I know what these entries were supposed to do, and they do succeed, but they detract from the believability of the text and pull the reader out of the mystery by reminding them they are reading. Also, it is petty, but while I found the inclusion of Alicia's diary entries interesting, and a way to create a time shift that added a definite forward motion to the text, no one writes in their journal as if they are writing a novel. Still, there have been main characters in books I've read that were awful and hateable, but I loved the book, and then there's this one. After getting to the twist, it is clear Michaelides purposefully made this character hateable for reasons only knowable when you get to the end. The main character of this novel is so distinctly unlikeable as to make me pessimistic from the start - in a general way that manifested in the doubt that I'd get any sort of payoff as a reader, as one expects from a mystery - and specifically, in a way that caused me to question whether the main character was supposed to be so repugnant to me, whether the author was even aware of it, or if he was aware of it and using Theo's awfulness intentionally and for thematic purposes. Benjamin Cassidy, arts and entertainment reporterĪlex Michaelides' "The Silent Patient," follows psychotherapist Theo Faber on a one-man quest to "save the girl" (Alicia Berenson), ultimately by solving the mystery of the murder of her husband and Alicia's ensuing muteness, rather than by providing any sort of quality health care. Ultimately (and ironically), this psychological thriller doesn't probe enough into the mental depths of these characters, the great advantage of fiction. In fact, for much of the story, I felt that this novel might have worked better as a short story or, given its dialogue-heavy chapters, as a film. You know that the "silent patient" is going to speak at some point a more interesting book might have explored that moment earlier on. (It's difficult to describe without some major spoilers.) Until that point, I found the narrator, a psychotherapist, to be rather obnoxious and the plot to drag a bit for a thriller. There's a real twist that compensates for some of the novel's shortcomings. I was prepared to give this book a poor review until the end. Margaret Button, associate features editor All that being said, it was an OK read, one I did in a weekend. To be honest, none of the characters were fully developed and I found it hard to care about any of them, one way or another.
In the process, he breaks every professional rule about dealing with patients. He feels she is someone he needs to look after and heal - his own personal damsel in distress. He is obsessed with Alicia (the actual "silent patient") and is determined to be the therapist who breaks through to her and gets her to speak for the first time since she killed her husband.
My problem lay with the narrator, Theo Faber, who I didn't like from the first page. The book starts out slow and I had to push myself to continue reading, but the pace accelerated by Part Two. It was a page-turner and kept my interest, although about 50 pages in I suspected how the book was going to end. I can't say I disliked 'The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides, but I can't give it a glowing review either. 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. Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. 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. 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.
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.
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. The Synopsis: Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. Publisher: Celadon Books First Edition edition (Feb.
The Book: "The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides