The Silent Patient - Original & Gripping! {Book Review} ⋆ An Ordinary Gal

Have you read any good books this year? I’ve been fortunate in that I don’t think I’ve ready any really bad books. Books that made me feel as if I wasted my time reading them. With the price of books, I really do not want to be picking up bad books! The Silent Patient is a #BookstagramMadeMeDoIt moment. I then managed to get my book club to select it as the book of the month for October. YAY. I’d been trying to locate a copy of this for a few months, when I eventually managed to pick up a copy at Bargain Books. Was it worth my R285? Keep reading to find out!

What is The Silent Patient about?

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….

My review

The characters

In this book we will meet Alicia, her husband Gabriel and a few distant relatives. We also meet a few friend’s of Alicia. The relatives and friends are our there to give us insight into Alicia and Gabriel’s marriage. Then we have Theo Faber, who in my mind is the protagonist, the therapist who is determined to be the one to make Alicia talk. There’s also Theo’s wife, Kathy, and a few of Theo’s colleagues at the treatment facility where he works, and where Alicia is treated.

Theo’s character is really a difficult one to read, I felt sorry for him and I also was really invested in him getting to the bottom of Alicia’s story. Kathy his wife, I am not a fan. Alicia herself, I think because of the state we meet her in, I felt a bit indifferent about her character. All the characters were a bit lack lustre to me and I felt there was no character development by the end of it. (One of my book club members do not agree with me at all on this point, and they felt for all the characters and their part in the book.)

The writing and the story-line

The book is written from Theo’s point of view, and then also Alicia’s, in the form of diary entries. Her diary entries lead up to the night of the murder, so her diary is the backstory and sets the scene for solving this mystery of silence.

I found the story-line fascinating and I must say, I went into it reminded a bit of the movie, Gothika. Do you remember that movie with Halle Berry? She also shot her husband that she loved in unexplained circumstances. I unfortunately cannot say much about this book, as I am always so weary of spoiling a book or giving away the twist. Theo is a bit of an unreliable narrator, that much I will say.

The book is well written and plotted, the chapters are short and gripping. I also like that the book doesn’t drag. Theo will have an appointment in 2 days with somebody, and the very next chapter will be 2 days later. We don’t dawdle around in those 2 days waiting for this meeting we want to read about.

The ending…….. I figured out very late in the book, but I’m also not somebody who seeks out the twist of a book. I do love to just be in the now when I’m reading. You may read the book now and think: Oh wow Simone, you is dumb! lol. The book also bends so well, it was a pleasure to read as it didn’t close as soon as you tried to put it down open. Makes sense right?

One critique I have, is that I thought there were some side stories that really didn’t need to be there.

My rating

The Silent Patient has a Goodreads rating of 4.05, and I’d rate it at least 4, if not 4.5 stars. I have not seen a book done this way!! I’ve seen people either love this book or hate it. Those who hate it say they’ve seen a similar plot/twist in other books. I have not seen it before, so to me this was a unique read. I picked this one up at Bargain Books for R285. You can get it for around R229 on Loot.com, but be prepared to wait a few weeks for your delivery.