The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
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….
This is the second book for my new book club….and AGAIN I was reminded that book clubs ALWAYS get me into some BULLSHIT I don’t really wanna read. 🤣
Now some of the time—most of the time probably—the bullshit turns out to be reallllll good and I enjoy it, in spite of myself….so I hang in there EVERY time.
Within the first few minutes of reading this selection, I am already hearing the description of a grisly murder scene.
And yall KNOW how I feel about excessive violence in my entertainment (especially when it feels like it could happen in REAL STINKIN’ LIFE)
So, immediately I was like “Grrreeeeeaaatttt. Here we go. WTF is THIS gonna be like for the next several hundred pages???”
The story got going though….and I was HOOKED and INTRIGUIED AF.
While you’re reading, you pretty much think EVERY character is crazy in some way, shape or form as the plot progresses.
I got suuuuper creep vibes from Theo right from jump…I kept thinking he was gonna be one of those psychiatrists who gets obsessed with his patients and erases all professional boundary lines.
As for Alicia, I both felt bad for her AND frustrated with her the ENTIRE time.
I think this story provides quite the deep dive exploration on the effects of trauma on a person.
It does really weird shit to us, sometimes things we are not even conciously aware of.
Human beings cope with things in VERY different and VERY extreme ways, depending on the tools they have been taught and given.
If you are pulling from a messed up tool box (or a nonexistent one) the odds are pretty stacked against you that you will be able to find healthy ways to heal from the damage that life hurls at you.
How we do we overcome that…or is it even possible?
Like all psychological thrillers, the whole question of biology vs enviornment comes into play….are we born “bad” or “crazy”? Do we become what our ancestors were? Is it possible to change? Do we let what happens to us define who we are?
The whole psychology theme of the book reallllly gets your brain into processing mode with these types of topics!
When questions FINALLY start to get answered in the story and truths are beginning to be revealed, I was kinda like “What? THIS is how we find out? After all the buildup? Kinda lame…”
There were many parts of the book I thought to myself “Why is this even IN here? Totally not important to the main plot WHATSOEVER.”
BUT THEN………
*insert strong DUM DUM DUUUUUMMMMMM music*
Everything EXPLODES with truth bombs at the VERRY tail end. All the missing links connect and I was just like 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
I will admit this book WAS an attention grabbing, mind fuck of a thriller. That part was well done.
As a whole though, it ended up just being a depressing read for me.
I just wasn’t feeling it.
The first part of the book gripped my attention…but by the end, I was just kinda over it.
Even though events DID take me by surprise (and there wasn’t too much more violence after that yuck beginning) and for once I didn’t figure things out completely early on, I just didn’t really like this one very much.
Not my jam. I didn’t super hate it. Just would not say I liked it either.
I do think it will be a HELL of a book club discussion, though…so I am def looking forward to that!