Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

185 reviews

anjh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

5.0

oh my god wow. this book shocked me. it was a real page turner, one of the quickest books i’ve read this year. it was one of those books where you are kept on your feet and kept guessing thinking “is it this person?” “no it can’t be”, until one possiblity is ruled out and you form another theory but all the time there is a hidden clue (that the book is written to make you miss) and there is a plot twist and ahshdhdhhd

i think too there were some pretty interesting themes in this book - such as not only the devastating and shocking effects of untreated trauma and what it can do to people but also when this is combined with the power of love in the strongest of relationships the lengths people will go to to make things seemingly “right”. honestly this all probably makes no sense unless you read the book but ahhh it’s so good and just,,, thrilling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Domestic abuse, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

captaincrabs52's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I LOVED this psychological thriller. Gives me vibes of “The Sinner”. Very very good with a plot twist you’ll never see coming

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Murder, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Suicide

kellyofcali's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

This book was...fine. I enjoyed the sort of "mystery" aspect but I didn't love the writing, it just didn't grab me that much. It's an easy read, and I think of going for "The Girl on the Train" vibes, but it just didn't quite land for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Violence, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, and Death

Moderate: Medical content, Blood, Drug use, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Grief

frankiet1998's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide attempt, Murder, Mental illness, Gun violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

xgabrielle_hx's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Gun violence, Murder, Self harm, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Torture

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I think I was unknowingly spoiled for this book years ago and had internalized the twist, even though I knew nothing else about the story, which made this pretty disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Torture, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

pupaebug's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This book both entertained me and infuriated me. From the very beginning, I absolutely could not STAND Theo. He speaks with this air of entitlement that makes me feel physically ill. He felt partially like an incel and partially like a self-aggrandizing asshole the entire time. I hated how he felt like he knew Alicia personally, and how he could change her because the two of them were so similar. It was so clear from the start that Theo had a crush on Alicia

and hated Gabriel

.

I also really did not understand how Theo kept getting his way. Is he charismatic? I didn't feel that he was. Why did everyone at the Grove just keep letting him do what he wanted? Why did they trust a new psychoanalyst (not a doctor) about medication but not Christian, a medical doctor with experience with patients such as Alicia and far more mental health training than Theo? Why was Theo so easily able to become Alicia's psychiatrist?

Theo is not some mastermind, he's a creepy impulsive guy

. It was not realistic to have him be able to get his way like this not only in the Grove, but also around the people who knew Alicia like Max, Jean-Felix, and Paul. 

Another thing that infuriated me about this book is Alicia's journal. I've written in a diary on and off for my entire life, and I keep a regular diary now. Alicia's diary is not how normal people write. Normal people write about their own experiences from their perspective, which is distorted by their feelings on the matters they discuss. Diaries are stream-of-consciousness style. No one writes lines of perfect dialogue in their diary followed by novel-style narration. It completely took me out of it and made me think that the diary was fabricated as part of the mystery. That would have been interesting. Even Alicia's diary written in a stream-of-consciousness way, with unreliable and distorted perspectives, would have been interesting for the novel. But alas, we got none of those and it turns out Alex Michaelides just does not know how people keep journals. 

I honestly also just think I've had enough of this incredibly simple, friendly style of narration I see in books published since 2015. This book just sounded like a guy was talking to a friend, and my personal preference is for writing that requires some mental dissection and thought. Theo plainly stated every single thing that he wanted to get through to the reader. While this isn't a bad thing, it made me feel like I was reading a book written for ten-year-olds who haven't developed the ability to understand other people's emotions yet. It was almost insulting as a reader, do I need it spelled out to me that Theo felt sad when he found out Kathy was cheating on him? Am I not trusted to infer a single thing on my own? 

All this aside, the book was entertaining and kept me wanting to keep reading. I was confused by how short the chapters were,

but the twist made it make sense, and I found that satisfying and interesting.

The

nonlinear storytelling

of the novel was cool and made me want to go back and understand just how it was done

. I like how the author played with our assumption that Theo was going to work with Alicia and then home to find out about Kathy cheating, although if you think about it, Theo never mentioned his job at the Grove in the home chapters, and never mentioned the Kathy cheating part in the work chapters.

It was cool.

The twist was interesting. I liked it, and I didn't see it coming. I did kinda jokingly predict that Kathy's lover was Gabriel, especially because we never learned a single thing about Gabriel's life outside of Alicia, and that was fishy. But the actual reason for the murder wasn't great. So Alicia chose to kill her husband because he put his own life over hers with a gun to his head, which reminded her of when her father said something similar when they were kids, causing Alicia to shoot him SIX times in the face and then slit her wrists and never speak again? Girl just get a divorce!!! And she never spoke again because she was inspired by a play she saw ONE WEEK before she killed her husband? not plausible. I will say that at least in the end, I felt vindicated for my hatred of Theo from the start. The entitlement toward Alicia makes (a little bit) more sense when it is revealed that he knew he could get her to talk merely by who he is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Suicide attempt, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, and Suicide

tabea1409's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Child abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Blood, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

amanda_reads89's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Car accident, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, and Addiction

dblue236's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I'm not typically one to get too caught up in social media hype over specific books, as I tend to just pick something based on whether or not it sounds good. But after reading The Fury recently and loving it, I jumped at the chance to grab this one when it became available at my local library. I'm really glad I did, and it's safe to say this book absolutely deserves all the hype it's gotten. The pace was a bit slow, but that actually added to the suspense and I found I didn't mind. I never saw the twist at the end coming until just before it was revealed, and I absolutely loved the ending. I look forward to reading more by this author in the near future!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Violence, Infidelity, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Child abuse, and Drug use