The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides || Netgalley Review

Only she knows what happened.
Only I can make her speak.
 **************

 I love him so totally, completely, sometimes it threatens to overwhelm me. Sometimes I think- No. I won't write about that.

 ALICIA 
Alicia Berenson writes a diary as a release, an outlet - and to prove to her beloved husband that everything is fine. She can't bear the thought of worrying Gabriel, or causing him pain. Until, late one evening, Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never speaks another word.

 THEO 
Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced he can successfully treat Alicia, where all others have failed. Obsessed with investigating her crime, his discoveries suggest Alicia's silence goes far deeper than he first thought. And if she speaks, would he want to hear the truth?

Review

I have had this on my kindle for a while and i was desperate to read it but i also didnt want to read it too soon before release because i knew this would be something i would want to share with everyone.

Alicia murdered her husband, she shot him and then never spoke again, to the police, the justice system and everyone else around her – it really is as simple as that. You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. However, Theo thinks otherwise, he wants to help her, to rescue her and believes he can help her find her voice.

One problem? Theo is nowhere near Alicia, so when he spots a job at the Grove ( a sinking ship in terms of an institution) he applies for it – although its apparently career suicide and long term jobs is really not what it is going to provide, however, he has to get it and crack this case.

We follow Theo as he starts the job and realises 1. he is not even working with Alicia and 2. how is he going to get to her? Theo is not to be beaten though, and works at getting everyone one side to allow him to help her. However, it soon becomes clear does Alicia even want to be helped?

The Silent Patient is split into parts, and told from mainly Theo's perspective and partly from Alicia's as we start to piece together what actually happened on that fateful day. As a reader you are given the picture, not all the truth and fragments of what is happening leading you to start to piece it together. Yet, it's not as clear cut as it seems and I didn't piece it together until I was physically told what was happening. Whilst those are the main two characters we are introduced to several people around the pair who all have had an influence on either Alicia or Theo.

I never fully trusted all the characters in this, I felt they all had their own motive and as a reader it made for fantastic reading – was everyone telling the truth? This was written so well, I flew through it, I wanted to stay up late to finish it, I was reading it every break at work and giving my colleagues updates of what place I was at (I mean I doubt she was even that interested but – hey I had to share it with someone!) I got to the point yesterday where I paused a film I was watching to actually finish the last 1% and had everyone around me in silence. The pace was fast without scooping you up and leaving you feeling like you can't take it all in.

I knew from the minute I saw the hype on this book I had to have it and I am so grateful that I was granted an ARC to review and I have held of reading it for a while because I knew I would adore it and want the world to have it and so by waiting until it was released I new I could then recommend it to all those around me.

Trust me – the hype is real and this is by far one of the best thrillers I have read and is going to take some beating!

Author Info

Born in Cyprus to a Greek-Cypriot father and English mother, I studied English literature at Cambridge University and got my MA in screenwriting at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. I wrote the film The Devil You Know (2013) starring Rosamund Pike and co-wrote The Con is On (2018), starring Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Parker Posey and Sofia Vergara. THE SILENT PATIENT is my first novel.