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Cindy's Reviews > The Silent Patient
The Silent Patient
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The beginning hooked me in because I was intrigued to learn more about Alicia's story, how her husband was murdered, and why she chose to remain silent. However, the book ended up bordering as a cheesy murder mystery, with the main character acting like a white-knight detective who would question a bunch of cartoonish side characters that just outright admit their motivations or feelings about Alicia. The twist was interesting, but a bit shaky - I think it could have been built up in a more believable way.
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Reading Progress
October 27, 2019
– Shelved as:
to-read
October 27, 2019
– Shelved
December 24, 2019
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Started Reading
January 3, 2020
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Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-39 of 39 (39 new)
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Maddie
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rated it 3 stars
Jan 04, 2020 06:06AM
I totally agree. If it weren’t for the twist, this would have been a 2 star for me. I was shocked to see so many rave reviews when this felt really run of the mill. :-/
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Yessssss I totally agree about the twist at the end!
I’m sorry I wasted my time... disappointing read.
I was so disappointed by this book.
Glad you felt the same way as I did when I read this book.
Explain how he writes about Christian being her doc earlier, and this character admits it, then the author makes Theo this person. Then Theo is following his wife’s lover but he’s already dead. Bad editing again
The twist sooo predictable ! I was angry when he revealed it
I just finished and tbh I was having the same feelings as the ones you described in your review, but before finishing the book I was telling a friend about it and I start thinking....maybe he’s mad? The whole story is told in his point of view.Thats why all the characters are so cartoony and kind of predictable. The entire book, except the last part, is how Theo wants to tell the story, after the twist is revealed he changes, showing his true self as a cocky narcissist asshole. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Glad I'm not the only one who couldn't fathom how Theo was following Gabriel when he was already dead. Ridiculous!
I read 50% and I am already disappointed. A psychotherapist behaving like a detective and one of the character saying to him about doing his homework nicely is a huge cliche.
Yeah holy moly what a waste
I am currently at page 50 and had to stop and look for some reviews...Theo is clearly a whack job and the perfect lying of a sociopath to get the job at The Grove...Yuri the orderly or whatever is a stalker and perv who is clearly in lust with Alicia...I want to continue reading but I am debating it....thanks for your review :)
Glad I am not the only person that felt this way
I agree with you. One point I do not understand, however, is why we focus so much on the twist. The book is brilliant representation of an ancient Greek myth and you can feel the moral dilemmas that are in the heart of Ancient Greek mythology during the whole piece.
Totally agree. Too many side characters, behaving as red herrings, that inexplicably just open up to her criminal psychotherapist. Not the most believable!
Why did he even want to get her to talk 🤷🏻♀️ what a waste of time.
Yeh I agree Andrea. That’s what I couldn’t fathom out ? Why would he want to? And why did he want to speak to everyone that knew her? He knew more than anyone about the reality of the crime so why the heck was he seeking all this out when it was clearly irrelevant??
Yes Hannah!!! Exactly!! Makes no damn sense.
Why did Theo act as he did? He is a psychopath!
I am at page 170 and don’t know if I will bother finishing it. I was hooked at the first chapter but and tired of Theo.
Felt the same way. I was intrigued at first but it soon became predictable and annoying. I was thinking the twist would be Theo realizing maybe Alicia wasn’t lying and that perhaps her and Gabriel were also in a love triangle. That seemed way more interesting to me and was disappointed when it didn’t go that way.
for everyone asking why theo wanted her to talk—it’s bc he wanted to understand why after he left alicia still decided to shoot gabriel and in order to do so he needed to get insight into her life before the incident
Can anybody tell me why Alicia talked to Theo? I mean what's the difference Theo made which is worth breaking her silence? Furthermore she knew the true identity of Theo. Even that, why she draw a picture where Theo metaphorically saving Alicia from the Grove.
Md wrote: "Can anybody tell me why Alicia talked to Theo? I mean what's the difference Theo made which is worth breaking her silence? Furthermore she knew the true identity of Theo. Even that, why she draw a ..."In the last diary entry that she made, she says she broke her silence because and I quote, "I wanted him to know that I knew.'
And about the painting, when Theo looks at it, he makes a comment saying it was unclear from the painting if he was saving her from the fire or the one throwing her into the flames.
I’m pretty the reason he played to detective was to figure out her background and understand why she did what she did. Like he said, he felt pretty guilty about it because he didn’t think that she would kill Gabriel.So it definitely is just him feeling guilty and responsible for what happened
I don't understand when people talk about the side characters being used as red herrings. Not for one moment did I think that the cousin, brother in law and the gallery owner played a part in the murder.
Because he honestly didn't understand why she did it. Most people will not kill in such a situation. Why she killed and then remained silent was what drove his obsession.
Agreed. It became a bit of a mess with so much side conversation. There needed to be more focus on their therapist-patient relationship I think. And actually I was pretty excited to see what the paintings would reveal but we only examined her painting like twice
Fr he was more of a detective then a therapist
Cindy, I'm 98 pages in and I already feel exactly what you described is about happening and about to happen....There was so much great talk about this book in my circles I thought wtf lets try it. I honestly hope it doesn't entirely disappoint. Looking forward to 'the twist' as you say. don't tell me so don't wanna know..😊
My feelings was quite the opposite, at first I was not sure but then I couldn’t put the book down. I find your review really interesting because this is exactly how I felt in the first half of the book, but I’m glad I gave it a chance and continued reading it
it took me a while to finish it cuz i cant stand the writing and how obvious where the end was leading to
Yep! Exactly how I felt reading it too. It was cheesy.
It was so good up until that point!!
Because he was trying to figure out why Alicia killed her husband and it was also a way to make himself feel not guilty, when he was… Theo is insane and trying to lie to himself and he’s under the spell of his own delusions that he was trying to “help”. Did any of you pay attention? lol
Okay actually this is like the perfect take
