The silent patient by Alex Michaelides - book review
Rating 5/5
Genre: Mystery, suspense, thriller, art, Mental illness
Genre: Mystery, suspense, thriller, art, Mental illness
The story is a powerful,gripping page turner. I was quite surprised to note that it is the first novel from the author. He has written it with an air of a veteran novelist. It is also an easy and quick read. I mostly flipped through the pages with a palpitating heart and a mind that kept guessing at what would come next. I accept with a deflated pride that none of my guessing turned out to be true and the story turned out better because of it.
Alicia and Gabriel are a happily married couple. She is an artist and he is a fashion photographer. One day Gabriel is murdered and Alicia is arrested for the crime. Instead of defending herself and proclaiming her innocence, she remains silent. Either she wouldn't talk or couldn't talk,they deem her fit to be in a mental institution rather than jail given her past history. The story makes many headlines and a psychotherapist Theo Faber who has followed it closely becomes interested in the case. He wants to help her and applies for a position at the mental institution where she is kept. He is accepted and immediately jumps on her case. As the story unravels we find out that his desire to get involved is not completely impersonal. Somehow his story is very much interwoven with Alicia's current condition and her past.
So with a silent patient that wouldn't talk or tell him about her childhood or what drove her to commit the crime, he turns into a detective. Reading along i was amazed by his calmness and he sure had some guts poking in dangerous places. The pieces of the puzzle as to what happened are scattered all over the place. There is plenty of going back and forth and the prize is kept just out of reach - the prize of who did the crime and why. I could literally feel the emotions of Theo, the narrator as the scenes play out and at the end couldn't believe that he would just surrender to fate. Just like that. He went through all the probing, searching and hiding .. to end up with nothing.
Alicia and Gabriel are a happily married couple. She is an artist and he is a fashion photographer. One day Gabriel is murdered and Alicia is arrested for the crime. Instead of defending herself and proclaiming her innocence, she remains silent. Either she wouldn't talk or couldn't talk,they deem her fit to be in a mental institution rather than jail given her past history. The story makes many headlines and a psychotherapist Theo Faber who has followed it closely becomes interested in the case. He wants to help her and applies for a position at the mental institution where she is kept. He is accepted and immediately jumps on her case. As the story unravels we find out that his desire to get involved is not completely impersonal. Somehow his story is very much interwoven with Alicia's current condition and her past.
So with a silent patient that wouldn't talk or tell him about her childhood or what drove her to commit the crime, he turns into a detective. Reading along i was amazed by his calmness and he sure had some guts poking in dangerous places. The pieces of the puzzle as to what happened are scattered all over the place. There is plenty of going back and forth and the prize is kept just out of reach - the prize of who did the crime and why. I could literally feel the emotions of Theo, the narrator as the scenes play out and at the end couldn't believe that he would just surrender to fate. Just like that. He went through all the probing, searching and hiding .. to end up with nothing.
Comments
Post a Comment