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Book Summary and Reviews of The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient

by Alex Michaelides

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  • Feb 2019, 336 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Promising to be the debut novel of the season The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband - and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.

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...

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Superb... This edgy, intricately plotted psychological thriller establishes Michaelides as a major player in the field." - Publisher's Weekly

"Unputdownable, emotionally chilling, and intense, with a twist that will make even the most seasoned suspense reader break out in a cold sweat." - Booklist

"Dark, edgy, and compulsively readable." - Library Journal

"Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away." - Kirkus

"The Silent Patient sneaks up on you like a slash of intimidating shadow on a badly lit street. Alex Michaelides has crafted a totally original, spellbinding psychological mystery so quirky, so unique that it should have its own genre. I read it in two nights and savored every luscious word, every grim encounter, every startling twist. The pages will burn with the friction from your hands turning them." - David Baldacci

"Smart, sophisticated storytelling freighted with real suspense―a very fine novel by any standard." - Lee Child

"One of the most spellbinding psychological thrillers we've read in years. Beautifully written, exquisitely plotted, the story relentlessly pulls you in and doesn't let you go until the last shocking (and yet brutally logical) twist. This is an absolutely fantastic and extraordinary read." - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, #1 New York Times bestselling authors of the Pendergast series

"Alex Michaelides has written one of the best psychological thrillers I have ever read. The Silent Patient is a swarming, paranoid nightmare of a novel with an ending that is destined to go down as one of the most shocking, mind-blowing twists in recent memory." - Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter

"This is a wonderful new voice. Listen to it. It's about to tell you a thrilling and scary story. The Silent Patient paints a picture, crawling into your soul in the very best way. Take a chance." - Brad Meltzer, author of The Escape Artist

"That rarest of beasts: the perfect thriller. This extraordinary novel set my blood fizzing―I quite literally couldn't put it down. I told myself I'd just dip in; eleven hours later―it's now 5:47 a.m.―I've finished it, absolutely dazzled." - A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

This information about The Silent Patient was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Cathryn Conroy

Read This Psychological Thriller Just for the Explosive Ending. It's THAT Good!
This novel is like an onion. Author Alex Michaelides very deliberately and very slowly peels away the layers, creating a psychological thriller that teases and tantalizes the reader right up to the explosive ending.

This is the story of Alicia Berenson, a talented artist living in London. She has been married for seven years to Gabriel, an in-demand fashion photographer. They have a seemingly happy marriage until one night several shots ring out inside their home. When the police arrive, they find Gabriel tied to a chair and dead after having been shot five times point-blank in the face. Alicia is just standing by the fireplace. The gun is on the floor and only her fingerprints are on it. Instead of being found guilty of the murder and imprisoned, Alicia is sent to the Grove, a secure psychiatric facility in Hampstead, a residential community in North London where she refuses to speak. Six years go by. The crime is largely forgotten. But Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist, remembers it. He maneuvers his way into employment at the Grove just so he can treat Alicia. His goal is to get her to speak again and find out what really happened on that fateful night. But Theo has personal problems of his own when he discovers that his beloved wife, Kathy, is cheating on him, a revelation that leaves him distraught and heartbroken. But his important and innovative work with Alicia must continue…

This is more than a murder mystery or a page-turning thriller, although it is both of those. It is also an intellectual thriller with pertinent and fascinating psychological facts offered throughout, as well as a literary thriller in that Alicia's case is loosely based on the tragedy "Alcestis" by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides.

Bonus: Do read the section at the end of the book titled "A Book Club Conversation with the Author," but DO NOT read it until you have finished the novel. It's filled with spoilers—and lots and lots and lots of information of the whys and hows and whats that Michaelides was thinking when he wrote this book. Fascinating!

Bottom line: Read this novel just for the ending. It's brilliant and may be one of the best endings ever!

bibo

A compelling book that will stay with you for a while.
"The silent patient" is still one of my favorite thrillers today. Highly recommend for those who are into psychological thrillers, the portray of mental illnesses, the twists and turns throughout the book, the gripping plot, the suspense had me hooked, in fact I continued guessing till the very end, but nothing compares to the twist at the end.

Christine Schaefer

Great Mystery
I'm not used to reading mysteries, but my local bookclub recommended this book. WOW. Lots of twists and turns through to the very end! I could barely put it down. Now...to read more mysteries!!!

Dorinne Dobson

Things Are Not Always As They Seem
The main characters in this psychodrama are flawed, some in obvious ways and others in less noticeable ways. Theo, the psychotherapist, is also Theo, the jealous husband. Alicia, the silent patient, is also Alicia, the famous artist, and also Alicia, the maligned daughter with an inferiority complex, as well as Alicia, the wronged wife, as well as Alicia, the convicted murderer. This is an edgy story that keeps you turning the pages, and the conclusion is an unexpected twist of the entire premise you may have built in your mind.

TheAvidBookerfly

The Silent Patient speaks a lot!
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist and he is interested in Alice’s story who has murdered her husband. He is determined to get to the details behind the crime. Even though the patient (Alice) is silent throughout the narrative, the story progresses to spotlight her complex characteristics.

“Unexpressed emotions never die.
They are buried alive, and will come forth later, in uglier ways”

BEST Psychological Thriller I have read in a long time!
My opinion -
Very well researched topic and the quotes at the start of every part of the book make sense at the end.
Every scenario described feels so realistic and I was amazed how much engrossed I was in this book.
Nice pace and a very easy to understand and read kind of language used
The plot has a nice edginess and it wants you to keep turning pages to figure out what happens next!
I was amazed at the flawless development of the characters, outstanding buildup and curiosity maintained and in fact increasing as pages turned!
The final twist is the unique climax and no matter how much aware you are of the story, you’ll still not be able to predict it and I was mind blown by that sole fact
The chapters are well divided and the engrossing fast-paced read makes it a page turner for sure!
I enjoyed this wonderful psychological drama ride and cannot believe it is debut novel by Alex. Kudos!!

Conclusion -
It is definitely a clever and intriguing story with a mind-blowing twist to enjoy! The Silent Patient SPEAKS a lot -- It is for sure one of my favorite reads of 2019!

Vivian H

Great First Novel
The Silent Patient is a solid first effort in the crowded arena of the psychological thriller genre. It was difficult to put down, nicely paced, with some interesting twists & turns. I did figure out the ultimate mystery before the big reveal. But, that didn’t change my thought about the book.

...3 more reader reviews

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Author Information

Alex Michaelides

Alex Michaelides was born in Cyprus in 1977 to a Greek-Cypriot father and an English mother. He studied English literature at Cambridge University and got his MA in screenwriting at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. The Silent Patient is his first novel.

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