Book Review:The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient is Alex Michaelides’ debut novel. A psycho-thriller with a fairly decent suspense, it turned out to be an enjoyable read for me.

There’s been a gruesome murder. The victim’s wife- Alicia Berenson is convicted of the crime. She chooses to stay silent trough the trial and thereafter when the court orders to send her to live in a forensic centre. To break this silence and to help her out of the trauma is psycho-therapist Theo Faber. From here The Silent Patient embarks on a journey of guessing as to what could have gone wrong with Alicia and why she chose to be the silent patient.

The Silent Patient- Summary

A seemingly perfect life it is for Alicia. A famous painter, married to the man she loves and living in an upscale locale of London; life could not have been better. Yet, one evening when her husband Gabriel comes home Alicia shoots him five times in the face. She seals her lips thereafter, not a word to the world around. Her refusal to speak after the murder captures public imagination and overnight the price of her art shoots up. Alicia, the silent patient, is hidden away from the press in a forensic unit called The Grove in North London. And there arrives Theo Faber a criminal psychotherapist who is determined to get Alicia to talk and unravel the mystery behind the murder. However, this takes him down a twisty path and the final truth hits him real hard. Will Alicia finally talk? And how does this impact Theo? The Silent Patient may not really have the sophisticated nuances of a professional novel, yet in its own crude way, it managed to intrigue and satisfy my love for psycho-thrillers.

Review

The plot does not read like a crime fiction, nor does it highlight any investigation. What it definitely does is focus on the psyche of a criminal. The impact of the book lies in the way Michaelides’ has laid out the raw emotions and the working of the mind. At the core is Alicia the girl who has seen her share of emotional trauma, and in the periphery is Theo with his own emotional struggles of the past. And when the two meet, the story turns into a powerful tale that would engulf you with its suspense. What has affected Alicia so much? What was the reason for her to kill the man she loved? And most importantly why does she choose to be silent?  The answer comes to you in the most unexpected way.

The execution of the finale works tremendously in favour of the book. The suspense is drawn out slowly and peaks when the time is right.  In psycho-thrillers it is always the ending that makes or breaks the book. The ending here was something I didn’t guess.

On a not-so-positive note, the writing did feel amateurish and sections felt more like a commercial movie flick. The portrayal of the sidelined characters was rather silly too. But, as a sucker for psycho-thrillers, I am going to be forgiving here, for the twist in the latter half of the book compensates for it all.

The Silent Patient is immersive, and is nothing short of slow hypnosis. You would want to read it right through the end.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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The book is available on Amazon in paperback and e-book format.

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