The Silent Patient - Book Review

Author: Alex Michaelides

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Synopsis: Alicia Berenson lived a seemingly perfect life until one day six years ago. When she shot her husband in the head five times. Since then she hasn't spoken a single word. It's time to find out why.

Review:

Rating: 4/5 stars

I need a psychotherapist to get over the last fifty pages of this books. "What the hell?" "What the hell?" "What the hell?" is what I said while reading that ending. Woah.

I will be honest with you, I read this book very critically, but not even once did I suspect Theo to be behind it all. It started coming together when he followed the man his wife was cheating on him with, but I did not suspect Theo at all!

If there is a lesson I have learned from this, it is to not trust psychotherapists, just don't. Please.

The book had some really good passages which I really enjoyed reading:

"I was on a quest to help myself. I believe the same is true for most people who go into mental health. We are drawn to this particular profession because we are damaged - we study psychology to heal ourselves. Whether we are prepared to admit this or not."

People who go through hard times due to the thinking and behavior of another human being, especially someone they love, they are more likely to become depressed. To understand the mentality of human beings, they study psychology. This passage makes perfect sense to me. Psychologists/therapists want to help others because no one helped them - or someone helped them and they want to carry on with the legacy.

I felt absolutely heartbroken for Alicia - who had been psychically sentenced to death twice, both times by men who she loved, and men who were meant to be her protectors.

"Sometimes it's hard to grasp why it is that the answers to the present lie in the past.

Alicia was sentenced to death by her father - who thought that Alicia should've been dead, instead of her mother.

"He killed me. Dad just killed me."

Now the question is - why did Alicia kill Gabriel? Her husband whom she loved?

Well, here is how it goes, Gabriel was cheating on Alicia with Theo's wife. Theo is Alicia's psychotherapist after the murder has happened. Theo Faber goes to Alicia and tells hers that her husband is cheating on her with his wife. Theo Faber holds a gun to Gabriel's head and asks him that should he kill Alicia or Gabriel? Gabriel answers "I don't want to die" thus condemning Alicia to death. For the second time in her life. Alicia feels angry and kills Gabriel. End of story.

"Rage like fear, is reactive in nature."

This book also has some amazing quotations:

"Most people aren't alive, you know, not really - sleepwalking their way through life."

Ouch.. This hits where it hurts.

"I was crying for all of us. 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."

This quote goes hand in hand with another one of my favorite quotes, from the book Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne

"Do you ever wonder, how we decide what's crazy and what isn't? There's so much crazy stuff in the world - everything's a mess most of the time - but then people who can't handle it are called mental and have films made about them... But what if they're just reacting to the weirdness of the universe? Isn't it more weird to just think everything's okay, when it clearly isn't?"

ENDING THOUGHTS:

Hands down, one of the best thrillers i have read! Definitely recommend it to you!

---

LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE!