The Silent Seven Patient

Happy September, everyone! I’ve had another solid reading month this September. I’m up to 26 books read this year, which means I’ve surpassed my goal of 24 books for the year! And one of those books is September’s book of the month… The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. This one’s been on my TBR forever, so I was super excited to finally get around to it. To accompany this month’s reading and review, I made a Silent Seven cocktail.

Silent Seven Recipe

2oz Whiskey

0.75oz Triple Sec

0.75oz Lemon Juice

0.25oz Simple Syrup

1oz Jasmine Tea*

1 twist Orange Zest

*This is an optional ingredient.

In a cocktail shaker with ice, combine all liquid ingredients. Shake for approximately 10 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass, garnish, and enjoy!

Wow. This drink was so good! I am typically not much of a whiskey lover, but I absolutely loved this cocktail. I was worried about how the secret ingredient would work in this drink, but I am so, so happy with it. Speaking of, my secret ingredient this month is jasmine tea because of the jasmine vines that grow on Alicia’s childhood home. I wasn’t sure how I was going to incorporate jasmine at first, but then I thought of jasmine tea. And I am so glad I did because it made the Silent Seven much more nuanced and palatable for me. So, I definitely recommend this cocktail and I will for sure be making this one for myself again!

The Silent Patient Synopsis

(from book cover)

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….

Review

“We’re all crazy, I believe, just in different ways.”

As mentioned above, I’ve been excited to read this book for years! And, luckily for me, it did not disappoint! This one’s another Instagram favourite, so I was a little skeptical coming in… especially after I learned that it was Goodreads’ top mystery/thriller of the year in 2019. And if you regularly read my reviews you’ll know I’ve struggled with Goodreads’ picks in the past. But finally I’ve found a Goodreads’ winner that I actually enjoyed! So without further ado, lets get into the review.

First things first, this is such a quick and compulsive read. I read it in a day, which was great for my time management but not so great for taking notes on the story. Oopsies. The Silent Patient is well written and grips the reader immediately. It is a bit of a slow-burn getting into the thick of it, but not in a boring way at all. Again, even with the slow-burn this is one of my fastest reading times all year.

One of the reasons I was so compelled by this novel were all the reviews and Instagram posts that mention the twist. Unfortunately, I saw the twist coming from a mile away. I think people who read a lot of thrillers probably did too. Especially if, like me, you’re an Agatha Christie fan. So, that was a touch disappointing for me. But I don’t overly blame the novel for that. Sure, I wish I didn’t predict it, but if I hadn’t read certain other books before maybe I wouldn’t have. And in the particular novel I’m thinking of (one of my favourite Agatha Christie’s of all time), I didn’t see the twist coming at all! So, this can work so well if it’s your first time experiencing this kind of reveal.

I enjoyed this novel a lot! I couldn’t put it down, I liked the writing style, and the concept was unique. But unfortunately, it was not a perfect book. I found the characters to be a little 1-dimensional, didn’t appreciate the diversity it offered, and questioned some aspects of the story.

Theo was definitely the most fleshed out character, with Alicia being a close second. But even Alicia fell flat. Obviously, she doesn’t really speak and we only get to know her through her diary, so that does play a factor in this. However, I wish we got to see a little more personality in her diary entries. Don’t get me wrong, I also unfailingly love my husband but that’s not my entire personality. Beyond that, the side characters felt more like caricatures of the classic therapist, nurse, actress, etc. But this didn’t ruin the novel or detract me from the getting into the story.

On a similar note, the diversity in The Silent Patient wasn’t great. It was hard not to notice that most (all) the men were in positions of power while most the women were not. In fact, the women were the only patients we saw in the psych ward and often, psych ward or not, were described in less than ideal terms. There also wasn’t much diverse representation. Any non-white person was really only mentioned in passing or not given any depth. This was my biggest issue with this novel, and I definitely would’ve liked more meaningful representation, but I still liked the book.

And finally, there were some aspects of the story that didn’t feel overly believable. I don’t want to go into too much detail or give parts away, but a lot of things raised red flags for me and had me thinking “how is no one in the novel finding this weird?” This wasn’t the end of the world because a lot of the kind of strange things do get questioned just maybe not to the extent I’d expect. But the biggest questionable issue for me was that I felt I was left with some lingering thoughts that I wish had been explained more.

I know it seems like I said more negatives than positives, but I honestly did like this book. The writing style worked well with the themes of the story. And the plot was great! The concept was unique and totally drew me in. And who can complain about a book that only takes a couple hours to read? So overall, I was happy with this read. It’s not the best thriller I’ve ever read, but I will read more from this author. So, I recommend this novel for sure and I highly recommend my version of the Silent Seven cocktail!

My Rating:

Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading We Begin at the End, The Push, and The Shadows if you liked this one!

Teghann

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