This review will be a bit shorter than usual. It’s actually a bit hard to talk about this book without giving out any spoilers. And as always, my reviews are spoiler-free so here it goes:
First of all, let me tell you that the hype is real. I must admit that I wasn’t completely hooked until I got to the middle. But from then on the events started taking interesting twists. In case you haven’t heard, The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller. It centers on Alicia Berenson, a well known artist who one day shots her husband five times and never speaks again. Instead of prison, she ends up going to a mental institution and even as the years pass, she never says one word. Then one day, the protagonist, Theo Faber, decides to apply for a job at the mental hospital where Alicia is at. He’s a psychotherapist and is intrigued by her case, wishing to help her and make her speak.
But will she ever speak? And if she were to speak, what would she have to say about her husband’s death?
I loved how the author accompanied each part with quotes related to the events described. My favorite of all was one by Sigmun Freud: “He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”
If I had to rate it, it’d be a 4/5. I’m not giving it a five because of the langauge used, while it was easygoing I felt in the need of more detailed descriptions — but that’s just a personal taste. Anyway, trust me, this novel has an ending you won’t see coming. Definitely worth the read.
Olivine Books 