Review: ‘The Silent Patient’ by Alex Michaelides is more worth your time than ‘You’ on Netflix

“There was obviously a great deal more to Alicia Berenson than I had supposed.”

In fact, there’s a great deal more to all Alex Michaelides character’s in ‘The Silent Patient’ than you would suppose.

‘The Silent Patient’ is a psychological thriller “about violence, obsession, and the dark side of passion” based around Alicia Berenson, a painter, and what really happened to her murdered husband.

Nobody saw Alicia’s husband get murdered. The police then found Alicia with the gun over her husband’s body. Now Alicia refuses to (or can’t) talk.

The biggest (and possibly only) question that seems to remain is why? Why did she do it?

Throughout the first half of the book Michaelides captivates the reader in Alicia’s story and her (lack thereof) version of it. The reader becomes torn between the obvious evidence against her (and simply wondering why she did it) and wanting to believe she didn’t do it. How is she capable of something so awful to someone she clearly loved?

A fair warning, there are a number of what feel like random diary entries. They seemed very out of place. Where were they coming from? Why is the reader privileged to this information?

At first, I simply thought it was a cheap way for the author to give us insight into Alicia without her speaking. They were interesting and gave important information but it felt too out of place for the reader to be getting this information.

A word of advice: stay with it.

These diary entries aren’t cheap. They aren’t random. And trust me, Michaelides thought about what he was doing.

My second (and last) dislike while reading it was the other side storylines. I was so invested in Alicia’s story I didn’t want to care about the other characters. “TELL ME MORE ABOUT ALICIA,” I kept thinking.

But these storylines aren’t fluff. They’re massively important. So, pay attention.

And despite trying, you won’t be guessing the ending.

I loved ‘Gone Girl’ and everything else Gillian Flynn has written. But Flynn isn’t releasing a new book every month, so I’m stuck chasing the Flynn thriller high. This book gets very close! I give it a 5 out of 5 nerd emojis.

🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓

So, stop watching ‘You’ on Netflix (we all know it’s bad). Grab a glass of wine. And get ready for ‘The Silent Patient.’

*This book was part of my Book of the Month package. It will be released in all stores in February.