutting her down and summing up her worries to mental instability. He was head-deep in his affair and refused to see reason. I think the whole drama(including his own death) could have been avoided if he just believed her and did something about it but where's the fun in that. It's a story after all.
This book also showed that sometimes how you see people just isn't how people see you. Someone may mean a lot to you but you can also mean so little to them. While Jean-felix: Alicia's gallery manager, held Alicia in high esteem, we see that Alicia found him insufferable and clingy. Although Alicia's neighbour "Barbie" was just delusional as to her friendship with Alicia, it is obvious that Alicia felt no level of Kinship towards her. The more people who had different views of Alicia than she had of them got me wondering what the possibilities were.
Alicia Berenson's character analysis:
Alicia Berenson from The Silent Patient is a redhead, a talented painter, and a victim of childhood trauma. At first sight, she appears as a happy person enjoying her marital life with her husband in the most enticing place in London. While the book says that Alicia's mental problems started after her father's death, I think that Alicia wasn't well starting from her mother's death.
According to her journal, we were told that her mother was a very happy person and she took proper care of Alicia and loved her. Although we didn't really get a reason as to why Alicia's mother committed suicide or rather, why she tried to kill Alicia as Alicia's journal said, such trauma affects a child and she probably never got over it.
The time when Alicia lost her mind and became semi-crazy after her father's death I took as an unconscious reaction to the death of her mother instead. This is because we all saw that Alicia's father never loved her, and the feeling was probably mutual. After all, she did say that he killed her with the statement he made.
While Alicia is the victim of this story, I can hardly find any positive traits of Alicia. She may have been a good wife to Gabriel, but I never saw her have a good relationship with the people around her. If you could read into the story, you could tell that Gabriel was already fed up with her at some point and she became a baggage of sorts to him.
Gabriel is a red flag, we all see that right?
Alicia may appear harmless but she does seem like the kind that would look her husband in the eye, murder him, and go silent about it (Pun intended).
We didn't get much of an explanation of the relationship between Alicia and her cousin, Paul cause at some point it seemed they were close, and at another point, it seemed they had underlying beef. Especially when Paul came to ask her for money and when he was speaking about her with Theo.
Overall, I think Alicia's character was well created and had a good impact on how good the story is.
Theo Faber's Character Analysis:
If someone had told me at the beginning of the book that Theo Faber was the villain, I'd be surprised. I was clueless and had zero suspension until close to the end when he started stalking the house.
Theo is a psychotherapist who moved from his job at Broadmoor to work at The Groove to have a chance to treat Alicia. Theo was as equally mentally unstable as Alicia, if not more. Now thinking back to the story, I think Theo's love for his wife stemmed from the fact that he felt he would never find love and wasn't worthy of it.
He was traumatised from childhood so when he saw the marriage had failed, he couldn't even bring himself to walk out. In my eyes, Theo Faber idolised his wife Kathy and was disappointed that she would cheat on him. And, I don't know but watching while your wife has sexual relations with another man is masochistic behaviour to me.
And him at the hospital the whole playing the role of a knight trying to save Alicia from herself. Can't believe I fell for that. Interesting twist on the part of the author.
Alicia Berenson's silence explained:
According to the book, Alicia Berenson was silent because she felt she had nothing left to say after the death of her husband.
I get that she was traumatised, but being silent for over six years? That's a long time to me.
Alicia Berenson's psychological profile:
Alicia is traumatized and has a psychological disorder called complex PTSD.
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So amazing plot yeah, but let's talk plot holes. I think two things left me wondering.
Firstly, why was Yuri, the head nurse at the Groove, selling hospital drugs to Elif, a patient of the hospital? We never found out if it was a normal thing for them, and we do not know the purpose that bit had in the story.
Secondly, the timing between when Theo found out his wife was cheating, when he was helping Alicia speak again, when he was monitoring her at her house, and when the incident actually happened is all jumbled up into one big confusion of past, present, and future past. While this is somewhat of a question left unanswered, it did add to the appeal of the story.
Conclusion
What things I would have the author to do differently? None. He drew me in from the first page of the book and I was here for it.
This is the end of this The Silent Patient summary and I rate the book a 4 out of 5 stars. I recommend this for fans of books like Verity by Colleen Hoover.
Book Detail
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| The Silent Patient Book Cover |
Book Name: The Silent Patient
Author Name: Alex Michaelides
Book Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Crime, Psychological Thriller, Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Celadon Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers
Date of Publication: February 5th, 2019
Feel free to join the The Silent Patient book discussion in the comment section because I'd like to hear your thoughts as well.
Until I find a book that tops this, The Silent Patient will be regarded as my Thriller book of the year and will be added to our list of Top books of 2023 to read.
There is news that The Silent Patient movie will be coming but I'll update you when I have more information.
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Why wouldn't you have read Verity!
ReplyDeleteThat's one of my favourite books of all time. When I read it, I couldn't stop talking about for a week😂