Aug. 25, From the journal of Gabriel Berenson
The front door slammed shut and with it the remnants of my sanity. It wasn’t the deafening blast that terrified me as much as the silence that followed, the person I could no longer hear.
This couldn’t be happening. I screamed and begged, and the wires around my wrists and ankles dug into my skin, but I could barely register them anymore. The physical pain seemed like a dull ache compared to the open wound I now felt in my heart –– in my soul –– as reality sunk in.
It all happened so fast. Too fast before I found myself tied to a chair with a gun being waved in my face –– my father’s gun I had so foolishly insisted on keeping in the house –– that was just used for its intended purpose, but on the wrong person.
It was only after, as I stared into eyes I no longer recognized, that my marriage vows fully sunk in. Till death do us part.
Oct. 17, 2023
Alicia and Gabriel Berenson seemed to have a picture-perfect life. He was a well-known photographer and she a talented painter. After seven years, they were still wrapped in a bubble of marital bliss.
That was until the tragic night of Aug. 25, when Alicia shot her husband in the face. Five times.
The truly strange part occured in the aftermath of the murder, when Alicia refused to speak. She refused to do much of anything it seemed, having hollowed into a shell of her once lively self.
She became every psychotherapist’s dream patient. Being perfectly sane one day and homicidal the next made her a prime candidate for the shrink spotlight. But as the days passed and the media attention died down, her allure did as well.
That is for everyone except Theo Faber. Six years after the murder and Alicia’s case still invades his mind. He is desperate to help her, not just as a psychotherapist, but as a fellow messed-up person (his words not mine). He refuses to give up on her, vowing to discover exactly what –– or who –– pushed her over the edge.
“The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides guides the reader through this mystery rather interestingly. As mimicked by this introduction, diary entries precede each chapter. The chapters themselves are from Theo’s perspective, but one soon discovers that the book itself acts as one large diary entry. Theo will occasionally break the fourth wall and speak directly to the reader, adding commentary or taunting us with information.
Going into this novel, I was aware there was a huge plot twist somewhere in the book and let me tell you, it didn’t disappoint. I sat in the EMU, slacked-jawed like a complete idiot as I tried and failed to comprehend what I had just read –– not once, but twice. It’s the type of book that invades your thoughts in the middle of class or in the dead of night, mostly due to the tragedy but also because of how bizarre it is.
That being said, I loved it. It’s difficult to write an effective jumpscare, but somehow Michaelides pulled it off. The imagery was so masterful the words became images and my mental movie theater quickly came to fruition. The emphasis on the emotional aspect of the characters made them seem like so much more than ink on dead trees.
This psychological thriller novel was incredible. I give it a 15 out of 10 and would highly recommend it to anyone, especially those who like books that make you forget you’re actually reading.
