Hi friends! So today I'm going to be doing a review on "The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides. This review is going to be short and sweet (like the title suggests) and spoiler free (however there will be the Goodreads synopsis in this and sometimes it can contain spoilers so please keep that in mind!)
"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...
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"
How I read this book: Physical copy
So this book is not a book I generally would think about picking up. However I bought a blind date with a book from the mysterious bookshelf after having it in my tiktok shop favourites for a while (I chose the booktok option). I'm not usually the biggest fan of fiction crime books and honestly the start of this book was very slow. I carried on reading however because the chapters were very short and it has been a goal of mine to try to read at least 50 pages of a book a day. If I hadn't of set myself this challenge I don't believe I would of finished it. With that being said when you get towards the middle and the end of the book things start to pick up pace and started to grip me in. I loved the character development and getting to find out more about both Alicia and Theo. Then there was the twist! I was genuinely taken by surprise and would actually recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers and crime fiction just for the ending of this book. This is not a book that I am likely to keep on my bookshelf however because it is not something that I would be willing to read again.
My Favourite Characters
- Ruth - Ruth is honestly such a loveable old lady and even though she does not appear much in the book I really fell in love with her character and I actually wish we did manage to get some more of her
- Indira - Once again, a loveable character, Indira is one of the therapists at the grove and honestly is the kind of person I feel most people would love to have as one! She is another background character but I enjoyed the time she was on the pages a lot.
- Tanya - I actually felt sorry for Tanya in some parts of the book and once again she did not appear very much in the book but I genuinely wish we'd gotten to learn more about her.
My Least Favourite Characters
- Theo - I cannot say too much about Theo without giving the book away, but I hate him, and the writer made him such an easy character to hate. He is partly why I found this book hard to read at times (with him being essentially the main character) but he was also written very well for what he is.
- Gabriel - A garbage excuse of a man honestly. Once again, I cannot say too much without giving away the book. At the start Gabriel is very loveable but I just ended the book very much disliking him.
- Max - Honestly, why are most of the men in this book garbage? Max is the worst out of them all and I very much was uncomfortable in scenes with him in. He was written very well also but I just wish there was less of him in.
Overall, I enjoyed "The Silent Patient" enough to read it once, but I do not think I will be picking up this book again. Apparently it's being turned into a movie so I will probably end up watching it, and it is definitely not something I would've picked up if it hadn't of been a blind date with a book, but I'm glad that I got to enjoy it!
I gave this book a 3/5 star rating on goodreads.
What did you think of this book? Who were your favourite or least favourite characters? Do you have books you'd recommend for me to read and do a review on? Please let me know down in the comments below!
Have a wonderful day!
Love, Doe
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