The Silent Patient
Ratings1,241
Average rating3.8
Wow, I'm speechless, this book keeps you focused and thinking about possibilities, making you find a culprit in everyone. A perfect psychological book, hard to swallow some truths but this book speaks about how some scars from our childhood will stay with us forever, it speaks about the way some incompetent parents will give their children scars for life.
This was a fantastic book! Kept you guessing the whole book! Well written story and well rounded characters!
This one is a page-turner, for sure. I couldn't put it down after I got about a third of the way through. I finished it in a few hours as it reads quickly; it's mostly dialogue, written simply, and chapters are short. While I enjoyed it, and indeed can say I'm thoroughly creeped out as of this review (the darkness and ominous wind outside my window certainly don't help), I wouldn't call this a “nutritious” read. The author uses tired archetypes for the genre (thin, beautiful damsel; dark & mysterious protagonist; monstrous, fat, miserable aunt; etc etc) and as I said, the dialogue is pretty simple. This is total Hollywood bait. In fact, I'd be surprised if it isn't already optioned.
This book probably just wasn't for me.
Most of it felt like a murder mystery, but a murder mystery with very lackluster investigation.
The twist was decent and did take me somewhat by surprise, but it didn't make up for the slog the rest of the book was.
The diary entries were plain weird to me, most people don't write about their day like a fleshed-out novel, with lines of dialogue and long descriptions and I think simply writing Alicia's POV would've been more immersive.
It's listed on goodreads as a mystery or a thriller but to me it was neither thrilling nor particulary mysterious, I mostly felt nothing while reading it.
Just incredible! I had to finish this book as soon as possible, because I couldn't wait to know how it will be developed. In 75% of the book I thought “this can be a really good story or a weak try”. The end made me chose the first one.
“The dead don't talk”.
I just couldn't put it down!! An absolute page-turner!! A book that keeps you intrigued until the end.
It was my first book from this author and I'll look for more.
If you're a fan of psychological thrillers, then you should definitely pick up this book.
While reading this book I was very intrigued the whole time. That's the main word I'd use to describe how I felt while reading: Intrigued.
It kept me asking questions and wanting to know the answers. This led me to read this book in one day because I needed those answers. I got to say, even though I was interested and thought it was entertaining, I found myself getting a bit bored at times. That may just be me, but this book isn't necessarily “action-packed” which isn't a bad thing, just not what I'm used to at the moment. But I tell you, the ending is what made me give this book 4 stars.
The ending kind of left me speechless. I was just dumbfounded. The main twist made this book for me and made me like it so much more. Yes, I was hooked and slightly amused, but once that twist happened I knew it went from a 3 star to a 4 star. And the very end was also very entertaining and actually made me want a bit more. I can see why this book receives the praise it does.
Loved this book! The story was well told and the mystery wasn't revealed too soon, in fact I found myself thinking “What just happened???!!!” when it was revealed. Excellent read - can't wait to discuss with book club!
gets the fourth one for a successful final twist although I half guessed it because of the lack of time context in Theo's recalling of his history with his wife. It is a short read and pace keeps moving and should please psychological thriller fans.
After all the hype I heard about this book I was so excited to read it but in the end it just wasn't for me. It was too slow and I felt no connection to the characters, so I felt no pull to carry on and had to push myself to the end. Yes the twist at the end did save it slightly, but it was a bit of a slog unfortunately.
A very captivating and smart plot, yet I was disappointed with the quality of writing and the lack of vivid imagery as well as the few grammatical mistakes I spotted.
There's not much I can stay about the plot without giving it away, but the book is wonderfully written and doesn't feel horribly suspenseful but more it gently holds your hand and guides through a flower garden until you reach the end and you turn around and see the flower garden was actually a graveyard. You spend the whole book knowing something is off and weird and you second guess yourself and try to figure it out but then the truth is revealed and you feel betrayed by your own mind and feelings and it's just wild.
Devoured. It's one of those books where you can't wait to get back to the story. It's so good. Like, happily-wait-for-a-train-outside-in-Chicago-winter-instead-of-grabbing-a-Lyft-because-you-get-sick-if-you-read-in-a-car good.
Well I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority here, but I just found The Silent Patient a little bit average
This is not the sort of book I generally read, however, there was so much hype surrounding it, I decided to check it out. Apparently it is the author's first novel. I thought they did a wonderful job of drawing the reader into the story and like many mysteries there were enough twists and turns to be interesting.
Character development is often something that new writers tend to gloss over and I didn't find that the case with Alex Michaelides. I felt as though the two main characters were fairly well fleshed out.
It's still not my type of read, but I would recommend it for someone interested in murder mysteries.
Is this what we, as readers, have come to applaud? Books by perfectly average writers where nothing happens, nothing is described in a new or interesting way, all in the name of ‘psychological suspense'? Much like The Woman in the Window, this book is ridiculously overhyped blah-ness.
Um livro sensacional. Uma história fluída de ler, instigante, que vai nos deixando curiosos página após página. Conforme lemos, vamos nos compadecendo da personagem Alicia e à medida em que nos aproximamos do final os acontecimentos são completamente inesperados. Ótima leitura. Não conhecia o autor e espero ler outras obras dele.
i feel like,,,i was cheated. i'm just so sick of the cheating spouse trope in thrillers. there's other things that happen in life and i feel like i've just seen it a thousand times. that being said, i had a good time listening to this. i sped right through without even thinking and i ended up invested in alyssia a lot by the end. i thought theo was a good unreliable narrator where most people would probably not realize he's unreliable, but i never trust men so ✌️
This book was overhyped and pretty lack luster to me. If it had the same intensity as the ending with a better plot twist I would've enjoyed it much more. This was sold to me as being a story in the same vein as The Sinner and IT ISNT. It isn't nearly as original or as good. This is actually a domestic thriller in my eyes and that isn't what I signed up for. Also finding out that your spouse is cheating on you via email - I just.
For all of y'all who want to be spoiled here you go!
Theo found out that his wife was cheating on him with Alicia's husband. He begins to follow Alicia. Meanwhile everyone in Alicia's life is telling her that there isn't anyone following her and making her question her sanity. Eventually Theo breaks in and ties up Alicia's husband and tells Alicia that he had been cheating on her. Theo couldn't pull the trigger but left the gun. Alicia ends up killing her husband. Theo took the job because he wanted to make sure it didn't come to light his involvement with her case. Alicia ends up writing incriminating evidence in her hidden journal and the ending is basically the cops coming to collect him.
The beginning part of this book was pretty boring. Nothing really started happening until 70% into the book. I had pretty much figured out what was going to happen by the end.
