Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Silent Patient

I am disappointed that this book isn’t worth the hype surrounding it. How the male author writes in first person as a woman is very off-putting to me.

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ellipalmer's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

WHADDA TWIST at the end of this guy. Im not sure I know how to review this without something that feels like spoiling it. Worked REALLY well as an audiobook, great narrators. Really enjoyed it all around.

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reading_ali's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Interesting twist. I thought I had it sorted but not at all. The kind of book that makes you have to re read it to see all the details you missed and through the lense of the knowldege acquired at the end. Poor Alicia :,)
The writing is simple and easy to read, the audiobook is a breeze (voices are enchanting for this one). I liked learning about Euripides’ play and the way it fits into the story. Very cleverly put together but the power of the hit is not that intense because I didnt feel that connected to the characters, however it was fun to guess the story.

i liked how in the end theo didnt actually kill anyone but instead it was actually alicia who did it, after mental pressure, tragic how theo didnt know…and yet

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eve_reads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Overall Thoughts:
⁕ This is a book with an amoral main character, and the audio narration REALLY plays that up with his tone and inflection. That being said, while it is well written and presented, it is also super hard to listen to without feeling angry or annoyed.

⁕ Until the last 20% of the novel or so, it felt more like a heavy contemporary than it did a thriller. It's worth it when you get there, but you have to stick it through a lot of slow development first.

⁕ I appreciated the multiple narratives in the text, but I wish it would have been more balanced between them.

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drchronicallyreading's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I hated this book, predictable, boring, and misogynistic writing

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rosesofthespring's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

The main plot takes some interesting turns, but I didn't find the writing very engaging, especially in the chapters about Theo's home life. I actually started skipping them to get back to the Alicia sections faster. I know that decision dampened the conclusion, but the secondary plotline was so boring compared to the main mystery that I didn't want to slog through it. Part of this is definitely personal, I don't find cheating/infidelity
plots specifically very engaging.

About halfway through the book, they started coming up with treatment ideas that should have been obvious from the beginning. For a small example: this guy was obsessed with a painting named after a Greek tragedy for several years, but it takes a tertiary character's suggestion for him to actually read the play.

The biggest issue I have is with Alicia's diary. How did she still have it? I know a few things about psych wards, and there's NO WAY she could have kept that thing hidden. She went through an entire high-profile murder case and managed to take a key piece of evidence with her into lockup? How? There's no privacy in a ward. I was expecting the journal to be hidden in the Alcestis somehow, because if it was in her studio it would have been found. I never expected it to be in the ward with her. Utterly ridiculous.

Lastly, this book throws in omniscient teasers like "I shouldn't get ahead of myself" and "I would soon find out that I was wrong" and "I had no way of knowing what was coming" all the time. It's way too often. You can get away with that once or twice, but when it's every other chapter, I start expecting the cover to say "Reader Beware!" You don't have to hook me into the premise anymore. I'm already reading the book.

Overall, this book has a solid grasp of mystery, but I was otherwise disappointed.

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