Recently, I indulged in a good book that was recommended to me by a friend. I did not pick up that book until a few weeks later, so I guess you can say it was inevitable. The Silent Patient By Alex Micahelides, the story follows patient Alicia Berenson, a deeply disturbed patient who has murdered her six-year-old husband.No one, not even Alicia, could have predicted this.You don’t just wake up one day and decide to kill your husband. What was going through her mind on that exact day? This book takes us deeper and deeper into the mind of Alicia through a diary that she kept. Insert Theo Faber, the first-person narrator of the book, who receives a job through an old friend at the Grove Mental Hospital, where he is insistent that he treat Alicia. He has high hopes that he can get her to talk. As we continue in the story, shocking twists and turns leave you not wanting to put down this book, because I know I sure didn’t.

Throughout the story, I found myself asking similar questions that other readers may have asked. Why did Theo feel the need to force his way back into Alicia’s life? Theo seemed to be a trigger for most of Alicia’s breakdowns and outbursts simply by sitting there. I believe that Alicia sensed this through his aura or the vibes that he gave off, but that obviously didn’t stop him because he kept coming back for more as though he thought it was a game of cat and mouse and he was the predator and Alicia was the prey. This particular book was a whirlwind and left me a little paranoid, but I also found myself getting deeper into the mind of Alicia and what may or may not have led to the demise of her husband, Gabriel.

In Theo's head as he travels to his new job at "The Grove Mental Hospital," where he meets his coworkers and the dean, or boss, as some may refer to him.He became very adamant about working with Alicia, which kind of irked me the wrong way during this book and made me immediately want to stop reading at some points, but I continued on with it. The book continues to shift back and forth in time from six years ago through the eyes of Alicia and Theo.That also confused me, but I understood once everything connected in the end. When Alicia tells her side of the story, even though she doesn’t talk, she finds other ways to communicate through body language and eye contact, from which you can tell who she is comfortable around. She was highly sedated for most of the book; therefore, she couldn’t think for herself but still had rage building up for 6 years. Lashing out at the staff and her other peers led to an even higher level of drugs being pumped into her system. I often wondered to myself why she was placed in a mental hospital and not a women's prison, because after all, she did commit murder—a gruesome one at that.

Theo Faber has issues, but he chose to be a psychotherapist; he has jealousy issues, and he nearly killed a man.The way that Michaelides portrays Theo is immaculate in a way that I would never imagine. There is a great plot twist with this book, and the characters are ones that you would never dare to forget because they leave you pondering, even days after finishing this book. Many have rated this a five-star review, and after reading it for myself, I found out why some thought this way. If you’re looking for a page-turner or thriller to send chills down your spine and leave goosebumps on your arms, then this is most definitely the book for those who are enamored by it.

Books like these leave you wondering who you can trust and if those who do try to help you have the right intentions to do so. I give this particular book a 4/5  stars mostly because the timeline confused me but overall the book was a thrill and left me wanting more. I thought that the book was a good read, it wasn’t particularly what I would read but I do enjoy a good thriller to get my heart pumping. This specific author made me want to read more books like this one, so that’s exactly what I did buy purchasing his next book which is ‘ The Maidens’ By Alex Michaelides. Possibly a book reviewed included if I feel that it’s necessary.