AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING READ! could not put it down.
It was captivating, thrilling & compelling!
Big points to the author for this book, going back and forth between the two and the build up to the reveal were done perfectly. I love trying to solve books as i read them and i really wouldn't have come up with this theory.
brilliant!
Thank you so much for allowing me to read.

This will have you on the edge of your seat. Just had to keep reading.
Alicia is married to Gabriel and keeps a diary not only recording details but as an outlet. She then shoots Gariel and never speaks again.
Theo is a Forensic Psychotherapist and is convinced her can find out why. However, if he does and she speaks would he really want to know the truth.
This twists and turns and keeps you guessing to the last twist and the last page.
Look forward to the film.

This is one of those “must reads” & “recommend to all friends” books. A great unusual story that is gripping the whole way through with an unexpected twist at the end. I loved it!

I was given a digital proof copy to read but my review is my own.

I have only just started reading this genre of books and I am really enjoying them. It is good to come outside your comfort zone and try new things.

I was surprised that this was a debut novel as it was well written and got into straight away.

It tells the story of a woman Alicia who kills her husband and then refuses to speak and is put into an institution. No one can get her to speak until a new member of staff Theo comes and seems keen to work with her and get her to speak. The story is told from his side with flashbacks from Alicia telling her side.

There was one humdinger of a twist that I certainly did not see coming.

If you only read one psychological thriller this year make it this one!

Review posted on Goodreads

This is a psychological thriller, with a great twist at the end. At times I wasn't sure who to believe, or how the story would pan out. It is a riveting, well paced tale, I stayed up until the early hours to finish it and will definitely look out for more books by this author.

I really enjoyed the writing and pace in this book. It was a true page turner. I would definitely pick up another book from this author.
One downside was the twist at the end was predictable for me, so it didn't complete the fun. But, all in all very good thriller. Recommended.

Theo Faber is a forensic psychotherapist obsessed with Alicia Berenson. She is a famous artist who shot her husband dead. Since then she refuses to speak a word and is now imprisoned at the Lodge. Theo manages to obtain a post there and then tries find ways to work with Alicia. He wants to enable her to speak again and believes he is the person who can do this.
Alicia was found guilty with diminished responsibility, presumably the reason for her not being in prison though The Lodge is quite hard core. Patients are locked up and drugged.has a twist to the ending.

Ill start this by saying I read ALOT of thrillers. I was excited to start 2019 by reading this and was wowed by the writing style and plot. Michaelides is talented, and his writing is gripping and keeps you turning the pages, unfortunately I guessed the twist ending and have read other novels with the same twist but I did still enjoy it. I will be recommending this as a book club choice for readers around the globe.

This was a bit juicy and, although I mostly guessed where it was going to end up, I had a great time getting there!
Alicia Berenson was found with her husband's dead body and has been incarcerated in a mental health facility for the past six years, never uttering a word about what happened. Then Theo Faber joins the facility, having requested a transfer from a previous successful position elsewhere. It's a bit of a strange job change but he is very interested in Alicia's case and wholeheartedly believes that he could be the key to unlock her and get to the truth of what happened once and for all. And thus begins a rather convoluted tale, fulls of twists and turns that meanders around itself through present day narrative and past inclusions from Alicia's diary detailing the time leading up to the death of her husband. As Theo starts to get through to Alicia, as he chinks away at her armour, his own life and history is also slowly uncovered and we get to know him a bit better too.
There's definitely a lot going on in this book. Obviously with it being set in a psychiatric facility you know that you need to take quite a bit of what you get with a pinch of salt but even with what I thought I knew, I wasn't quite prepared for the whole truth when it all eventually came out. I would imagine that if I was clueless along the way I would have spent the majority of the book completely confused as to what was really going on. Something I did miss whilst reading this book but from the way that others have reacted I am kinda jealous that I didn't witness that slap in the face.
As more of Alicia's past becomes known, Theo's role sort of changes from that of criminal psychotherapist to that of criminal investigator and I found the way he achieved this and followed all his clues to be very well plotted. More than this I really can't expand on here as to go further would probably inject spoilers into this review and, not going there.
All in all, a creditable debut that although didn't set my world on fire did leave me satisfied at the end and also wondering what the author will deliver up next time. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I'm not sure that I'm entirely certain what I think of Michaelides acclaimed debut novel. The blurb does provide an accurate synopsis of the book and rather than repeat it here I'll use the space for comment.

It comes as no surprise that there's a twist - some say an obvious one, others find it completely unexpected. Personally, I felt it jolting. The book up to the point of the twist was, for me, a page-turner. It's an easy read. Perhaps a little too full of cliche and psychobabble but a perfect bedtime read, a tale told from two perspectives. In many respects, I'd have preferred a simple. cliched, happy (?) ending at the end of part 3.

The twist changes the pace of the book - that easy, pacy read of the first parts denying the reader the clever clues and nuance that a slower read would give. The last part deserves a slower read of the whole but has been set up in such a way that you read apace by the time you reach it. I re-read the book, this time slower, and it was a far better experience, despite knowing the twist. Perhaps this is something that the author will change in a subsequent work - I for one would love to see more from him.

So, 4 stars for overall opinion (5 stars for the first bit, 2-3 for the final part) - it's worth a go! Appealing to those who like psycho-thrillers and perhaps those who like a bit of mystery.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved reading this book. Once I got into the swing of it.

The twist at the end began to make way more sense as you read it and I did not see it coming. Well done Alex Michaelides.

A brilliant psychological thriller that will have you reeling! 2019's MUST read

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read a ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Received from Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for honest read and review.

This was on the blurb going to be a good book,only I kind of enjoyed it up until I realised what was happening and I thought ,maybe or maybe not.

Good story,characters are really good.

Could it be a movie?

Tense and clever. You can’t quite decide who is good and who is bad. And it’ll give you a real shock when it all is explained. Loved this book. First novel by this author and I look forward to the next.
5/5 on goodreads

Alicia murders her husband. In a secure hospital she refuses to speak. Theo takes a job at the secure hospital as a psychotherapist. Can Theo break into the silent world of Alicia and find out what the truth is. At the same time it seems Theo's wife is having an affair. How will it all end. Brilliant from start to finish. Twists and turns right to the last page. Really recommend.

This is such a good read. For anyone who enjoys an intricate, well constructed thriller and who also has an interest in psychology, this is for you.

It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel as it’s so well written. The storyline is excellent, about a woman who kills her husband and a therapist obsessed with her motive and I think it’s going to be a massive hit for the author in 2019 and deservedly so.


Thanks so much to Netgalley, Orion books and Alex Michaelides for the privilege of previewing in exchange for my honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this - very different type of story and thoroughly engrossing. Had wondered about the 'twist' in advance hence not 5* but I would really recommend this as an intriguing read which does not require too much focus.

I really enjoyed this book, packed full of twists and turns and Wow! I did not see that ending coming. Fantastic.

If you are used to picking up thrillers (and there have been plenty recently!) then you'll jump at this book with abandon, rush through it and soak it up like a sponge. This is what I did and felt a bit cheated at the end. Is this really THE book to read this year?

So I move on and read another book, but this one still played on my mind. So I reread it, slower this time. Noticed new nuances in the prose, felt the web and flow between Faber and his study. Yes, I knew what was coming but it held more weight the second time. Just beautifully planned and executed. One of my favourite books in a long time!

I wasn’t keen on The Silent Patient. To be fair, this is partly because I don’t normally get on with psychological thrillers, but the blurb led me to expect a rather more subtle, insightful book than usual in the genre. I didn’t get it.

The set-up is well explained in the blurb: Theo Faber is a psychotherapist who becomes obsessed with treating/helping a woman who has not spoken for the six years since she was convicted of killing her husband. There follows an unconvincing plot with, inevitably A Huge Twist which, as is so often the case, means sacrificing any credibility of plot or character just to try to make the revelation a surprise to the reader. Combined with a lot of glib psychotherapyspeak I’m afraid it just made me cross. Add to this a faintly irritating writing style which on occasion isn’t afraid of being both unrealistic and using a clunking cliché at the same time (“I became resolved to stop at nothing until Alicia became my patient”) and has a habit of ending chapters with that Punchy Sentence technique, like “I wondered why Christian was so positive I would fail. But it made me even more determined to succeed.” which I began to wait for like the next drop in the Water Torture. I was, frankly, glad to get to the end.

Fans of the psychological thriller have plainly enjoyed this far more than I did, but personally I can’t recommend it.

(My thanks to Orion for an ARC via NetGalley.)

This is a brilliantly clever and different type of murder mystery. The questions as to why she murdered her husband and why she won’t speak remain unanswered until the very end. An exceptional debut novel and Alex Michaelides has set himself a very high bar for the future.