Published: 2019
Author: Alex Michaelides
Genre: Fiction / Psychological Mystery
Audience: High School (Grades 11–12) / Adult
Number of Stars: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5)
Goodreads Link: The Silent Patient
Content Warnings: Mental health struggles, severe trauma, PTSD, domestic violence, and murder.
Publisher’s Summary
Goodreads Choice Award Winner for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2019)
Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Debut Novel (2019)
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.
Review
The Silent Patient is a book that will cause you to think and rethink who the characters are, how they relate to each other, and who is doing what! While the book is marketed as a psychological thriller, I can’t say I fully place it in that genre. Yes, there is mystery, and yes, there is psychological intrigue and calculated character actions, but I found it to be more of a deep psychological character study than a heart-pounding thriller. There wasn’t anything traditionally scary about the narrative, but there was quite a bit to process. In fact, I am still processing it days after finishing the book!
There are deep connections to classical mythology here; the very basis of Alicia’s silence rests in an ancient mythological story. Furthermore, I found it fascinating that there were quite a few parallels to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s iconic feminist text, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Because that is my absolute favorite short story—and one I regularly use in my “Touch of Evil” course—I can easily see this book being added to any high school or college curriculum that touches on psychology, unreliable narrators, or the roots of human evil. It completely turns the tables on the reader and leaves you questioning how the plot could be the plot.
🏛️ The Mythological & Literary Parallel: Alcestis & The Yellow Wallpaper
The narrative framework of The Silent Patient relies heavily on classic literary tropes regarding female silence, captivity, and psychological distress.
- The Myth of Alcestis: In Euripides’ Greek tragedy, Alcestis sacrifices her life to save her husband and is later rescued from the underworld. Upon her return, she remains completely mute. Alicia’s self-portrait, painted right after the murder, is explicitly titled Alcestis, serving as a massive psychological clue to her silence.
- The Yellow Wallpaper Parallels: Much like Gilman’s narrator, Alicia is confined to a room (the forensic unit) under the strict supervision of male medical authorities (Theo and the doctors) who claim to know her mind better than she does. Both texts examine how women can be driven to extremes or silenced entirely when trapped in toxic environments.
- The Unreliable Frame: Both stories force the reader to decode a text within a text (a diary/journal) to find out what is actually happening behind the official medical reports.
🎒 Classroom & Curricular Connections
- Psychology & Sociology (The Mind and Trauma):
- Activity Idea: “Forensic Case Files.” Have students act as a secondary board of psychotherapists reviewing Alicia’s case file. Compare Theo’s therapeutic methods with real-world ethical guidelines for treating trauma and PTSD.
- English Language Arts (Comparative Literature):
- Activity Idea: Pair The Silent Patient with Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” or Euripides’ “Alcestis.” Have students write a comparative essay analyzing how the themes of female confinement and forced silence have evolved from ancient Greece, to the 19th century, to modern pop fiction.
- Creative Writing & Fine Arts (Visual Metaphors):
- Activity Idea: “The Art of the Untold.” Alicia uses her painting Alcestis to communicate when she cannot speak. Have students choose a pivotal event from a book they’ve read and design a piece of artwork or a visual metaphor that tells the truth of the story without using words.
- Critical Reading (The Unreliable Narrator):
- Activity Idea: Analyze the structure of the dual timelines/perspectives (Theo’s narrative vs. Alicia’s diary entries). Have students track clues or “red herrings” that the author plants throughout the book to see exactly where the table is turned on the reader.
