#alex michaelides

[learnelle]

Finished the Maidens! I was thrilled about finding my first 5-star read of the year, only to find out I’m like the only person on Storygraph that loved it lol. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect book: dark acadmeia meets Greek mythology meets psychology. Excited to read the Silent Patient next ☕️

[sadexecutivelove]

Alex Michaelides, The silent patient.

[chai-n-ivy]

"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear."

- C. S. Lewis

[melodysbookhaven]

“That’s where all creativity is born, I believe—in the desire to escape.”

Alex Michaelides, The Fury

[bluryyyblu]

Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive, and will come forth later, in uglier ways. 

- Sigmund Freud

[naziminpirayesii]

''Biliyorsun Theo, kabullenmesi en zor şeylerden biri, en çok ihtiyacımız olduğu zaman sevilmemiş olduğumuzdur. Sevilmemiş olmanın acısı berbat bir histir.''

[mashamorevna]

Remember, love that doesn't include honesty doesn't deserve to be called love.

The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides

[aap-kaisi-ladhki-hain-kammo-ji]

i loved the silent patient not just coz it has amazing plot twist... but coz it made me very sad.. it broke my heart when alicia said - ‘Dad just—killed me.’

the two person whome she loved the most who were supposed to protect her... They both killed her.

and then there was theo who was mocking her.

And the reference of Alcestis. how she loved her husband and how her coward husband sacrficed her without a second thought and how her silence was shown as murderous rage and grief at loss of his love for his husband....

[sillytriumphdragon]

*the silent patient*

Author: Alex Michaelides

Genre: Thriller

Rating: 4.5 ⭐

From the very beginning of this book, I was hooked. I found myself so wrapped up in the story, invested in unraveling the mystery behind why Alicia murdered her husband.

Michaelides does an excellent job in creating a story filled with things and characters that are meant to keep you guessing.

Written in five parts with very short chapters, this made for one fast read that was hard to put down. It's so easy to burn through a lot of pages when you think,

"Well this chapter has 3 pages, I can keep going." And the twist? That twist? I found myself continuously changing my theories as more and more details surfaced, and I truly didn't see that twist coming until it was right under my nose.

Favorite dialogue:

*“Choosing a lover is a lot like choosing a therapist. We need to ask ourselves, is this someone who will be honest with me, listen to criticism, admit making mistakes, and not promise the impossible?”*

[thoughtfulfangirling]

"Somehow, grasping at vanishing snowflakes is like grasping at happiness — an act of possession which instantly gives way to nothing."

— The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides

[melaniedilek]

"“I didn’t know it then, but it was too late—I had internalized my father, introjected him, buried him deep in my unconscious. No matter how far I ran, I carried him with me wherever I went.”

Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient.

[celectial-rhyme]

— The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

[bookishlyvintage]

Quarter One Favorites:

The Fury, Alex Michaelides The Book of Doors, Gareth Brown The Last Lost Girl, Casey L Bond The Death of Jane Lawrence, Cailtin Starling

[bookblogblogaboutbooks]

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Spoilers!

Y’all aren’t gonna like this. I strongly disliked this book. I wanted to know what happened just enough to finish the book, but mostly to see if my predictions were correct.

I feel as though the twist was too predictable. I admit, I didn’t know exactly how, but I knew that Theo, the narrator, was going to be involved in the murder somehow. He was uncomfortably adamant to see Alicia as his patient. He was extremely unprofessional. Theo immediately felt like an unreliable narrator to me. I wish that aspect of the book had been more subtle, so that there was a greater element of surprise.

When the element of Theo’s wife’s infidelity came into play, I couldn’t stop thinking of a lesson from my creative writing class. Every element of the story serves to move the plot forward. So where was this plot line going? Was this going to blossom into a weird inappropriate therapist-client relationship? That was my first thought. I didn’t like that idea, though, and hoped for something else. Then, Theo’s inaction in regard to his wife’s infidelity continued, and the unease toward his character grew. I would commend this in another context, I think. But this only served to further confirm what I already believed was obvious, Theo was guilty character.

When Theo’s stalking began, and interspersed we saw Alicia believing she was being watched, I didn’t doubt that it was Theo. Again, I wasn’t sure how, until it was 100% confirmed it was him. Then it was easy to see that the chapters of his wife’s infidelity were just further in the past than I had immediately assumed.

I love when books play with time, but it felt lack luster since I had little doubt that it was Theo to begin with.

Also, how dumb is Theo? After reading the play that inspired Alicia’s self portrait “Alcestis” how could he still question her silence? He is the one that put her in an almost 1:1 scenario of the play. He was there. He, from the beginning, knew the information we the readers did not. The missing element to make sense of her silence was known to him the entire time?? And the gall to provoke her speech only to kill her. Absolutely ridiculous.

Those are my biggest complaints. Although there are more that added to my dislike of the novel.

Him being left alone with a female patient who can’t speak? Immediately after starting? I scoffed. Him not even thinking of her potential discomfort (on multiple levels) baffled me. Honestly, the book being littered with unrealistic psychiatry practices were details that ripped me from any immersion.

I felt that the characters were bland on top of it all. It was like they were caricatures of what they wanted to be. I could see what Michaelides was trying to do with some of them (Max for example), but they fell short of being fully fleshed out, interesting characters.

I would give The Silent Patient a 2.5/5. It’s readable, there is intrigue, but it felt like an idea that would have been wonderful if it had been thought out more. It honestly just aggravated me more than anything else. Not really the feeling I want to be left with when completing a book.

I know this is well loved book. I’d love to hear other opinions. Nicely, if possible.

Thanks for reading!

[melodysbookhaven]

“My therapist once told me that all traumatized children, and the adults they become, tend to focus exclusively on the outside world. A kind of hypervigilance, I suppose. We look outward, not inward-scanning the world for danger signs - is it safe or not? We grow up so terrified of incurring anger, for instance, or contempt, that now, as adults, if we glimpse a stifled yawn while talking to someone, a look of boredom or irritation in their eyes, we feel a horrible, frightening disintegration inside - like a frayed fabric being ripped apart - and swiftly redouble our efforts to entertain and please.

The real tragedy is, of course, by always looking outward, by focusing so intently on the other person's experience, we lose touch with our own. It's as if we live our entire life pretending to be ourselves, as impostors impersonating ourselves, rather than feeling this is really me, this is who I am.”

Alex Michaelides, The Fury

[litandlifequotes]

Love that doesn’t include honesty doesn’t deserve to be called love.

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides