Review: The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

But Why does she not speak?
-Euripides, Alcestis


This is how the book starts. What an amazing book. I cannot believe it is the first book of Alex Michaelides! This hooked me from page one. Though he has written 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 (source Goodreads).

This is a psychological thriller so I can’t give away any spoilers.

ALICIA BERENSON WAS THIRTY-THREE YEARS OLD when she killed her husband. This is how the chapter one starts. Quiet a beginning. She is/ was a painter. Her husband Gabriel was a fashion photographer. They were living supposedly happy life. Then why she killed him? But that is not the main question. She is arrested and she is sent to THE GROVE, a mental institute as she does not utter a word during trial. One there she still does not speak. Theo Faber is the consultant Psychologist who almost makes it a mission to make her talk.

Alcestis is the heroine of Greek myth who sacrificed her life for her hubby, Admetus. She is given back her life as she made the supreme sacrifice but when she returns she goes silent. Does this ring true for Alicia’s condition? Well I don’t know.

This book is basically a mystery but is much more than that. This has many valuable psychological insights. Two main characters have some unresolved issues of the past.

We mainly know Alicia through her diary entries. She is a talented painter and married Gabriel for love. She has a tragic childhood as her mother died in a car accident in which she survived. Her father was shattered and he raised Alicia with help of his sister. She is smart, charming, talented and beautiful. She is happily (?) married to Gabriel then why did she do the heinous act? Or is she framed for the act of some manic killer? You empathize with her and her pain.

Theo is a reluctant consultant who became psychologist first to help himself than others. He also has troubled childhood because his father has serious anger management issues. Theo was always at the receiving end of his rage. He tried to block those episodes from memory, but as Sigmund Freud says repressed memories come out in worse forms later on in life, in uglier ways. He gets addicted to drugs but to no avail. Then when all hope was gone, he met Ruth, a Psychotherapist who helped Theo to get back on his feet again and to face his demons. He married Kathy who is a theater artist. He tries to help Alicia to speak again.

This book has valuable insights into our psyche. Everyone has a past and none can escape it. We cannot change it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect our present. The effect is so subtle and insidious we never know but we still do it subconsciously and instinctively. Sometimes a person’s fuse blows on a seemingly innocuous provocation and the reaction is disproportionate to that. Why it happens? What can be done to prevent it? Please read the book and you may get the answers.

It resonated with me especially as I had somewhat similar childhood as bot Alicia and Theo. I hope this shows the way to people like them. All of us have some baggage from the past and we can’t be happy till we face it and process it.

A highly recommended book. 5/ 5 stars.






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