A review by maddie_can_read
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

2.75

Interesting beginning. I almost stopped at 15%
because I wasn't sure if the author knew absolutely nothing about psychotherapy and accidentally made the made the main character extremely inappropriate and incompetent as a therapist OR if the main character was supposed to be weird, inappropriate, unethical, and incompetent. I decided to keep going but just double speed because I wanted to know what happened and realized it was the latter
I found it kind of a slog in the middle and it wasn't great to have to spend so much time in the mind of the main character who I found extremely unlikeable/ incompetent/ inappropriate. But it really picks up at the end and the end really saved the book for me.

One of the most annoying things about the book is that a lot of the mental health stuff doesn't really make a lot of sense. like lol, no one ever tried painting one on one with her??? And he's just wandering around yaking with absolutely everyone and anyone about his patient, does he have any other patients?? There's no cameras on the unit?? She has borderline personality disorder but literally doesn't speak?
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