Book Blurb :
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him….
The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.
My Thoughts :
Alex Michaelides what a book you wrote. *cheers louding* Sir, you and I are now friends.
To be honest I was beginning to think I’ve lost something. Something vital to me – the part of me that gets swept away between pages and my wild imagination. A part of my essence. You and The Silent Patient awoke me from hibernation, thank you.
So, I found myself in England, London to be exact. At The Grove Psychiatric hospital, where a what shall we call her famous or infamous artists is residing. Alicia Berenson was admitted a few years ago for shooting her husband in the head 5 times or was it 6, I forget. She blew his skull apart. Why you may ask? We’ll let’s just say Gabriel Berenson didn’t know how to keep his film in his camera. You see he was a celebrated Photographer. Shooting (excuse the pun) for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and all of them and it must have been on one of those campaigns he captured the wrong beauty. Hell hath no fury and all that.
Why people cheat is one of those things we can muse about forever without any definitive explanation. I’ve always thought people should ask for what they want in relationships but hey what do I know I’m single and I digress. Theo Faber is a psychotherapist. His also a deeply wounded soul. His soul may be many shades darker than most and in a way I find myself being able to justify his actions. Call it empathy call it naivity call it someone who knows grief. Who knows that Grief demands space in our lives and the way we all express and repair look different. In addition I think the pain we carry from childhood trauma and adult disappointment can change who we are. All these parts of us make up our very foundation and sometimes foundations are unstable.
And so I think that you should read this book. Read it because you need answers. Read it because relationships are complicated and people are well, people. I believe that a book will find me when it’s my turn to read it and thats why I read it and also because psychology is a longtime interest of mine. How our minds work. Why we do what we do. Why Alicia killed Gabriel. Why she did it in such a dramatic fashion. Why Theo thought he was helping her help himself. Why Kathy and Gabriel walked out of their marriages and into the bush together. Also I needed to know why the book is titled this way. I needed answers. You my book friend will be shocked. You will be thrilled. You will feel psychoanalysed, maybe a little reflective or at least I think you will if you a little bit like me. More than that I hope you will enjoy it. I certainly did.
Now, have you ever been so angry or hurt that it silences you? Blows the air right from your lungs and leaves you deflated, speechless.
Alicia was perhaps too familiar with those feelings.
Thank you to my BookTok friend Caiti who rescued me from Book Slump with this recommendation. You were right it grasped me.
I think I am just going to walk around in Hampstead Hill for a while longer.
Ciao,
Love Cece xx
BooksByCC 