Book Review
Title: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 4.75 Stars
The opening to The Silent Patient was interesting as we are introduced to the artist, Alicia Berenson and her photographer husband, Gabriel. We learn early on that Gabriel is concerned about Alicia’s depression and he gives her a diary to write her thoughts in although she actively tries to avoid putting her negative thoughts in there which defeats the purpose of it. We get snapshots of their marriage which ends with Alicia shooting Gabriel in the face several times before becoming mute. Upon her arrest, trial and incarceration in the Grove mental hospital she doesn’t say a word which makes her a very interesting character. In the Grove she is under the care of Professor Diomedes and this is where we are introduced to our primary protagonist, Theo Faber, a psychotherapist working at Broadmoor before he transfers to The Grove specifically to treat Alicia who he seems to have a connection with.
We get to know Theo through the next portion of the novel, from his abusive childhood at the hands of his father to his own journey through therapy leading to him entering the field of psychotherapy. We follow his training where he meets his future wife Kathy, despite them both dating other people at the time and callously getting rid of them for each other. This gives us a chance to understand the way Theo thinks before we jump back to the present where he is give Professor Diomedes the idea of allowing him to treat Alicia or trying to as many have before him including Diomedes himself. Theo realises from their first one to one meeting that Alicia is being kept on a huge cocktail of drugs meaning no one not even him can treat her without her dosages being reduced as Diomedes agrees to talk to Christian who is in charge of Alicia’s treatment and is someone Theo knows from Broadmoor but doesn’t seem to have a good relationship with. From the beginning the atmosphere surrounding the Grove doesn’t feel good and I don’t have a good feeling about where this is going to go for Alicia and Theo in particular.
As time goes on Theo has more sessions with Alicia but these don’t go well as he tries an unorthodox approach to trying her which results in her attacking Theo. After she is sedated, Theo realises that he pushes her too hard, too soon but he is encouraged believing that Alicia’s rage and lashing out is a sign she is trying to communicate with them unlike other patients who have given up on communicating altogether. Professor Diomedes agrees with him and gives Theo six weeks to make progress with Alicia before The Grove is under serious threat of closure and Theo takes on the challenges but we very quickly learn that Theo is in no position to be treating someone given his own mental state. He soon learns that his wife is having an affair and has been having it for a while so in his despair he ends up at the home of his old therapist, Ruth, who is also a close friend and she tells Theo that he needs to leave Kathy or he is just going to repeat the same cycle of emotional abuse like he did with his father. Theo understands this but denial kicks in hard and he ends up staying thinking they can work through it which won’t be the case given how Kathy reacts to finding Theo’s stash of weed and arguing with him about it. By the time he goes back to work to meet with Alicia again, Theo has done some research by speaking to her brother-in-law, who confesses he hated Alicia for draining the life from his brother well before she killed him and his wife tells Theo to speak to Alicia friends and family to find out more about this conflict in the relationship which was kept well hidden from the public eye.
The continues to act more like a detective than a therapist as he tries to understand what Alicia was going through in the days and weeks leading up to the murder and what her mental state was. Theo speaks to Max, Alicia’s brother-in-law, Jean-Felix, her best friend and her cousin, Paul but nothing he is being told adds up with the entries from Alicia’s diary. It seems that Alicia’s was afraid of Max because he assaulted her in the past and she was going to tell Gabriel about it, which would ruin their relationship as Gabriel idolized Max and he threatened her. Jean-Felix always cared for Alicia’s art more than for Alicia herself, and when she tells him after the exhibition she is changing galleries he feels betrayed by her and seems like the person who would do anything to keep her with him. Max is also difficult which Theo has seen for himself and he has been warned by Diomedes to stay out of Alicia’s personal life and only to treat her as he would any other patient, but for Theo, Alicia isn’t just any other patient. In between all this investigating, Theo is dealing with issues in his own relationship. Despite choosing not to confront Kathy about her affair, Theo finds himself suspicious of everything she says or does and his mind is at war with itself knowing he should leave her but not being able to because of his past.
Theo ends up taking Jean-Felix’s advice and getting Alicia access to her own studio space where she can paint and communicate with them through it and for a moment it seems to work. Alicia ends up creating a painting of the Grove burning down with Theo carrying her, although Theo isn’t sure if he’s rescuing Alicia or throwing her to the flame which might be a clue towards the ending. However, after another patient Elif defaces the painting Alicia attacks her stabbing her in the eye with a paintbrush and her therapy is stopped despite Theo’s protests. He ends up speaking to Alicia and she presents Theo with her diary which he begins to read. We have been reading these diary entries for a while and they seem to confirm that Alicia is innocent but I have the feeling that there is something off about the diary itself. Alicia notes in the diary for a few weeks leading up to the murder that she is being followed by a mysterious man and at first she suspects it might be Jean-Felix but she doesn’t believe he would do something like that to her and then Gabriel plants the idea in her head that she might be imagining the man and it starts Alicia thinking about things but she doesn’t right them down so we don’t know what these thoughts are. Theo is also struggling as he begins following his wife when she goes out claiming she is going to meet a friend and when she ends up actually meeting her friend rather than being relieved, he is disappointed. I think Christian’s word are relevant here about how Alicia is seducing him and Theo writing in the present reflecting on these events happening in the past confirms this to be true.
After Theo speaks to everyone and collects a shocking amount of information about the murder of Gabriel and Alicia’s life that aren’t public knowledge he feels he is ready to confront Alicia and get her talking once and for all. Much to Theo’s surprise and the surprise of the others she does begin talking in order to tell Theo what really happened that night because she trusts him but I feel this is because she is manipulating him and many agree with this. By the time Alicia has finished her story of the mysterious man who was stalking her, breaking into her home, holding her hostage before eventually shooting Gabriel and fleeing into the night, Theo knows she is lying. He knows because many of the details she talks about don’t match the official evidence like the fact she claims Gabriel was shot six times when he was actually shot fives time and the sixth bullet was lodged in the ceiling. Theo talks to Professor Diomedes about this and he agrees she is lying, not just about the murder but about everything. While Theo disagrees, I think Diomedes is right and he believes she has disassociated the murder from herself and is blaming someone she completely made up to push the blame from herself and Theo how has the job of confronting her and challenging her to get to the truth, although whether Alicia will actually accept the truth of the situation remains to be seen.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, I wasn’t sure where the novel was going to go but I was excited to find out. Finding out the truth of what really happened to Gabriel and the facts of his murder were great and seeing the way the timeline was actually two parts the past and present and how they come together was amazing. The reveals towards the end of the novel were unexpected but they were predictable either. It meant that I did have the feeling that Theo played a much bigger part in the story than he was portraying but I had no idea what he actually did or what his role was. Seeing everything come together in the final pages of the novel was delightful and I am glad to say I am very excited to get into The Maidens very soon.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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