The Silent Patient

rating-4/5

honestly i don't know how to rate thrillers anymore; somehow the end/twist sways my entire rating up or down. In this case, i'm conflicted about that too.
Wouldn't say it was INSANE or anything, but i didn't expect it at alll.

(spoilers from this point onward)
For one, unreliable narrator is pretty much the first thing i think of now, because of how often it is used. But to the author's credit...or not?, I did dismiss the thought immediately because of how inane it was. I thought it was highly unlikely that they'd portray her therapist as a stalker because I thought the entire book was about trying to help people through therapy and everything yk? Eitherway I was sorta kinda disappointed, but that didn't take away from the frenzy of reading as fast as I could, theorising and trying to find out who this ‘supposed man' was or if there even was a man. That was funn, hence the rating.

Although I did have a few problems with the book; starting with the ‘psychotherapists and psychiatrists' with malpractice suits waiting to happen (except for indira, love her) and improper research because sir- you lowered the drug dosage of an highly unstable patient from 16 mg of Risperidone to 5 mg overnight with absolutely no health problems or side effects? are you okay? like i don't even need an undergraduate degree to tell you that is not right.

I'm always of the opinion that if you're doing something, might as well do it right? it's not that hard to get the facts right you know? same with the end: you're telling me an IV drug strong enough to put her in a coma gave her enough time to write ALLL that down AND hide this diary? even if i let that slide for the sake of plot.. coming to the plot itself:
There was most certainly potential. I didn't even think of the Kathy-Gabriel connection so honestly props to the author. But sorry not sorry, the plot was very contrived, to say the least. Red-Herrings and loose ends and just a whole lot of mess in order to confuse the readers. There was just WAY too many dead ends. Like.. the max assault, paul debt, lydia, christian; everything felt sort of cluttered?? At first I didn't see where the Kathy sub-plot was going but that seemed to tie-in well. I just wished all that ^ added up to something or lead somewhere as well you know? Because why do I know that Jean felix cares only for her paintings and Max is in love with her etcetc other than to distract from said ending. I don't know, could've been done better I think.

Despite all that, good pacing, the writing flows well and captivates the reader. The Alcestis parallel was really interesting and i liked how the author construed that into a ‘psychic death'. Not bad at all for a debut novel I think. I was hooked and read it in one sitting pretty much. you should definitely give it a chance.