The Silent Patient

by Alex Michaelides

[ibeforem]

Alicia Berenson is a successful artist who seems to have it all until one day she's found standing over the body of her dead husband, presumably after she's shot him in the face. Except no one really knows what's happened, because Alicia hasn't said a word since that day.

Theo Faber is a psychotherapist who is intrigued by Alicia and her story and determined to find a way to try treating her. He is able to get a job at the facility where she's being held and is soon one of her therapists, though the others at the facility don't always agree with his methods. Theo is determined to crack through Alicia's veneer and find out what's going on in her head and why she killed her husband.

I had mixed feelings about this book almost all the way through, wondering where it was going, and then I got smacked in the face by the twist. Michaelides makes great use of Alicia's journals to show us what was happening with her in the days before her husband's death, even if you're not sure you should trust what she's saying. When I got to the ending, every puzzle piece fell into place, much to my surprise. It's pretty unusual for me to be taken completely by surprise like that -- I literally was thinking "I wonder if..." as I was reading the sentence that revealed all.