The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides — Review
on Book Review
There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. Can you love someone to the extent that you could kill them?
Alicia Berenson, an avid painter, had been suffering from anxiety issues, so she uses her diary as an outlet for the chaos inside her. Gabriel, her husband, and a photographer by profession is her world. He’s all she ever wanted… Until one late evening, she brutally shoots him to death… But hey, you know what’s even more perplexing, she never speaks again, absolutely anything as if hold captive in your own mind. No doubt one’s mind is the whole universe; you can get consumed in its vastness yet unaware of the depth of what caused it??
Theo Faber, a forensic psychotherapist, is deeply interested in her case. Obsessed by the thought of making her speak, he makes visits to those blurred memories that don’t want to surface, do they??
The novel’s a perfect blend of thrill, stay aloof, or her silence will haunt you. The crux of the story is Alicia’s painting Alcestis, a heroine of a Greek myth. You may want to dig deep into it! The novel’s pace is a bit slow, but those of Agatha Christie’s readers won’t be disappointed. The twist has the same impact as that of classic Agatha Christie’s thriller.
Prima facie, it’s the record-breaking book. For me, I’ll say unputdownable.