The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient
By: Alex Michaelides

If you haven't read this book yet, stop reading this and other reviews right now. Go read the book first. Don't let others taint your experience or let all the hype blur your opinion.

For once I didn't read any reviews before I read the book and I think that enhanced my experience. If I had kept reading over and over again about the major twist and all that I probably would have figured it out because I would have been over-analyzing every aspect of the story.

Don't get me wrong, I get immense satisfaction when I can solve the mysteries, but when you read enough thrillers, you start to figure them out faster and easier and you realize every review you write contains 'predictable' or 'not original' and you're looking for that ever-out-of-reach thriller to satisfy your need for a 'shocking twist I never saw coming.' So I'm trying to be less of a 'thriller snob' and trying to just read a book with enjoyment as top priority instead of getting my detective badge.

That's what I got with this one. Enjoyment.

I found the plot very intriguing and suspenseful- a patient that refuses to speak after being discovered with the murdered body of her husband. The psychoanalysis of said patient in an effort to understand what happened. You know the patient will eventually speak. And you know everything hinges on those words.

Though I didn't particularly like any of the characters, I don't feel this was a book that was trying to do that. It was a psychological journey to challenge what you think to be true and see who is to blame for her husband's murder. It was one of those books that as soon as you finish you want to read it a second time to see what you missed. I appreciate that in a book.

So yes, read the tragedy that is Theo and Alicia. And see what breaks the silence.

Disclaimer- There is some language in this one.

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