I was sent a copy of The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides to read and review by NetGalley.
This is an interesting mystery/thriller with its basis within the world of psychotherapy. Written from two aspects with the silent patient of the title Alicia’s voice coming from the entries in her personal diary and psychotherapist Theo’s chapters told first person. This novel was an easy and seemingly innocuous read with Theo wanting to successfully treat his patient and discover what really happened on the night Alicia’s husband was shot and killed. Alicia had been charged with his murder but had not said a single word to anyone since that night. As you would expect the mystery unfolds the deeper you get into the book along with an unexpected turn here and there. Enough said - read and enjoy!

A well crafted debut about a psychotherapist and his silent patient, admitted to The Grove psychiatric hospital for murdering her husband. The story is cleverly told via Theo (psychotherapist) and Alicia (the patient) via her diary entries. I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. It’s nicely told, picking up pace as it reaches its twisty conclusion. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough towards the end and stayed up all night to finish it. I’d recommend to fans of psychological/crime thrillers.

Trying to understand why a woman shot her husband in the face and never speaks again makes Theo Faber work at The Grove as he thinks he can be the one to make her speak and unravel this mystery.
This was not for me, I wanted to know more of the story at the beginning to get a grip of what was going on. This has been very well received so I am in the minority of not liking it so please try it and see what you think.

Theo makes it his mission to find out why Alicia is not talking despite having his own problems. I asked why Theo did not give up on Alicia many times but thank goodness we are not all built alike. You will never guess the outcome, I know lots of authors claim this but this time you will be surprisef.

Alicia has murdered her husband and is detained in a mental hospital, where she refuses to speak. Theo is appointed as a psychotherapist at the hospital and takes over her care. He eventually brings her to speak about her past. Intertwined with this is the story of Theo's wife's infidelity and his struggle to save his marriage. We get a dramatic conclusion with a clever time shift twist. There is a good deal of quite well informed psychological terminology and comment which makes the plot more convincing. Compelling and readable.

Wow !! I could not put this book down , gripping from the start with a twist that I had no idea was coming , highly recommended if you love physiological thrillers !!

Beautiful talented Alicia seemed to have it all. She was a successful artist married to Gabriel, a well known photographer. So why did she shoot him five times and why has she not said a word since? Incarcerated in the smart psychiatric facility called The Grove she spends her days in silence. Theo Faber is an ambitious psychotherapist. He believes he can break through Alicia's silence and find out what really happened.

The story is told by Theo with excerpts from Alicia's diary. On the whole I found this quite slow going. I disliked Theo & didn't really fix on anyone else. I will admit the ending completely took me by surprise & it was well written but it is not one that will stick in my memory as a great read.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Alicia hasn't spoken since shooting her husband dead several years ago. She is in a secure hospital, drugged up and unresponsive.A new psychotherapist is determined to break through the silence and help Alicia, where all others have failed.
This was a real page-turner. The sense of not knowing who to trust, that Alicia obviously had, was transferred to the reader. By the end I was beginning to figure out the twists, but this didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book. I look for ward to reading more from this author.

This book has only been out for 10 days and having just read it, it is easy to see why it is already a best seller and No.1 New York Times bestselling list. Not bad for a debut novel!

A very clever, well plotted, psychological thriller with a twist that will have your head spinning, I doubt many people will have that ending pegged, I certainly didn't!

Alicia Berenson is a fascination character, made more so by that fact she is a woman of few words, no words to be more specific. From the moment she is found standing in front of her husband's body, covered in blood after shooting him at close range five times to his face, right through the trail and even now years later in the high security unit for high risk patients she still has not uttered one word.

Then along comes Theo, a forensic psychotherapist who believes he will be the one to bring her back, to get through to her and break her silence. Will his own troubled childhood and his own experiences help, making him more relatable to Alicia?

Some chapters are entries into Alicia's diary/journal which bring a whole other depth to the story, shedding new light with each entry.

What did really happen on that night? Had there been warning signs? What caused her to tie her husband to a chair and shoot him?

Compulsively addictive and a trip inside some disturbed minds this is an excellent read, tense and unpredictable and I absolutely loved it and have raved to friends about it for days!

This is one for anyone who loves thrillers, it will have you guessing till the very end.

Sorry its only a brief review, I have done this as I don't want to give away spoilers so I don't ruin it for future readers! Am my advice is, make sure you avoid spoilers at all costs!!

Thank you to the author Alex Michaelides, publishes Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for my digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review.

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A solid psychological thriller with twists and turns perfect for fans of Gone Girl and the Girl on the Train

I have had this on my kindle for a while and i was desperate to read it but i also didnt want to read it too soon before release because i knew this would be something i would want to share with everyone.

Alicia murdered her husband, she shot him and then never spoke again, to the police, the justice system and everyone else around her – it really is as simple as that. You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. However, Theo thinks otherwise, he wants to help her, to rescue her and believes he can help her find her voice.

One problem? Theo is nowhere near Alicia, so when he spots a job at the Grove ( a sinking ship in terms of an institution) he applies for it – although its apparently career suicide and long term jobs is really not what it is going to provide, however, he has to get it and crack this case.

We follow Theo as he starts the job and realises 1. he is not even working with Alicia and 2. how is he going to get to her? Theo is not to be beaten though, and works at getting everyone one side to allow him to help her. However, it soon becomes clear does Alicia even want to be helped?

The Silent Patient is split into parts, and told from mainly Theo's perspective and partly from Alicia's as we start to piece together what actually happened on that fateful day. As a reader you are given the picture, not all the truth and fragments of what is happening leading you to start to piece it together. Yet, it's not as clear cut as it seems and I didn't piece it together until I was physically told what was happening. Whilst those are the main two characters we are introduced to several people around the pair who all have had an influence on either Alicia or Theo.

I never fully trusted all the characters in this, I felt they all had their own motive and as a reader it made for fantastic reading – was everyone telling the truth? This was written so well, I flew through it, I wanted to stay up late to finish it, I was reading it every break at work and giving my colleagues updates of what place I was at (I mean I doubt she was even that interested but – hey I had to share it with someone!) I got to the point yesterday where I paused a film I was watching to actually finish the last 1% and had everyone around me in silence. The pace was fast without scooping you up and leaving you feeling like you can't take it all in.

I knew from the minute I saw the hype on this book I had to have it and I am so grateful that I was granted an ARC to review and I have held of reading it for a while because I knew I would adore it and want the world to have it and so by waiting until it was released I new I could then recommend it to all those around me.

Trust me – the hype is real and this is by far one of the best thrillers I have read and is going to take some beating!

I found this one to be a very strange book, and half way through i started to get bored with it. I did the unthinkable and skipped to the ending which came with a twist that did surprise me.

Although I found the pace in this book sometimes hard to follow, I am glad I stuck with it.

This is a fantastic debut novel and I am looking forward to reading to more from this author.

A psychological thriller that is definitely worth a read, just stick with it and try not to get too bogged down in the (at times) somewhat random plot changes. it is worth it in the end

The Silent Patient was on my release radar as it's had quite a lot of love on social media, but when my discerning book friend was wowed by it I requested it on Netgalley.

I wasn't disappointed! Alicia is the silent patient of the title: incarcerated in a secure psychiatric institution after murdering her husband, refusing to speak at all. Theo Faber is the forensic psychotherapist who is convinced he can make her talk...

Alicia's diary entries are intriguing but it's Theo's voice that stole the book for me. He's a fascinating character, and I loved the way he dissects his own thoughts and past.

About 80% through the book all the pieces clicked together for me, and I was tickled with my deductive powers, but I was pleased with the ending.

Recommended. (I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)

This was a powerful suspense drama. I was hooked on the psychological aspect of the story and of finding out the truth of Gabriel Berenson’s murder. The twist in the tale was truly unexpected and horrifying, but unfortunately it came really close to the end and by then, I was a bit bored as I didn’t particularly like any of the characters. Nevertheless it’s a creepy thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion publishing for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review and feedback. This was a really enjoyable slow-burning style thriller for me. I really enjoyed the story line and character development of the 2 main characters. Would have been a 5 star read for me except for a few unrealistic parts which annoyed the psych nurse in me.

The things I liked about this book:
- Switching between the characters, the psychological information sprinkled into the story(I know some people complained about this, but I quite enjoyed, maybe my lack of information),
- the diversity of the side characters(although it puzzled me why the most unlikeable female patient was pointed out as "Turkish" and what's that or her presence adding to story) ,
- the pace was good. I disagree with people who say it's boring

The things I didn't like:
- "too many red herrings". I wish their stories at least end up somewhere. I don't want to write spoilers, but what I mean is say, the story wants us to suspect Person A, they have a subplot, but it really doesn't go anywhere. So why did I just read about them then?
- I felt an overwhelming masculinity in the style of writing. (Maybe because all the mental patients mentioned were women and men was on the treating, controlling end, who knows? but something bugged me there. )
- Unrealistic story : not really about the main plot, but surely, the doctors in a respected mental institution in Britain where health and safety and regulations on sensitive matters are "sky high", a new doctor can't just walk in and drop the medication doses for a highly unstable/suicidal patient?? the dialogue and events in hospital made me think "I hope the psychiatrists in the UK are not really operating like that. God save us if they are!"

I was drawn into the world of the Silent Patient. I wondered throughout what had caused Theo to be so fixated on Alicia, There's an overlap from the professional to the personal with psychotherapist Theo working with Alicia Berenson, a talented artist who is locked up in a private, secure psychiatric hospital following the murder of her husband. Which looks to all intents and purposes an open and shut case. I questioned whether she had really murdered Gabriel, and why? I questioned everyone's motives, suspecting different people of different motives, and of being involved in different aspects of the case. But I did not predict the outcome. I was completely taken by surprise, and while I hadn't felt too much suspense for much of the book, I was sufficiently curious to keep on going. And, for me, the ending made up for this. I was shaking my head in disbelief. Although reading back, the clues were there. #thesilentpatient #netgalley

A very dark tale. I struggled at first not sure about this book but then it really got going. A good psychological thriller with a mystery theme. A lot of interesting characters all a little bit suspicious with their feelings of Alicia. A really intriguing story finding out what happened to cause Alicia to kill the husband she loved. A great ending.

Wow this is such a clever story and one that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I don’t read many thrillers these days, partly because I’m a bit of a scaredy cat, but also because the big reveal is never as gobsmacking as I want it to be. This book had me it’s grip straight away as I followed Theo on his quest to treat Alicia, to get her to open up and speak to him.

The Silent Patient is told from Theo’s point of view but interspersed with diary entries from Alicia. Both Theo and Alicia are fascinating characters, both bearing their souls as they tell their stories about their private and work lives. Alicia was an artist before her husband’s murder and Theo was working as a psychotherapist at Broadmoor, the infamous high-security psychiatric hospital in England.

Everyone in this book was seriously dodgy in my eyes, I had so many theories about what was happening and everyone new character who came along was a new suspect in my eyes.

Even though I had my suspicions about what was going on, I didn’t guess the how or why at all! The writing and plotting was so clever that when I finished the book I had a huge smile on my face, really glad that I’d read this brilliant thriller.