A review by nindie
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

One of the first extreme psychological books I have read, and this was a fascinating read!

What I Liked About The Book

The complexity of the plot and characters overall kept me invested in the book. Its inclusion of the different perspectives of the two main characters makes the book tenser as they narrate the plot points from their view of things. The characters all have flaws and likeable traits, which captures how well-done the execution of realistic people in the book is. Overall a good book for people who like books exploring stuff like this!

What I Didn't Like About The Book

Unfortunately, when reading reviews about it, I got the main plot twist spoiled, and this made the experience a bit less suspenseful and shocking. Also, despite doing some research on the book before buying it, I was still unaware of some topics it would discuss in a bit of detail which I am not comfortable reading, which made it a bit of a discomfiting reading experience at times. It didn't help that I was reading this at school, and I think one of my teachers recognised the book. One last thing is that I still had some questions unanswered for the ending, but maybe that could have been intentional.

In Conclusion

I would not recommend this to the fainthearted who cannot read/deal with any of the content warnings I have put since this book is intense surrounding its topics and themes. I found the read to be not too bad but don't repeat my mistake of doing too little research on the content warnings, as it could be an unsettling read for some of you.
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