the silent patient: therapy & murder
- paigenherbooks
- Jun 18, 2022
- 6 min read
4/5
Alex Michaelides is a phenomenal writer, that I know for certain. The way that he craft a story that is not only engaging but always has a shocking twist that literally no one can ever see coming is fantastic. The Silent Patient is no exception. I really enjoyed this slow burn thriller and the twist that came along with it. The story just didn't effect me the way that his other story, The Maidens did, which is totally okay.
I thought this story was a good one, a sad one, but not a soul crushing one.
Synopsis: Alicia Berenson's life is seriously perfect. Until one night, when her husband, Gabriel, returns home late from work 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 a mystery that captures the public imagination. Criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber is captivated by Alicia's story and jumps at the opportunity to work with her. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband will take him down a path more unexpected and more terrifying than he ever imagined.
The Silent Patient, lets get into her.
First, this will NOT be a spoiler free review so please I beg of you, if you have not read this story please do not continue until you do, it will ruin your time entirely.
Theo Faber.
I enjoyed Theo's character, I think he was an interesting person and his character arc was just as intriguing as well. Seeing things from his point of view, I slowly began to see that maybe he wasn't a super reliable narrator. Just firstly, because he doesn't end things with his wife when he finds out she's cheating on him. He then follows her AND the man and basically watches them as they cheat. He knows he needs to leave but he's insistent on waiting for her to tell him...and she never does. So, I started to get a little skeptical about Theo. Then his obsession with Alicia was also interesting. I didn't quite understand why until the very end and I was like "wow this makes so much sense:
which I will elaborate further here in a bit.
The ending for Theo was honestly sad to me. He gets caught and has done some pretty terrible things. He has also turned into his father and that just broke me. He was so worried about doing just that and then he did. He's an angry cynical man who is in a loveless marriage and his wife is depressed. His life is a mirror and echo of his fathers. To see Theo become a very unreliable narrator and understand that he was the villain the whole time in the story is not only crazy but honestly an intelligent move for the author. No one ever thinks that they are reading the point of view from the villain...yet here we are.
Alicia Berenson.
I felt a deep remorse for this lady. Everyone in her life just wanted to use her in one way or another. Whether it was her art agent just convincing her and himself that they were the best of friends, her husbands brother who was equally infatuated with her and treat her quite frankly like shit, or her husband who was cheating on her (!!) and sometimes showed no remorse or kindness to her when she needed it...also add the traumatic back story and growing up. To be honest if I was Alicia I don't know if I would talk to, what would there be to say in a world so cruel and abusive? Her character was interesting as obviously the only way we the readers can get to know her at first is through Theo's eyes, her body language, and the glimpses of her diaries that we can read.
Which brings me to her diaries.
It was interesting to see and get to know Alicia through these, since we didn't hear her talk until almost the very end of the novel. Reading her diaries it's easy to see that she was a kind and creative person. Who honestly never wanted to upset anyone. It was saddening to see how she also had a choking fear of becoming like her father or the rest of her quite abusive family. Her character just made me sad, I felt so bad for the cards she had been dealt and life and her story just got worse the more and more we learned.
Now time for the intricate plot discussion!
Initially I didn't know where the story was going to go. The novel is a very slow burn, slowly building up more and more intensity. You as the reader are learning all of these background facts about Alicia and Theo. Their lives as well as the inner workings of the hospital. It keeps building until the author drops a huge bomb that finally puts all of the facts together. My first thoughts are just wow and holy moly what the actual hell. When we finally were given the final piece of the puzzle I closed the book and sat and stared at my wall for 20 minutes. Going over it in my head and making sure I had read that sentence clearly.
I did and just WOW I was shocked into a stunned silence.
Where the twist got me and what the author did that was very clever is he did not time stamp or specify when things were going on. Within the story we see Theo going on about his life within the Grove and then the sub plot of him finding out his wife was cheating. I thought these two story lines were happening parallel to each other. Well I was quite wrong...as in very very very wrong. It is shown to the reader that actual the cheating subplot happened BEFORE all of this and we are shocked to find that THEO IS THE REASON GABRIEL IS DEAD. That sent me for a loop, I was just shocked. Theo had started to following and watch the wife of who was also being cheated (good guy right!)
WRONG.
When I found out what Theo actually did, I just lost almost all respect for him. BUT I will say I think he may have had good intentions that became severely warped. Alicia was able to see that Gabriel was cheating on her and would frankly put her life before his (in the way of take her not me). It was an eye opening experience that led to lots and lots of blood. The author did a truly fantastic job here. That twist was one that literally no one could see coming. He also introduced enough weird or slightly sketchy characters that I was honestly charging all of them with the murder of Gabriel instead of Alicia. But alas, that is not true...I just, ugh, the twist was honestly insane and the more I think about it the more confused and more shocked I am.
The story relied heavily on themes of abuse and trauma as well. I actually enjoyed this thematic element throughout the novel. It was interesting for me to see how trauma as a child can settle in buried deep away and then expose itself in an almost animalistic way when your body or you are triggered. We see this through the lens of Alicia as well as Theo. How their pasts still creep up and define them at times, and how even as strong as they try they succumb to the things that have happened to them. It makes one wonder if we are truly ever free of the bounds of our past life.
To be honest, this is something I sometimes struggle with.
The letting go of past chapters of my book of life. Being able to fully move on. I think at the end of the day knowing yourself is the top way to avoid negative interactions. I think being able to sit and reflect and understand that bad decisions doesn't always make you necessarily a bad person. That everyday is a new day. Theres a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald that I just adore (you will come to find I love that man) he says "for what it's worth, it's never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing." In some ways I think if Theo or even Alicia had heard those words and let them sit with them...we wouldn't have had our story that we did. I guess this is just my evening ramble out into the abyss to remind yourself that everyday is a new day.
Alas, overall I enjoyed the book! It was a great story with an engaging writing style. It just didn't hit me hard enough to be a 5/5 perfect story. BUT I did really enjoy the mystery and the final twist on what happened. I highly recommend if someone is looking for a good slow burn mystery with an unreliable but yet seemingly likable main character.
Happy reading friends as always :)
xoxo,
paige :)
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