SUMMARY
Silence is golden until a woman living a seemingly ‘perfect’ life is accused of shooting her husband and won’t tell the tale of why…
Alicia Berenson, a famous painter, is married to fashion photographer, Gabriel. The couple lives in one of London’s most desirable areas in a beautiful house with large windows.
Gabriel returns home from work late one evening and is shot five times in the face by Alicia. This is when she goes mute, not uttering a word about the heinous crime committed.
Locked into a psych ward, Alicia crosses path with criminal psychologist, Theo Faber. For years, he has tried to work with her, and now, it’s his chance. As the mystery of why she shot her Husband unravels, Theo becomes invested in the case and threatens to let it consume him…
REVIEW
I became engrossed in Alicia’s silence and was desperate to know why she refused to speak for the first half of the book. Then after that point, I felt there were times the silence dragged things out a little. Instead of creating suspense, it left me wanting more to happen. I didn’t find it as nail-biting as I hoped I would.
I’d share more information than I did in the summary of the book, but it would ruin it. I’m not one for spoilers. It’s brilliantly written and is likely to engross any reader that’s a little newer to the psych thriller scene. In my opinion, the final chapter would stun anyone who wasn’t already expecting a major plot twist. Unfortunately, I knew something wild was about to happen so my ‘WTF?!’ reaction was more of an ‘oh, ok’ sort of reaction.
This book was hyped up in such a way that I thought there would be no other book on Earth that could live up to its excellence. Unfortunately, this wasn’t quite the way I felt towards it. Was it good? Yes. Mind-blowing? Not really. Did everyone else’s judgment end up clouding my own? Admittedly, yes. I do my best to read every book with an open mind but I just couldn’t with this one. That’s not by any means a fault of the authors, in fact, I imagine he’d very much appreciate the feedback it received from my friends.
Being Alex Michaelides debut novel, The Silent Patient is a good book. While some of my comments may seem a tad harsh, it’s purely because I’ve read a lot of psych thrillers and it takes a really special one to have my heart racing, and leave me with sweaty palms. This one felt a little slow for my tastes but it was still a good read. For all of these reasons, I give it 3/5 stars and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
Want to read some of my other reviews? Find them all HERE.