A review by bashsbooks
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

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

1.75

The problem with boasting about a book's Shocking Twist from the get-go is that you put your reader on guard for it, and it distracts from the picking up clues organically. This is especially annoying when the writing is only mediocre, so picking up upon the clues is not as logical and satisfying as it is a better-written work. (AND if you don't pick up on what the author is putting down because you haven't been primed to, the book's structure doesn't make a lot of sense - see my friend's DNF review stating how he didn't understand why the psychologist was the man focus given the title and the blurb, and how that made him put it down).

Also, I have a psychology degree and a personal hatred of Freud and heavily Freudian-psychology. This would probably not bother most people (Farber fits with the pop culture ideas of a psychologist) but it bothers me. His internal monologues are annoying. 

Alicia and her art, and how she relates her art to her traumas, are the best things about this book.
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