Review: The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Silent Patient was, in the beginning, a test of MY patience, as the slow burn barely kept the glow under the ash. Once the pace picked up, it was an easier read, but it would be a mistake to assume that was because of any action. Any. At all. Seriously, NOTHING HAPPENS.

So, the plot—Alicia Berenson is an artist who, without any prior warning, kills her husband Gabriel by shooting him in the face—five times. After a trial declares her mentally incompetent, she is relocated to a residential facility: the Grove. Theo Faber is a psychotherapist with an obsession for all things “Alicia.” He manages to secure a position at the Grove, where he inveigles his way to work directly with Berenson. The remainder of the novel then revisits Alicia’s life and Gabriel’s murder, as the truth of what happened is (slowly) revealed.

For me, this novel pens a bold stroke under the differences between action suspense and psychological thrillers. Though many may straddle mid court, this is the quintessential example of the latter—a book that crawls into the recesses of the human mind and discovers the capacity for man’s inhumanity to man. Much of the terminology here is psychology “jargon”, and the pages are peppered with it. In fact, buying the conclusion means accepting the diagnosis, and without a background in psychology this necessitates a whole lot of blind faith that I wasn’t able to find. Specifically, there is a comparison drawn between Alicia and Alcestis of Greek mythology. The connection was drenched in “shop talk” and remained a bit cloudy to me, even after a detailed explanation. Nothing was concrete and instead I was left with a feeling of being slightly off kilter.

Overall, this is a well written psychological suspense novel that takes its time and makes no apologies for its reliance on the tenants of psychology (therapy, relationships, etc.) to further the plot. Just not my cup of tea!

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