The Silent Patient

suspenseful look at psychological approach to a resistant patient

This book made me gasp when I read the ending. I’m usually pretty good at figuring out whodunnits, but this was a plot twist I didn’t see coming. I went back and re-read it to see if everything fit together. It did. A well-plotted and fun read that relies on Greek Mythology and the timeless classics of Agatha Christie for its inspiration.

Many contemporary thrillers’ ultimate twist hinges on the use of an unreliable narrator. One of the best is Alex Michaelides’ internationally bestselling debut, The Silent Patient. It follows a psychotherapist trying to help his patient, Alicia, recover after she refuses to speak following the murder of her husband.

The novel is a perfect balancing act of suspecting Alicia yet finding her sympathetic in equal measure. I did not, for one moment, anticipate the ending and first-person unreliable narration is key to Michaelides’ masterful twist.

This psychological thriller is one where Oprah could stand in front of all its characters and say, “You made a bad choice! And you made a bad choice!”

It’s a slow-burn kind of story that eventually blew my mind so much I gasped—audibly. I liked that the book gives readers a chance to see a scenario where the choices made aren’t excusable, but are still wrapped into a deliciously entertaining and slightly disturbing story.

Some books make you gasp, and this is one where I sat up and breathed out sharp.

I loved the opening of this book which left me with so many questions I had to read on. The characterization had a deep impact on me. The author’s focus on it meant that I was invested in all the characters right until the end. And wanting to know more about not only what happened, but how it was affecting the characters is what drew me into the book.

It taught me about the assumptions we make, as a reader, and in life,… show more.

Alicia, a prominent painter, is arrested for the murder of her husband. The situation leaves her unable to communicate and the courts sentence her to a forensic unit to live forever in silence.

Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist, feels he can help Alicia find her voice. But Theo has his own inner demons. The two work together to discover what happened that fateful night.

The writing was memorizing. Both Theo’s and Alicia’s stories keep the reader enthralled. The climax comes as a total surprise and is more shocking because of it. I had heard about this book for a while.… show more.

As a reader, I felt deceived. The novel is about a mute female artist who allegedly murdered her beloved husband. 

As a writer, I saw the omission of a date in the timeline that would have robbed the story of its twist ending. 

After personally experiencing five years of life with a sociopath, I finally understood why the novel was written as it was and why readers everywhere swear it’s the best suspense novel ever.

The narrator is a highly educated and deeply sympathetic sociopath.

I don’t know about you, but reading was one of “the things” that got me through the pandemic. Where else was there to escape to but in a thrilling suspense book?

Very pregnant with my second child and stir crazy, this insane, twist of a story came in the nick of time. When I say this one had a twist, I mean it was one of those that made me close the book. Push it aside from shock. Quickly open again and charge through to the ending. 

Oh, just the age-old tale of the psychotherapist tasked to work with a… show more.

This book is both disturbing and fascinating, it has twists and turns and is a beautifully orchestrated story.

This book is set in London which is only a few hours drive from where I live so it was great reading about common places of interest. The MC is a doctor in a mental health unit, and his main focus is to help a local artist who is locked up for murder and who is also catatonic/mute.

I find mental health interesting and killers in general so this psychological story is full of flare, secrecy, and plot twists. The author is… show more.

The Silent Patient falls under the psychological thriller genre. Spoiler alert; it also falls in the revenge genre, but you only find that out in the end. One caveat, you have to be patient while reading it (pun intended). Midway through the book, I wondered what the hype was about and questioned whether the buzz was manufactured—it wasn’t. The book reminded me of the roller coaster that gradually goes up, stops, and falls downwards at breakneck speed. The last time an ending made me jump up in bed was when I watched The Sixth Sense. Alex Michaelides deserves every… show more.