Review: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

 The Silent Patient

Author: Alex Michaelides 

Published: February 7th 2019

Publisher: Orion

Number of pages: 352

Format: eBook

Source: Bought

Purchase: Amazon, TBD, B&N

From Goodreads

Only she knows what happened.

Only I can make her speak.

I love him so totally, completely, sometimes it threatens to overwhelm me.

Sometimes I think-

No. I won't write about that.

Alicia Berenson writes a diary as a release, an outlet - and to prove to her beloved husband that everything is fine. She can't bear the thought of worrying Gabriel, or causing him pain.Until, late one evening, Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never speaks another word.

Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced he can successfully treat Alicia, where all others have failed. Obsessed with investigating her crime, his discoveries suggest Alicia's silence goes far deeper than he first thought.

And if she speaks, would he want to hear the truth?

My Review

I've been waiting to read The Silent Patient for a long time. It was totally a bookstagram induced reading and I was thrilled to approach a psycological thriller that had been soooooo praised. But damn, was I disappointed.

As soon as I started reading the book I felt like something was off: I loathed the protagonist, Theo. He sounded like a child, he investigated like a detective, he had an obsession for Alicia's case and he certainly did not have a psychotherapist's professionality - and charm. I couldn't quite put my fingers on the reasons why I felt so detached from this protagonist, but now I know that all that refusal was just me predicting the ending. Having read a lot of psycological thrillers, all that was Theo's personality helped me understand what was happening quite soon, and this alone is motif enough to not justify all the hype about this book.

I believe that the main reason why this book was so well-welcomed is because a lot of readers may not be familiar with the genre. From the beginning, I could immeditely feel the proximity of Theo and Alicia's story to Wulf Dorn's ... Trigger? The Psychiatrist? How is it even possible that I couldn't find an english edition of this book?! Well, if you ever get a chance to read this, you will understand what I'm talking about: an unreliable narrator that pushes the reader into doubting all the previous things narrated - basically a clichè for the genre.

To make the book stronger, the author could have explored a lot of topics better because there were plenty of disturbed characters that could have used some highlight like Alicia's aunt and cousin or Theo itself, who had a tough past that, to my tastes, was just briefly mentioned . The only character that left me quite satisfied was Alicia since differently from the protagonist, I felt like her traumas were more explored and therefore her role in the crime was more coherent.

Basically, I would recommend this book to those of you who are jus t approaching the genre, but if you're like me and you have devoured already most of the Swedish thrillers published, then approach this book without expecting the major thriller that everyone seems to be talking about.

Rated