The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Trigger warnings: talks of suicide, mental illness, depression, stalking, cheating, loss of a parent, abuse from a parent.

This book is Alex Michaelides debut novel and it is one twist after another. this novel had me captivated from start to finish. Daaaamn. I did not see that ending coming! I went in pretty much blind, I didn’t know anything about it other than the main character didn’t speak.The Silent Patient is not a long novel but don’t let that fool you into thinking there isn’t that much going on. I really recommend this book.

“There’s so much pain everywhere, and we just close our eyes to it.
The truth is we’re all scared. We’re terrified of each other.”

Alicia and her husband Gabriel look like they are the perfect couple. Alicia is an aspiring painter and Gabriel is a fashion photographer. There young, beautiful,there careers are kicking off and there crazy about each other. But this book isn’t a love story it’s a thriller, soon we find Alicia standing over her dead husbands body and covered in both of their blood. As everyone struggles to understand why she would do this, their met with a dead end. Alicia is refusing to utter a word, she sits by as she is sentenced guilty to killing the man she loved, she continues to sit silently. She is saved from the death penalty and instead put in a psychiatric hospital, where she still is not speaking.

Theo Farber is a criminal psychotherapist, who is interested in Alicia’s case and is determined to find out what happened that night her husband was murdered. He accepts a new job at The Grove the mental hospital where Alicia was assigned. He is determined to get her speaking again, through therapy and building a trusting rapport.The book is told almost entirely from Theo’s perspective with some flashbacks from Alicia’s journal.

“You become increasingly comfortable with madness – and not just the madness of others, but your own. We’re all crazy, I believe, just in different ways.”

I really enjoyed this book. It has definitely lived up to its reputation as a page turner. I listened to this on audiobook and it was fantastic, the voice actors were so good and pulled you right into the story.

Buddy read with Amy and Amber!

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