A Review of The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller written by Alex Michaelides. It centers around a seemingly average woman, a painter, Alicia Benson, who is one night found over the dead body of her husband, Gabriel, with a gun. It seems like a cut-and-dry case of domestic violence except for one thing: Alicia will not speak a word. The only expression of her thoughts and feelings since the murder is a painting of herself naked in her studio, with the word Alcestis written on it. Alicia's art, especially Alcestis, suddenly becomes famous. As her case takes over the news, everyone believes they know exactly who Alicia is, a guilty psychopath, except for one person: Theo Faber.

Theo Faber is a psychotherapist who became one to help himself more than others. He has wanted to work with Alicia ever since he heard about her case and finally gets the chance to when he gets a job at the Grove, the asylum where Alicia is being held. The story follows Faber as he tries to figure out what exactly happened the night of Gabriel's murder and decode the meaning behind Alcestis. In doing so, he must overcome conflict with other patients, the staff at the Grove, his own troubling past, and, of course, the fact that Alicia will not or cannot speak. Between scenes of Faber's investigation, the reader is shown entries from Alicia's journal, written in the months leading up to the murder. This makes the story all the more effective for two reasons. First, it is the only way we get to hear Alicia's true voice and see how much she has changed since the murder. Second, it makes the solving of the mystery a lot more interesting because we get to move backwards in time following Faber's investigation and forward following Alicia's journal, with the two narratives meeting in the middle at the night of Gabriel's death for the big reveal. At times, the lack of chronology can be annoying, but the ending requires it and makes up for it.

*the following paragraph may contain minor spoilers*
The most important part of any mystery novel is the ending; it must be shocking while also being plausible. In my opinion, the ending of this book is done quite masterfully. Some may be able to predict how it ends, but even if you know, you can't complain about the way the truth is revealed. I had to reread the ending a few times and think about it for a while before I fully understood what had happened, but looking back on it, there were many little clues throughout the whole story that made the ending very effective. Many of the reasons reading the book was sometimes strange or a little annoying (including the time jumping) were justified by the ending. However, the resolution did make a few aspects of the story seem implausible. I have more to say about the ending but I don't want to spoil it, so if you have read the book, I would love to discuss it with you.

Overall, The Silent Patient is incredibly gripping. Most mysteries captivate their audience because the readers simply can't stand not knowing the answer, but something about the psychological aspect of the story makes it so much more frustrating to not know what exactly is happening. You don't only want to solve a crime, you want to understand what is happening inside the brain of a very human character who went through a great trauma.

To sum up, anyone who enjoys thrillers, mysteries, or psychology should absolutely read this book.

-Aditi Adve