The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides

Published 2019
339 Pages, My Rating: 4 Stars

NOTE: This review contains spoilers, so please read at your own risk! 

Artist Alicia Berenson surprises everyone one summer evening when she murders her husband and then refuses to speak another word. Sentenced to a mental care facility, she languishes in silence for several years. As the novel opens psychotherapist Theo Faber joins her care team and, feeling uniquely qualified to help, tries to coax Alicia into finally speaking about that fateful night. Told primarily from Theo's POV, we play detective alongside Theo, with sporadic insight from Alicia's diary in the weeks leading up to the murder.

This was a book I almost want to turn around and read again to see what clues I might have missed the first time around as I was unravelling the mystery with Theo. I read a lot of mysteries, so as I was reading my brain was constantly working to figure out what had happened and what was going on. I have to say, while I had A LOT of theories, I didn't see the actual answer coming until it was on top of me.

What I liked:

- I loved the twist! I genuinely didn't see it coming and I always appreciate an author getting one over on me.

- I liked the tie-in to the Greek tragedy of Alcestis and the overall Greek tragedy quality of the story as it unfolded. I didn't so much see this as a thriller as a compelling mystery as we try to figure out why Alicia did what she did. It reminded me more than once of Catherine Steadman's Something in the Water.

What didn't work for me:

- The pacing was a bit slow for the first half. I found my mind wandering more than once during the first half of the book, waiting for the story to pick up and to better understand what was happening. More than once things that seemed obvious to me weren't suggested until much later. For example, Alicia is an artist, but her psychotherapist doesn't think to give her art supplies as a means of self-expression until halfway through the book.

- I was a bit disappointed that this wasn't more thriller-y.  In a discussion with my book club it was brought up that this was more of a character study than a psychological thriller, and that fits so much better as a description.  This story was so focused on the characters and what might be going on that while the plot did move forward, there wasn't much thriller-based anxiety happening.  That being said, he mentions Othello more than once because one character is playing Desdemona in a  production, and as the story progressed I wondered if the plot would reflect the story of Othello and in those moments I felt my anxiety rising a bit.  It turned out to be either a red herring or me reading a bit too much into a reference, I'm not really sure.

- For a novel called the Silent Patient, we heard very little from the patient (we get her diary, but I wanted more).  Theo says this story is not about him, but it very much was.  I wanted more from Alicia, but perhaps the story wouldn't work if I'd gotten my wish.

Overall I did enjoy the book and I can easily picture it making a really creepy thriller flick!