The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
"It’s a terrible feeling, the pain of not being loved."
For the longest while, I had seen a barrage of hype surrounding 'The Silent Patient', so I decided to check it out to come to my own conclusion.
6 years prior to her stint in a psychiatric unit, Alicia lived a relatively normal life with her husband. That was until she s*ot her husband in the head five times. After this horrific m*rder, Alicia never spoke again. Can psychotherapist Theo awaken Alicia's voice & uncover the motive behind Gabriel's murder?
So what did I love about this book?
1. I managed to snag this book for £3 at @theworksstores 😆
2. I loved the inclusion of the Greek tragedy Alcestis & how silence marked the stories of both Theo & Alicia. Theo, are you a fool?! Doing up voyeurism when you needed to be opening up your mouth kmt. I digress. Silence is a real focus in this story. It is used as a form of self-preservation & also a result of madness.
3. The dual POV worked really well in this story. It added a layer of mystery that was well suited to the plot.
4. The depiction of mental health & the care system. The psyc-unit was very, um, colourful. Lots of people who I believe needed their own evaluation...
I can definitely see the appeal for previous readers of The Silent Patient. It is dark, gory & mysterious. I loved the writing style of the story. It was easy to follow & relatively excluded plot holes. I enjoyed the story, but unfortunately, I wasn't blown away by the plot twist (#1) I guessed it before it was revealed 😅 (Yes, I am now considering becoming a p/t detective), I'm still lost that many readers didn't see it coming.
There were a few other issues for me that were namely presented towards the end of the book... So we really weren't going to have a more detailed examination of Max 🙃 Not to mention the last 3 pages, I felt cheated by the snowflakes #IYKYK #weneedjustice
Overall, this will still be a book that I recommend to readers & I'd likely read more from this author in the future.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75