When the Silence Speaks More Than The Silent Patient
- Hannahbana
- 13 minutes ago
- 3 min read
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
323 pages, Paperback
Published February 5, 2019
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Suspense
Awards won/nominations: 5
Set in London, England
“I believe the same is true for most people who go into mental health. We are drawn to this profession because we are damaged - we study psychology to heal ourselves. Whether we are prepared to admit this or not is another question.”
― Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient
I LOVE THRILLERS! Growing up I read mystery books like The Happy Hollisters series and Nancy Drew but I didn’t read thriller/horror novels up until the last few years. Now I haven’t dipped my toe into the horror genre much, but in April of 2024 I read my first thriller, Never Lie by Frieda Macfadden. Let's just say it opened a whole new genre for me. Not only do I love the pacing in thrillers, I also love the twists and turns I don’t see coming.
In The Silent Patient, after getting to the end I had to rethink everything I read. My best friend gave it to me for christmas and she had already read it. I called her immediately after finding out the big reveal at the end because I didn’t see it coming. This book is also another friend of mine's favorites so I was excited to get to it.
You follow a man named Theo Faber who is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited to work with a particular patient for a long while. This patient goes by the name Alicia Berenson who is a famous painter and her husband is a famous photographer. One night her husband comes home late and she kills him then essentially goes mute for whatever reason we don’t know. I just wanted the girl to talk the whole time. I was so intrigued by her background.
“I suppose what scares me is giving in to the unknown.”
― Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient
Throughout the story it goes back and forth from Theo's POV and Alicia's journal so that you get to know more the details of the before. Her journal entires were always a blast to get to since that is the only way we see her thoughts throughout the book. You can also imagine as an artist how much her paintings are now worth after the scandal. Theo as a character was surprising to me. They both had traumatic pasts so I think the doctor to patient relationship was interesting to explore.
I loved the pacing of this story. I think Michaelides did a good job. He explored mental health in a way I personally haven’t seen in a book like this. It was intriguing to see how he placed particular scenes and characters to move the narrative forward. I had never read anything by him and I can’t wait to read more in the future.
Now, I want to give some warning to people who don’t like language in their book. This one does have some pretty heavy choice words. This novel is closed door for the most part except for one particular scene but it's not what you think. I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling something so be cautious if you decide to pick this up. There is also a mention of a painting inspired by Jesus which I wasn’t crazy fond of, I feel like something else could have been used but it wasn’t really bad it just made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
Overall I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars!
