The Silent Patient

Alex Michaelides 2019

Devastation Rating

Ugly Crying
mental health betrayal horror trauma

Our Take

A famous painter shoots her husband five times and then stops speaking entirely. The therapist assigned to uncover why is unreliable in ways the reader slowly realises with a vertigo that is almost physical. The twist recontextualises every scene. You have been watched while you thought you were watching. Michaelides plants every clue in plain sight, which makes the ending less a surprise than an accounting.

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