In the world of blogosphere everyone is raving about this book, calling the Perfect Thriller, relentlessly pulls you in and doesn’t let you go, Destined to go as one of the most Shocking, Mind-Blowing twist in the recent times and on and on. In Good reads, 415,737 readers rated it 4.09 stars. So how I can miss this masterpiece and started reading THE SILENT PATIENT.
The book starts with this inscrutable quote from one of the famous Greek tragedies ‘Alcestis’ by Playwright Euripides. – “But why does she not speak?”(In the story Alcestis the wife of Admetus, willingly sacrifices her life for that of her husband, dying in his place when no one else will and when she comes back from dead she goes silent will never speak)
In the prologue, we will see the notes from the diary of Alicia Brenson a famous painter married to a fashion photographer (Gabriel). In the Dairy, she expresses how much she loves him and she’ll do anything for him and would never want to distress him or make him unhappy or cause him any pain. It is evident that she’s madly in love with Gabriel.
And then right in the 1st chapter 1st line BANG! Alicia Brenson killed her Husband shooting 5 bullets straight in the head blowing his brains out, and Alicia got deep cuts from a knife across the veins in her wrists blood flowing out her to death. Right from that moment she becomes silent without showing any remorse or any other emotion, just deep blank dead silence and it passed from days to months and from months to years and it was left to fate to decide when she will speak. At this point Theo Faber a psychotherapist comes in to picture like a Godsend angle, a savior like Hercules in Alcestis to rescue Alicia.
The Michaelides, writer of the book used a number of quotes from Greek tragedy plays, Sigmund Freud, Sartre, Shakespeare in every Part at the start of a new chapter, that subconsciously builds curious and mystifying effect beforehand you begin the chapter.
“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later, in uglier ways. —SIGMUND FREUD”
So it all started pretty strong in the beginning the setup of the story the impact from the parallels drawn between Alicia’s story and that of Alcestis and the surrounding intrigues is fantastic. (Like the Parasite movie, if we take away the class concept, the economic disparities of high class and low class from the story and just one family is evading the other for survival it wouldn't be universally appealing and become a masterpiece). Similarly, Michaelides tried to induce the mythical concept into domestic crime and played it well for the most part. But after a few chapters, it all started to fall apart missing the logics in crucial times and emphasizing more on deceiving the audience for giving the astounding effect of the final twist. The writer took his chances where ever he wants and wrote it to give effect and impact leaving the fact, if you don’t mind overlooking them then it will be a masterpiece read.
Theo Faber instead of doing psychotherapy for Alicia, helping her to speak and come out of her silence shell and unveil the truth behind her silence and why did she kill her husband, Instead he played detective investigating and questioning around people involved in her life from family to neighbor.
This is a beautifully crafted thriller that will give you no Chills, and I wished to have that moment where I forgot to breathe holding up intense while reading at least on a page.
Between, I loved a few beautiful quotes from the book....
“Remember, love that doesn't include honesty doesn't deserve to be called love.”
“For some reason, I couldn’t stop thinking about the homeless man. Apart from pity, there was another feeling, unnameable somehow—a kind of fear. I pictured him as a baby in his mother’s arms. Did she ever imagine her baby would end up crazy, dirty and stinking, huddled on the pavement, muttering obscenities?”
“Choosing a lover is a lot like choosing a therapist. We need to ask ourselves, is this someone who will be honest with me, listen to criticism, admit making mistakes, and not promise the impossible?”
“About how we often mistake love for fireworks—for drama and dysfunction. But real love is very quiet, very still. It’s boring if seen from the perspective of high drama. Love is deep and calm—and constant.”
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