The Silent Patient

The light bulb went off around 70% I don't like it because it's such disrespectful fluff. I hate fake cheesy romance and if Gabriel is such the perfect, loving husband where are those actions? I understand that Alicia is an unreliable narrator but the way I interrupt this is either Gabrielle is a manipulative asshole and most of the others are so self interested – that or Michaelides didn't write Alicia crazy enough because all I hear is Alicia being gaslit, insulted, victimized, and mishandled.

I hated that Alicia was put on house arrest and that the door/gate was left unlocked - as a person who has experienced (mild) trauma that is simply unbelievable to me.

I hated Theo, he was unethical, gross, very negative, fairly stupid (climbing up to a roof with a guy that hit you in a head with a baseball bat), and bad at both being a psychotherapist and a detective; apparently was only a decent stalker.

I am also disappointed because I picked this up expecting a lot more Alicia and got about 80% Theo, like a bait-and-switch.

The book also barely passes the Bechdel test; the only conversation that two women have that isn't about a man is between Stephanie and Barbie, where Barbie demands to see Alicia and Stephanie is attempting to stop her. It's a short conversation because Theo interrupts and let's Barbie see Alicia, which I consider to be a violation of Alicia's right of freedom of association.

Other things that bothered me:
Gabrielle seems rich, why have sex in a park?
I read Alcestis, at the end of the play it's said that “She (Alcestis) is still consecrated to the gods below. Til she is duly purified, and the third dawn has risen, it is not lawful for you to hear her voice.” I get that Alicia being in a bad marriage and the killing of her husband may have left her impure or whatever but I dunno, it just seems like something that could have been expanded on and make it much more interesting.
Everyone at The Grove seemed to speak poorly of Stephanie when she was the most professional person in the book.
Jean-Felix, the gallerist, is French but says he feels more like a Londoner seemed like bullshit to me.