The Silent Patient

 

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

My rating: 4.7 of 5 stars

This was also another book that I saw that was circulating a lot through the pandemic and decided I would wait to read it on my own time. I'm definitely glad that I did decide to jump on the bandwagon with this book as well, there are certain books that stick with me after I read them, and I remember them clearly and vividly. I feel as though a lot of mystery books go from past to present most of the time, to try and trip you up and make sense of the present as you continue on to read, I used to hate them actually, but I've come to love them in a weird way and with that being said I gave this book a 4.7/5.

The book, a psychological thriller, begins with an extensive description of Alicia, a woman who murdered her husband and then stopped speaking entirely. The novel follows the life of a psychiatrist named Theo Faber and how he is dealing with his life while working in a psychiatric institution. He hears about this woman Alicia becomes intrigued by her and decides to make it his life mission to try and help her speak again after everything she has been through. It was definitely a lot of psychological reading, and as someone with a BA in psychology, I related a lot to this book. There were numerous quotes from this book that really stuck with me, and just to give you a glimpse of how real this book is, one of the many quotes from here that really had my mind boggled is:

"The real motivation was purely selfish. I was on a quest to help myself. I believe the same is true for most people who go into mental health. We are drawn to this profession because we are damaged-we study psychology to heal ourselves. Whether we are prepared to admit this or not is another question."

I will let you decide whether that quote resonates with you or not because it does for me... highly recommend it if you are looking to read a psychological thriller.

My Goodreads review