Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

63 reviews


i just do not care about this man and his divorce

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I would have given it 5 stars but the ending was the worsttt

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I will not spoil anything about the book, I will say however that I was shocked of the constant flips of whose side to take on and the ending was not at all what I was expecting… I think this was the first book I genuinely gasped, shook my head in disgust and truly feel uneasy about the ending…I suppose the only spoiler that I will say is this…if you like books where the guy gets the girl and they live happily ever after, this book is not for you.

Was this book good? yes. Was it an enjoyable journey? Yes. Would I recommend it? Eh…depending if someone wants a rollercoaster of emotion then this is a good book but as for me these are the reasons why I rate it a 3.75..


1. Not a happy ending
2. Main character not good but in a twisted way
3. Kills patient
4. Kills wife’s lover but made her 10x worse than she originally was..

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dark emotional sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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kayle39's profile picture

kayle39's review

3.0
dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I wish I had kept count of how many cigarettes were smoked

I recommend this book to those in the mental health field. I think the blatant unethical acts and behaviors really kept me invested in the book. It's like watching a bad movie that you love. 

On a serious note, the messages regarding mental health, trauma, etc. are bad for the most part

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Everything about Theo pisses me off. I can’t even begin to tell you how hot my chest got reading what he did to Alicia this entire time. Not to mention, setting her up to kill her husband and being like “well I didn’t know she’d do that 😩😩😩” 

THEN, the ending?? This book was too slow for my liking. Mostly bc I was itching to know if Alicia actually killed Gabriel.

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Why do Cambridge alumni authors always find a way to wedge the place into their writing? We get it, you had to ready a bunch of Greek tragedy in final year, move on.
There were elements I liked, but there was something about the combination of the dodgy therapist narrator and the author's experience in psychiatric settings that just felt seedy.

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dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Mediocre at best.  A "thriller" without any thrill.  Yes, there's a twist, but it's quite boring, frankly (if you want a twist, go read some Elmore Leonard -- you'll be far more entertained).

The characters were one-dimensional caricatures, backwards stereotypes.  Also, and importantly, It seemed to me that the author has had no real experience with psychiatric care facilities -- it's like he's trying to depict things based on old movies he's seen where patients were always shown as simpletons and monsters (and he dismisses all behavior to daddy issues).

And there's not really anything creative about how the book is written -- the language and structure are all very plain, which makes it a quick read but doesn't challenge the reader at all.

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I liked the book, just not a fan of how it was divided up. 

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mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think this was decent. The writing was rather elementary. And you could see the twist from miles away based on the context “clues”. But the clues were so loud they used a megaphone. Like seriously. How was this the number one book last year? Like the first twist was obvious & the next one was a fun surprise.

It was solid thriller. Just based a lot on a guy with a misogynistic view of life. 

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