I remember hearing about this book from somewhere, but I forgot to note it down so sorry if you’ve reviewed this recently and I forgot to mention that I found the book from your review! (I should probably start following everyone on Goodreads too because it makes it so much easier to see if someone has reviewed a book)

Anyway, The Silent Patient revolves around Alicia. She killed her husband six years ago and has been silent ever since. Criminal Psychotherapist Theo has been fascinated by Alicia ever since her trial and believes that he is the one that can reach her and get her to talk. With that goal in mind, he takes a job at the Grove, where Alicia is being held. But the closer he gets to getting her to talk, the more he realises that the case isn’t as simple as it seems.

I don’t recall reading many thrillers recently (I think I didn’t finish The Woman in the Window) so The Silent Patient hooked me in completely. And because I’m not super familiar with the genre, I did not see the big twist coming. In retrospect, it was pretty obvious, but I was blindsided. It also really helps that the writing is smooth and flows well, making it hard for me to stop reading (fun fact: there was a problem with the lift where it stopped below its usual spot – aka the floor of the lift was lower than the door so it was not level – and I fell because I could not look away from the book and was walking and reading).

In terms of characters, Theo wasn’t super likeable and I didn’t know what to make of Alicia. Because she is silent, her ‘side’ of the story is told from the viewpoint of people around her and they all have her own agenda. The only time that the reader hears her voice is through her diary entries, which take place before the murder. What I heard from Alicia’s POV I found sympathetic, but even after finishing the book, I don’t have much sense of who she was other than as a tragic character.

Secondary characters weren’t really developed. You get glimpses of depth to them, like Alicia’s husband Gabriel who seems to have many sides to his personality, and it would be fascinating to find out more. That said, I didn’t really feel the lack of fully developed characters in the story – it’s really about Theo and his obsession with getting Alicia to talk. And since most of the book is in Theo’s POV, it makes sense that he doesn’t focus much on non-Alicia characters.

Overall, I enjoyed this. Even though the characters weren’t the most likeable to me, I found the plot to be gripping and I ended up reading this in one day. If you’re the type that’s very good at predicting twists, you might have seen this one coming, but people like me will probably enjoy the twists and turns in the ending.