Mental hospital
Artist as a main character
Psychological thriller
Short chapters
Very fast paced

Writing reviews for thrillers always trips me up because I’m scared that I’m going to accidentally spoil it. Let’s just say that I’ll be thinking about The Silent Patient for a very long time.

Alicia Berenson shot her husband in the face multiple times and now sits in a mental hospital in silence. Six years after the murder, Theo Faber becomes her psychotherapist at the hospital and starts to unravel the mystery of her silence and what happened to her husband.

I absolutely loved the way this story was told. Instead of the whole thing being told from Theo’s perspective, we get chapters from her diary. We learn who Alicia is before Theo does and it’s a magical way to introduce a character.

There were a few things that I had minor issues with while reading this story, but they do all make sense in the end. I really don’t want to address what those issues were here to keep this review spoiler-free, but I will say that my dad is a psychologist and I hated parts of this book because of that.

Some reviewers mentioned that they saw the ending coming from a mile away. I didn’t see coming from a mile away, but it didn’t sneak up on me either. I saw it coming from a quarter of a mile away. However, that didn’t take anything away from the ending for me. I still did a fist-pump when I got it right because I had my doubts.

Overall, if you want a fast-paced psychological thriller that is set in a mental hospital, features an artist, and is told with short chapters, check out The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.