Let me begin this review by simply saying, y’all, I could not put this one down. This week, the book of choice has been “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides. This story is a subtle psychological thriller which will have readers convinced they have figured everything out, and then pulls the rug out from under them. “The Silent Patient” is doubly narrated by Alicia Berenson, a young woman who was completely in love with her husband until she murdered him and went silent, and Theo Faber, the criminal psychologist determined to get through to Alicia.
Faber finds work at The Grove, a secure psychological facility designed to protect people deemed criminally insane from the outside world. Upon his first meeting with Alicia, she is so heavily sedated that he can barely maintain eye contact with her. His curiosity is only peaked further after he convinces his superiors to lower Alicia’s dosage, and she attacks him the instant she is able.
We are taken through flashbacks of Alicia’s diary that she kept before she was found standing with her husband’s body with the murder weapon, where it’s revealed that she was an artist, and her former life was idealistic in many ways.
In the present day, Theo begins to investigate the people who were involved in Alicia’s life before the incident, including her brother-in-law, Max, who relays a few secrets of Alice’s former self, and her former best friend and gallery owner, Jean-Felix Martin, who tells a starkly different tale.
Mysteries unfold into further mysteries before Theo’s eyes as he finds himself in a constant wake of new evidence in cracking the Silent Patient, Alicia Berenson. This story is incredibly immersive in the thoughts and feelings of the leads in the face of every twist and turn. With Alex Michaelides slyly laying the groundwork for each mind-boggling plot twist throughout the story, I have no doubt you will become as enamored with Alicia and Theo’s tale as I have, and I truly hope you enjoy.
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