A review by cescanatalia
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I'm currently letting out the biggest "WHAT.THE.FUCK?" ever. 

Usually I take one or two days to write the review, but for The Silent Patient, I chose to write it straight away after closing the last chapter. This baby right here needs a special treatment for successfully making me gasp in surprise, bawl my tears out, let out the biggest sighs ever in 2023, and stare off blankly for a few minutes.

Gosh, it's so good that it makes me so mad because—why? Why does Alex make Theo so cunning yet nice, and why does he make me root for him to help Alicia? I still couldn't quite come back from the amount of surprises I'd found in this book.

In my opinion, Alex did such an incredible job in The Silent Patient, considering this is his first work. The writing, plot, concept, characters, and even the pace of the story had been done beautifully; though there are some flashback scenes back and forth, they didn't disrupt the rythm at all; instead, they gave the story this "sauce" that allowed it to keep going and for every character to do their role perfectly. And the tricky part of making the reader, in this case, me, believe everything is as it seems has also been done superbly (I'm still pretty mad at this fact). I must admit that this book has attracted me from the moment I saw the cover and read the first chapter: Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband; that one line, though it's cheesy, is a perfect murder mystery and basically sold me out.

Though there are a few times I kind of question where Alex wants to take this story; Theo acts more like a detective than a psychotherapist; it's still enjoyable to read. With all the twists and turns, The Silent Patient is one of the best psychological thrillers I've ever read, and I recommend this book to you.