I hope this is not a sign that agents and publishers are encouraging writers to be more direct in their story lines because readers are not as engaged with the text. I would have preferred to be the clever reader who figured out the twists and turns. Where I felt his new author card showed, was in how much of this book was listening to someone reveal their cleverness at figuring out a seedy plot. Michaelides wrote a classic betrayal story and did it well.

I hoped for Theo to be thrown for a loop, for his science to fail him so we could be shocked alongside him. The characters and their personal struggles were textbook, as Theo set out to explain throughout his entire narration. Without giving away the ending, The Silent Patient unfolded into an obvious ending.

Since Alcestis is lesser known, I was encouraged to look up information about Alcestis and history’s handling of the Greek heroine. Theo fixating on this clue from Alicia’s self-portrait was well laid out compared to other critical clues in the plot. The myth is uncommon and beguiling, with an added layer from Euripides’s telling which diverges heavily from the original myth. The backbone of The Silent Patient was Michaelides’s reference to Euripides’s Greek tragedy Alcestis. Their readings are so enjoyable you wish they’d read all the books in the world to you.īlogger Abby from Crime by the Book says, “The real impact of The Silent Patient comes not in flash or drama, but in the quiet, methodical way in which Michaelides lays bare the innermost workings of his characters.” Imagine an audiobook narrator with the perfect voice and tone. Theo’s backstory is unremarkable, but however Michaelides accomplished it, I wanted to read from his mind forever.

Despite being a psychotherapist for high profile patient he thinks and reacts like any normal adult with wide depth of emotions. I love the narrator’s voice in this book. And until Alicia’s diary entries are shared, his vantage point is the only one we have. Who better than Alicia’s new psychotherapist that remains the only one left supporting her innocence? Theo, the protagonist and narrator, directs the discovery for truth. When your main character does not speak for themselves the author must incorporate a trustworthy advocate. And from page four when Alicia declares her complete love and devotion for husband Gabriel, we want to know how he got blasted in the face by a shotgun? Readers of Michaelide’s debut novel will turn pages dying to know if Alicia will ever speak her innocence, or guilt.

The silent patient alcestis