This was a wild paranoid ride. The twist completely took me by surprise and kept me guessing up until the very end.
This came to me as a recommendation from a friend, who mentioned it as something good to listen to on audiobook. The premise reminded me of The Sanatorium which I didn't enjoy and I think some of that was because being on audio made it harder to follow. I didn't have any of those issues with The Silent Patient. The acting for the audiobook was well done and the experience was immersive.
Theo Faber is a psychotherapist who manipulates his way into a new job at the Grove mental health facility. He envisions himself as the one to unlock the silence that Alicia Berenson has been in since she allegedly murdered her husband. However, he also announces that he himself is a bit "fucked up". The more the audience gets to know Faber the more paranoid and obsessive he becomes. How reliable is this narrator?
Simultaneously, the story is interspersed with Alicia's diary entries leading up to her husband's murder. The reader is left guessing. Could this woman who professes to love her husband so much really have murdered him? What is her silence really hiding?
The story is littered with red herrings throughout the short punchy chapters keep you reading for just one more. If you're a fan of mysteries and thrillers, maybe you will guess whodunit before it's revealed, but I definitely had my eye on someone else. While these sorts of things are not usually my go-to I found this one engaging and immersive. I was shocked by the twist and the entire ride was really enjoyable.
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