The Silent Patient | Alex Michaelides

The debut novel by Alex Michaelides is on the 2019 must-reads of the year and I wholeheartedly agree that it is a must read!

Alicia Berenson is an intriguing character saying not one word after she's been caught literally with a smoking gun in her hand next to her murdered husband.

We know the facts, her husband was shot 5 times in the head and he was tied to a chair. We don't know is WHY she did it and that is what will keep you up all night, because if you love a thriller like I do you simply NEED to know why she did it (or even if she actually did it!)

The author kept me very much in suspense and I couldn't wait to race through it, I will say it was a little slow to build the backstory but stick with it because it is totally worth it!

I really bought into the idea of Alicia's determination not to talk at all, with her only communication coming through violent outbursts and her art and I really enjoyed trying to understand her, and her motivations. The author does a great job in using her diary entries to allow the reader to hear her voice, even though she doesn't speak.

Alicia's new therapist Theo Faber (the other protagonist) is determined he can make her talk after 6 years of silence. I enjoyed the way Theo's personal life and struggles is woven through the plot and I found him likeable and relatable, which benefits the storyline hugely and had me really rooting for him to be successful.

With the two world colliding the twist (to me) really was shocking and I LOVED it! I am still cursing myself for not see it coming and I think the author has manipulated timeline cleverly to keep the twist a complete surprise - I'm going to go back and read the whole book again with this shocking information to soak up all the little hints I missed the first time around.

If you enjoy psychological thrillers you simply HAVE to read this book! This is an absolutely amazing debut with an unbelievable stunner of twist and I'm giving it a high 4.5/5 The only ONLY reason it is not a 5 is for that relatively slow build up in the first third of the book.