Title: The Silent Patient
Author(s) Name(s): Alex Michaelides
Published in: February, 2019
Why You Might Like This Book: Read this book if you enjoy
- slow-burn suspense,
- deep plots,
- brilliant twists, and
- psychological thrillers.
Who Should Avoid This Book: Avoid this book if you are triggered by or dislike
- suicidal thoughts or suicidal attempts, or
- physical violence,
- domestic abuse, or
- murder or grief or loss.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, published in the year 2019 is still one of the bestsellers or at least most-loved books in the thriller genre. Some books, though are truly overhyped. Some thrillers seem to interest only the young adult readers, whereas some other novels interest people of all age groups. What is The Silent Patient like? Let us see!
This gripping novel follows Alicia Berenson, a famous painter who shoots her husband and then never speaks another word. A psychotherapist becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind her silence, leading to a chilling and unforgettable twist.
(Trigger warning: suicidal thoughts, suicidal attempts, murder, domestic abuse, physical violence.)
Some thoughts in the initial chapters are profound and deep, not what you’d expect in a thriller book. For example, the idea that once you label something with a certain set of words, you don’t take it seriously anymore. Or about navigating suicidal thoughts with early psychotherapeutic intervention.
One might feel that this is more than just a thriller book or murder mystery, as the author gets into sensitive subjects as part of the lives of the main characters, like mental health issues, addiction, trauma, gambling, and such. That way, the book might be somewhat depressing. And since none of these chapters go deep into these subjects, just a short chapter here and there, it’s not like we’ll be reading through several chapters of tragedy either. But for those who might get triggered easily, mind you, you might want to avoid this book. Say for example, a recovering addict might find it personally relatable as a character who had developed addiction and even managed to quit substance abuse with extensive psychotherapy feels the urge to go for it again during times of stress, so consider yourself warned! But otherwise, if you do not get affected by a few chapters of domestic violence, trauma, and such, you might actually like the depressing tone. And the occasional jab at psychiatrists and psychiatry adds an element of humour.
The book is about a psychotherapist who joins an institute or a rehabilitation center of sorts for several patients with mental illnesses, who need medical intervention, with a professional/personal goal of trying to connect with and hopefully help an in-house patient with a strange problem. Alicia Berenson, a highly-skilled, popular artist renowned for her paintings with deep meaning, was accused of murdering her own husband. And all the evidence says so. Weirdly, she also goes completely silent, mute, without ever uttering a word to anyone ever again after that incident, so the head of this institute, a therapist with decades of professional experience, argues that she is a victim of trauma and needs to be housed in a rehab center, that she should not be jailed, so she ends up living here with other in-house patients.
Theo Faber is the other main character, a therapist himself, who has several personal problems of his own, is determined to personally talk to Alicia and find answers to the questions he has, so he quits his current job to join this place. Many professionals have tried to get her to talk and have failed, so this might not work well for Theo’s career, yet he is determined. The writing in the first half of the book is good, as we are shown the different sides of many characters, but nothing thrilling comes up yet, so you could say that the first half is where the author lays down a foundation and gives us an introduction to the lives of many characters in a beautiful, show-don’t-tell kind of way.
The second half of the book is doubtlessly more interesting. Theo successfully convinces the head and his colleagues to let him try and talk to Alicia, and when he gets a yes, he gets excited. That’s how the story would flow, as one can guess. Theo makes his attempts and tries different techniques, but nothing works; Alicia remains silent. The author must have been aware that this same status can’t go on for many more chapters, so comes the first expected turn – Alicia responds to Theo. And everyone is surprised. We are also told about the personal lives of these two characters, how their past experiences have shaped them up, and what roles the other characters play. None of this is boring, but there are not many interesting twists and turns either for most of the book. This book is a slow-burn thriller, so keep it going, continue reading, and there will be an amazing surprise or two towards the end. This is when you understand why this book is so popular! Every thriller book fan must read this at least once.
The Silent Patient is a true psychological thriller that builds up pretty slowly but is worth every bit of it. This is a book I would definitely want to read more than once. I can’t wait for the next mind-blowing thriller by Alex Michaelides. Personally, I would give it a 4.2-star rating.
