The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides | Book Review

Looking for a great mystery/thriller for spooky season? Keep reading to see why I recommend ‘The Silent Patient’ as your next Halloween read.

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides was creepy, compelling, and jarring. My mouth literally dropped at the twist. Yes, there’s a twist.

My Rating for The Silent Patient

Genre: Mystery, Thriller ; Length 368

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The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides pinterest image

Personally, I’m not a huge mystery reader. I typically like campy mysteries like Agatha Cristie’s novels. As far as thrillers go, I’m definitely not into anything too scary.

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides was a great combination of a mystery and surprise. It was the kind of thriller where you are shocked, but not horrified at the end.

It had a bit of a who-dun-it with several red herrings, but no real clues. Mostly, this novel is an entertaining read and less of a perplexing puzzle to unravel.

I give The Silent Patient 4 stars because it was the perfect balance of interesting and compelling for me, without being too scary. Avid mystery, thriller, or horror readers may find this book a bit tame.

Also, I think whether or not you like this novel will depend greatly on whether or not you “fall for” the twist.

I did, so I felt like reading this was time well-spent.

(I fully acknowledge that mentioning the twist may preclude you from falling for the twist – sorry!)

Synopsis

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides follows Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist, who has the difficult task of treating a criminal patient who refuses to speak.

The silent patient is Alicia Berenson.

Alicia, a famous painter, was found one evening in her living room with a gun. Her husband, Gabriel, was found next to her, having been shot five times in the face.

After her arrest, she was interned at The Grove forensic unit in London, never to speak another word again.

Alicia’s silence catapulted her into fame; the public loved her twisted and tragic story. She captured the attention of Theo, who could wait to dive into her case. He was determined to get her side of the story.

After several challenges with Alicia and a few suspicious colleagues, Theo begins to make progress in learning why Alicia shot her husband – all while his own life falls apart.

Told between the perspectives of Theo’s present-day narrative and Alicia’s diary, we get a glimpse into both Theo’s motivations and Alicia’s life before the murder. Slowly, the truth reveals itself.

My take on The Silent Patient

Spoiler Alert!!!

First, I will say I really enjoyed the audiobook for The Silent Patient. It had two different actors who read Theo’s chapters and Alicia’s chapters, which helped the story come alive.

At the beginning, I was really intrigued with the descriptions of Alessia and her aloofness. The author managed to make her sound odd and deranged.

However, I was never really bought into the allegations that she killed her husband. The voice of the audiobook actor who played Alicia just made her sound so nice that I couldn’t believe she was a murderer!

Throughout the book, I was suspicious as to why Theo was so obsessed with Alicia. But, I was successfully led down the path of thinking that someone else may have been the perpetrator.

I thought maybe it was Alicia’s brother-in-law; Jean-Felix, the gallerist; or Dr. West, one of the other (shady) psychotherapists.

The Twist

I enjoyed reading about Theo’s love story with Kathy and then her tragic betrayal. But for much of the novel, I treated this as a parallel storyline to the interactions between Theo and Alicia that were happening in present-day.

Until it all came together in the end.

Doubt that was sown throughout the book in that Theo’s colleagues referred to Alicia as “borderline”. Dr. West even warned him, “Borderlines are seductive.”

This led me down the path that Theo was romantically involved with Alicia – or wanted to be. So it did provide a distraction.

Then, the way Theo romanticized Kathy also led me in another direction. I had a hard time figuring out what Theo’s motivation really was – which made the ending really shocking for me.

I was actually rooting for him when he followed Kathy’s lover on the train, around town, and even to his house! But the moment that Theo pulled on a ski mask, I knew it was all downhill.

The scene where Theo is recounting his actions while Alicia’s back is turned to him and he approaches her as she’s painting was well-crafted.

The moment I realized that he was the man in the window, my jaw dropped!

Then, to find out that Alicia was in fact the murderer was like a twist of a twist. Once I learned that Theo was the man in the window, I assumed he was also the murderer.

Maybe this wasn’t as well veiled as I experienced it. I completely fell for it, and as a result I was really entertained.

Ignorance is bliss when it comes to mystery novels.

Critique of The Silent Patient

Not that Unique

I loved Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and felt that it was very original at the time. But ever since then, there’s been a plethora of mystery/thrillers centered around a woman killing her husband and a diary that holds the key to the entire murder investigation.

The Silent Patient was very well written and there are parts of it that are unique and less predictable. Still, the premise, in general, is saturated.

Alessia Underdeveloped

As the main character who is supposed to have committed a twisted act of murder, Alyssa could have used some more development. Understandably, this might be hard to achieve with a character who is completely silent for most of the book.

The main thing that pointed to positive intent for me was the voice of the audiobook actor. When she read Alicia’s diary chapters, her tone sounded kind and nice.

Those reading the paper book, however, would miss out on that. The only thing in print that would make you think Alicia didn’t hate her husband would be the way she described her and Gabriel’s healthy sexual relationship.

Conclusion

Overall I really liked The Silent Patient for good entertainment. It was well written, compelling, and crafty. I liked getting in the head of the characters. Great combination of mystery with a shocking twist, without goriness or horror.

The premise is little played out but it’s an enjoyable read nonetheless. It would be a fun read for those wanting to get in the mood for Halloween who don’t have a high tolerance for scariness. However, die hard Mystery and Thriller fans may not find this as compelling.