“Remember, love that doesn’t include honesty doesn’t deserve to be called love.”


Genre: Thriller
Pages: 325
Published: February 5th, 2019
Rate: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads Synopsis
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him….


My Take
The Silent Patient is a highly suspenful novel, based on Euripidean tragedy, Alcestis. I quite enjoyed it. I loved Michaelides writing, he manages to write an intricate story in a simple way that makes it quite easy for the reader to grasp. The Silent Patient has such an interesting plot, with little shocking threads that captured my attention from the first page. I love how fast paced the story is, it made for a quick read which I really appreciated.

“…Intimacy requires the repeated experience of being responded to – and that doesn’t happen overnight.”

In as much as I really enjoyed reading this book I did have more questions than answers and the reveal or rather last twist left me unfulfilled. I think the fact that I correctly predicted the ending took away the surprise element for me. I loved seeing it unfold though, so that’s a plus.

The Silent Patient is a twisty psychological thriller that I do recommend if especially if you’re looking for a suspenful thriller.

Have you read The Silent Patient? What did you think about it?