I was really ready for a twist. I saw it coming, that's always disappointing. I read some reviews and the "TWIST OF THE YEAR" quote got me. Also, this will be a movie soon, so I had to read it. I give it 4 stars because I know it will get some of you and it really was very well written, kept my interest and I didn't want it to end. Just not the twist I was expecting. Maybe I've read too many psychological thrillers lately.

The twist at the end of this book really got me! I read it, reread it..........."Okay, I didn't see that one coming!" It happened near the end so the whole time I was finishing the book, I was in a state of shock. If you like a good psychological thriller, this would be one to read. I didn't find it to be so compelling that I couldn't put it down, but I did enjoy it a lot.

A painter accused of murdering her husband ends up in a psychiatric institution because she refuses to speak. A psychotherapist obsessed with her and the case takes a position there and his sure he will be able to get her to speak.

This book started out great. I loved the premise and the mystery surrounding her case and the references to the Greek tragedy--but then the book became just too much like all of the other thrillers with its big twist that I could already see coming. It's worth reading, but didn't live up to all of the hype for me.

A seemly perfect life, a murder, a wife who refuses to speak and a therapist obsessed made for a very intriguing read for us.

The Silent Patient is a clever, original and complex fast-paced character-based psychological thriller with one of the best gasp-worthy twists I have read. Paying attention to this character study might pay off with picking up some of those well-layered clues that lead to a very pleasing gasp-worthy twist. One even if you did pick up on some of those layered clues you might still find yourself shocked and left speechless. I highly recommend!

I'm still reeling from the end of this book. Not many books surprise me but this one took me completely off guard. The ending was an OMG moment. Kudos to Michaelides for this brilliant mystery that keeps you guessing and has plenty of other leads and paths to follow that take you away from the real culprit. I was sucked into this book from the beginning, the mystery of a woman who hasn't spoken for so many years after she is accused of killing her husband. She paints a mysterious painting before she is institutionalized titled after a tragedy by Euripides. But no one can figure out its meaning or why she hasn't spoken. Theo Faber is determined to help her, he gets a job at the hospital she is in and asks to take on her case. What he discovers is a world of men who have coveted her, used her and deceived her, yet she still won't speak. As Theo delves into her past to see if he can find the key to unlocking her voice we also learn about Theo's life, his devotion to his wife, an actress who he finds is deceiving him and watch him slowly unravel.

Brilliantly written, I can't say enough about this book.

Lots of buzz about the initial launch title for Celadon Books, and I was fortunate to be approved to read it early. I am not going to go into a lot of detail in my review, as I don't want to spoil this great psychological suspense novel for future readers! A woman is accused of killing her husband, but gets sent to a mental facility rather than prison, and refuses to speak a word after the murder, to anyone. A psychologist finds himself somewhat obsessed with helping the woman recover her ability to speak. This novel is intricately plotted, soundly researched from a psychological perspective and has a shocking and unexpected ending that will blow your mind! I won't be surprised to see it on many "best of" lists. My lips are sealed and I won't be spoiling it for anyone!

Man, oh, man, oh, man. This book. This book was what I have waited for for such a long time. This was not a slow burn, this book started like a steamroller and just kept pushing through. I began the book thinking I would get a few pages in while waiting for an appointment, and before I knew it I was almost halfway finished. I read the entire thing that day. I hated when I had to put it down for the appointment! This book will be on my list for favorites for that year. I cannot wait until it comes out on audio, because I will listen to it again as well. I have told everyone I know about this book, and they are all ready to purchase as soon as it comes out. I will recommend this book to the library and book clubs as well.

I feel like I need to give a review of the actual book. Alicia Berenson has killed her husband. Why? That is not known. After the murder she is found to be not in her right mind and she has been institutionalized. She was an artist, but is now a mystery since the murder she has not spoken a word. Six years later Theo Faber has come to her facility, The Grove, as a psychotherapist hoping to solve the mystery and get Alicia to talk.

We find that Theo has his own issues, he states that all those in mental health do, and we watch him as he works through his own personal life. We get glimpses of Alicia through her diary/journal entries. She talks about her husband and how he influences her work, her art.

This book is one that once you start you cannot stop. Be prepared to be busy all day as you take this one in. This is a book coming out that you cannot afford to miss.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the amazing honor of reading this unbelievable book!

The Silent Patient was a clever page turner. What more can you ask for in a psychological thriller? Theo is a psychotherapist. He goes to work in a psychiatric care facility for the purpose of working with Alicia. Alicia was found guilty of killing her husband, and she has not spoken a single word since her died or in her own defence. Theo sees Alicia a challenge. Meanwhile, Theo discovers that his wife is having an affair. And saying more would be saying too much. This psychological thriller is very readable — clever without much explicit violence. And I was completely taken by surprise by the big twist at the end. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

What?!?!? The moment I started reading this book, I knew it was going to be a WTF book. The author definitely keeps you guessing and you make so many guesses to what it may be and then you are like no that doesn't work.

I had this creepy feeling about Theo from the beginning and I just couldn't shake it. Like I knew he was bad news but then halfway through the book, you are like no...it can't be.

I also love how the author told the story. He let Alicia have a voice through her journal. I didn't see everything that was coming but I was like oh my gosh with her last journal entry.

Alicia wasn't crazy...she was just driven there and you're like oh my gosh.

The ending oh my goodness I never saw that coming!!!

Fantastic book!
Quick book summary: Psychotherapist, Theo Faber, takes a job at the Grove. Once there, he instantly takes an interest with Alicia, an artist who has remained silent since the murder of her husband. He sets out to solve the mystery behind her silence.

In a nut shell - a psychological thriller, but so good. Near the end, I actually had to stop reading and go through the entire book in my head and connect all the dots that I had missed along the way. Please read this books, as this is one of the best thrillers I have read since Gone Girl.

THE SILENT PATIENT
Alex Michaelides
Celadon Books
ISBN 978-1-250-30169
Hardcover
Thriller

Everything that you may have been hearing about THE SILENT PATIENT is true. Author Alex Michaelides has heretofore been best known for his screenwriting work, but I would submit that the basis for his well-deserved fame is about to irrevocably change. THE SILENT PATIENT, Michaelides’ remarkably surefooted debut novel, is the type of read that makes and marks a literary career for all time.

Michaelides has stated elsewhere that THE SILENT PATIENT was inspired in part by his prior part-time employment in a secure psychiatric unit. Just so. While THE SILENT PATIENT is nothing if not a psychological thriller, however, there is a strong mystery at the heart of it which begins beating at the very beginning of the book. Alicia Berenson is a well-known painter who, for reasons known only to herself, murders her husband Gabriel --- himself a famous photographer --- while he is tied to a chair. Alicia does not offer one word of explanation regarding her reason for doing so or for anything else. She maintains her silence during her arrest, trial, and institutionalization in the Grove, a facility for the criminally impaired. What the reader learns gradually about Alicia’s internal workings throughout most of THE SILENT PATIENT is set forth in the diary which she started prior to the murder of her husband. A psychotherapist named Theo Faber is obsessed with her case --- he does not admit this, at least initially, but it is so --- and accepts a position at the Grove simply to attempt to unlock the enigma who is Alicia. It’s a descending career move, given that funding for the Grove is rumored to be on the chopping block, but Faber does not care. He wants to unlock the secret that is Alicia and sets out, steadfastly and patiently, to do so. Faber slowly makes progress of a sort, but at some cost, even seeking out people who were personally acquainted with Alicia before the murder (a treatment no-no) in an attempt to get a handle on what occurred on the night of Gabriel’s murder and why Alicia has not spoken since. Faber learns that an obscure Greek play --- one which shares the name of Alicia’s last painting --- seems to bear a startling similarity to what has occurred. Faber, for his part, has personal and professional problems of his own, which he lays out in the first person narrative of THE SILENT PATIENT and which alternates with excerpts from Alicia’s diary. Both viewpoints, which ping-pong between the book’s present and past, ultimately reveal the truth of what has occurred, and why. For some, the knowledge comes too late, even if justice or something like it is ultimately served.

THE SILENT PATIENT is a stunning work by any standard, made more so by its status as a debut novel. Michaelides’ experience as a screenwriter is on exhibit here as he combines mood, characterization, plot, and flat-out surprises to create a work that never missteps and keeps its trump card hidden to the closing pages of the story, like a fist in a dark room that you don’t see coming until it is far too late to dodge it. Read THE SILENT PATIENT immediately. This is the book that everyone will be talking about for the next several months. Strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2019, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

Painter Alicia Berenson has not spoken since she was discovered standing over her dead husband's body with the gun in her hand. Psychotherapist Theo Farber goes to great lengths to be the one to treat her at a secure psychiatric hospital, where Alicia is confined after being convicted of her husband's murder. Through alternating points of view, we watch as Theo and Alicia face off; relentless, increasingly desperate therapist versus silent patient. Between treatment sessions Michaelides reveals pieces of each of their troubled pasts, featuring secrets, betrayal, mental illness, unreliable narrators, art and plenty of allusions to the Greek tragedy Alcestis, culminating in a thrilling twist I had not even come close to predicting. Engaging page-turner that no fan of suspense thrillers will want to miss.

Stunning debut novel! An absolute page-turner, I couldn't put it down. I'm an avid reader of psychological fiction and this is one of the best I have read.

Alicia is a painter who is silent after the murder of her husband. Theo is a psychotherapist who believes he can bring Alicia out of her self-imposed silence while dealing with his own emotional problems. But there's a twist!

Highly, highly recommend!

Twisty novels of psychological suspense are among my favorite things to read, so I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy of Alex Michaelides' début novel The Silent Patient. It's everything I want in a thriller and then some, and I can't wait for my fellow booklovers to read it.

Alicia and Gabriel are a successful couple living in one of the most elite areas in North London. She is a well-known painter and Gabriel is a fashion photographer, and everyone who knows them thinks they're the perfect couple… but something dark is brewing beneath the surface of their marriage.

One night, Gabriel returns home late from a photo shoot. Alicia is waiting for him, and as soon as he enters the house, she shoots him five times in the face. A neighbor hears the shots and calls the police; they arrive to find Alicia sitting near Gabriel's body with the gun resting beside her, but she refuses to answer any of their questions. In fact, she never speaks another word.

Six years later, the still silent Alicia is hidden away from the prying eyes of the public at The Grove, a secure psychiatric hospital where she has lived ever since Gabriel's death. She hasn't been responsive to treatment, and the medical professionals responsible for her care are pretty baffled. And then Theo Faber comes on the scene.

He’s a bright and ambitious psychotherapist, and he's sure he can get Alicia to talk. In fact, he applied for a job at The Grove for the sole purpose of working with her. At first, his superiors doubt his ability to work successfully with this challenging patient, but Theo is determined to prove them wrong. But as time passes and Alicia holds tight to her silence, Theo's determination turns into a darkly dangerous obsession.

If you're someone who loves books with unreliable narrators, The Silent Patient is absolutely something you should pick up. We see things mostly from Theo's point of view, and it's obvious pretty early on that he has some kind of ulterior motive for working with Alicia. Fortunately, the author does a great job keeping that motive a secret until the very end, and I was utterly astonished when I finally discovered what was going on.

I really loved the way the author chose to tell this particular story. We see most things through Theo's lens, but we are also treated to excerpts from Alicia's diary. This allows the reader to feel like they're getting to know Alicia, even if we're not completely sure we can trust her perceptions. Both Theo and Alicia are complex characters with quite a bit going on inside their heads, and I was completely captivated by the slowly unfolding chain of events.

The pacing of this novel is absolutely wonderful. The author has achieved a superb balance between the action-packed qualities of a thriller and the more introspective scenes found in a lot of today's literary novels. I never felt bogged down by the amount of detail I was given, and I was glued to my iPad until I reached the end of the book.

Fans of tightly-plotted thrillers can't go wrong with The Silent Patient. It exceeded all of my many expectations, and I'm super excited to see what other gems this author has in store for the world.

Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
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After the murder of her husband, Alicia Berenson stops talking. She is found standing by him, he being tied to a chair with his head blown off, holding the gun and covered in blood. Did she do it? It sure looks that way. Dr. Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who is fascinated by this case. He takes a job at the hospital she is in to see if he can get her to talk, to see what she remembers. It isn’t an easy job but he seems to find a way to get to her. She gives him her diary and we read along as to what was going on in her head and life. We also read about Theo’s wife and her affair. Theo is consumed by that as well.

This book was slow-going for me at first but let me tell you, when it picks up, it will not let you go. I stayed up late to finish it last night and that ending! I had no idea where it was leading me but what a journey! This is an incredible debut and perfect for anyone who loves a good psychological thriller. As much as I felt it was dragging in the beginning, the slow boil was a perfect starter to all that followed. I think I might have even said “Holy crap” a few times. I look forward to many more books from Mr. Michaelides in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and Celadon for a copy of this book.

An artist, Alicia was married to a fashion photographer, Gabriel Berenson. One evening when Gabriel comes home, Alicia shoots him. Afterwards, she never says a word. She is sentenced to a secured facility where she will hopefully be “cured” in the sense that she will talk again. A psychotherapist gets hired at the institution as he wants to get Alicia well and talking. However the psychotherapist, Theo Faber must find a way to get her assigned as his patient. Will he be able to?

Much of the story is told through Theo’s perceptions of Alicia. However Alicia’s diary is interspersed throughout the novel. It made me want to know what Theo would learn about Alicia and if he could make her talk again. In some ways, I felt the book was a tad slow in telling the story. I do realize this was the author’s first novel so I think it is a well written novel. The ending was not what I expected. It did surprise me.

Darkly compelling and with a twist that will shock you!

This is a top contender for best psychological thriller in my book—I absolutely am blown away that The Silent Patient is a debut novel for Alex Michaelides. When an act of unspeakable violence leads the main culprit to fall completely silent, everyone assumes that it’s an act. But years later, she still hasn’t spoken a word. With skilled writing and narrative structure and a standout twist, this is sure to be a must-read for 2019. Outstanding!!! A book I want to read again, even knowing the twists!</p>

Reflection

A silent siren, that is how chief psychologist Diomedesrefers to Alicia Berenson. A woman who was once so vibrant, she could bring energy to any situation now sits completely mute and subdued. But in a way,
this contrast makes her even more attractive. Theo thinks he can help Alicia, just as many psychologists before him have tried. But Theo is sure he can be the one. Theo himself comes from damage. He knows what it is like, and he knows how the right person can bring someone back to life.

Alicia was certainly the silent siren to me as the reader as well! I loved the way Michaelides described the feelings Alicia was able to convey through her eyes, even while silent and motionless. There’s still a
person in there with fire inside, but outwardly she has turned to stone.

Steeped in a fascinating Greek tragedy that I hadn’t previously heard of, this story is dark and addictive. I could scarcely put the book down! I loved the particular tragedy that was used as the catalyst and
sort of allegory for the broader story. I won’t even tell you which Greek tragedy though, because I don’t want it to spoil anything! You’ll have to read to find out. But suffice it to say, it gave me a lot to think about as I read.
It’s perfect, the way it melds with the story!

Theo is like this child that was left forgotten at after school pickup. He’s so sweet and caring, but also sort of brushed aside. He is incredibly damaged and not without flaws. But he is also so grateful for the
kindness of others. You sort of just want to give him a hug! But don’t let any of that fool you into thinking he doesn’t know how to help Alicia. He might be just the person that can get through to her!

I was really captivated by the setting around therapy. Throw in a good discussion of countertransference any day and I’m a happy PhDiva (in psychology, no less!). The setting and the primary characters being artists and
psychologists really added a rich context to the story. The introspection was spot on. Both professions are ones where the search for meaning in the ambiguous are prominent. I’d imagine most readers will be complete fascinated by the discussions of what is meant and what is being conveyed by the characters and the artwork.

I don’t want to say much more, because I don’t want to spoil this book. But I highly encourage any psychological thriller fan to add this to their list! I received a copy from the publisher, but then purchased a copy as well, because I wanted to have a hardcover. That is how much I loved it!

"The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides, Celadon Books, 336 pages, Feb. 5, 2019.

Alicia Berenson is a famous painter. Her husband, Gabriel, is a fashion photographer.
One night, Gabriel comes home late. Alicia kills him and then doesn't speak for five years.

The evidence against her is clear. Gabriel was tied to a chair. Only Alicia's fingerprints are on the gun.

Theo Faber is the narrator. He is a forensic psychotherapist who is determined to get Alicia to talk. He works at another hospital, but applies to The Grove in North London, where Alicia is a patient. Faber convinces the medical director to let him work with Alicia. Faber's own marriage is collapsing.

The boundary between therapist and patient becomes blurred. Faber's narrative is interspersed with writings from Alicia's journal.

People are already calling "The Silent Patient" the thriller of this year. It is intricately plotted and it has an amazing ending that I didn't see coming, even as it started to unfold. Alex Michaelides has written an outstanding thriller.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My first FIVE (5) star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book of 2019… I read this entire book in less than 24 hours… well actually, less than 16 hours if you want to get technical. Being a Nurse, the title is what caught my attention… And. I. Loved. It!

Alicia is THE SILENT PATIENT. A woman who has been let down by EVERYONE in her life, everyone that is until she meets Gabriel, the man of her dreams, the love of her life. They Marry. They are happy. They have it all. Then one day Alicia shoots him FIVE (5) times point blank in the face and never speaks another word.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychologist who accepts a position in the facility where Alicia is being treated. His hope is to solve the mystery behind why she killed her husband and to help her begin to heal and ultimately speak again.

This story grips you on the first page. It’s unputdownable and VERY easy to read. The chapters are intertwined with Theo telling us about his childhood and marriage along with the obstacles he must face to help Alicia recover when EVERYONE (her family, friends, and other medical professionals) all feel that she’s incapable of living a normal life ever again ~ to reading the many journal entries made by Alicia herself in her personal diary. Journal entries made just days before the horrific shooting.

I LOVE a good book that focuses on mental health issues. We all have them, right? Some of us medicate to keep them from surfacing. Some of us are just plain good at keeping them at bay without the need for medication. AND some of us can’t control them at all ~ making us capable of the unthinkable! The ending totally sneaks up on you so don’t even bother trying to figure it out, just enjoy the ride…

I... I... I am not sure where to start, what to say. This book didn't follow a path I had thought it would, but it followed a path that still left me shaking my head and mad at myself for not figuring it out sooner. The clues were ALL there. The pieces were waiting to be picked up...

I just don't know what to say. I have all of the words to say, but they will ruin the book for you if you are planning to read it. This definitely wasn't a book I was expecting. The characters and plot slowly clicked into place. Then came the ending. I just... I should have seen it. I did question it beforehand. I had an inkling because of how the story was told. But I just didn't quite connect the dots.

This one is definitely one that will keep your mind going, questioning, always on alert. The whodunit and what actually happened are the big question. Even through the slow parts, I was anticipating finding out what was really going on.