The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller novel written by British author Alex Michaelides in 2019. After selling millions of copies, it became New York Times, as well as Sunday Times best-selling novel. Due to its increasing popularity, the novel was in the talks to be made into a movie by Annapurna chief content officer Sue Naegle and film division president Ivana Lombardi back in 2019, but no further updates about the progress of the film have been announced so far.
When that happens, we will let you know but till then, let’s see what The Silent Patient is about and also understand its twisted but brilliant ending. The Silent Patient is an interesting read and will be liked by anyone who enjoys reading psychological thriller books.
The novel revolves around Alicia, a famous artist and a mentally unstable woman who shot her husband six years ago and has stopped talking ever since, and a criminal psychotherapist Theo who is hell-bent on making Alicia talk to unravel the mystery behind the death of Alicia’s husband Gabriel who was a famous fashion photographer.
The most interesting thing about The Silent Patient is its twisted ending which is the main reason why readers decide to stick around since the beginning of the novel is quite slow and tells the story in a low manner.
The ending of the book is appreciated by a lot of readers as they say ‘it blew their mind.’ So, if you decide to read The Silent Patient after this article, make sure to stick around till the very end, even if you feel like leaving the book in the middle.
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The Silent Patient Characters Detail
The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller novel with a handful of important characters, which are all listed below. Gabriel Berenson is a 44-year-old fashion photographer and Alicia’s husband, who was killed six years ago, and Alicia Berenson, a 39-year-old painter and Gabriel’s wife, who killed him six years ago and now lives in the Grove, a psychiatric hospital.
Theo Faber, A 42-year-old psychotherapist who treats Alicia, hopes to get her to reveal the reason behind why she killed Gabriel 6 years ago and Kathy: Theo’s wife and an American actress. Ruth Theo’s therapist, who he had been seeing for a while. Professor Diomedes is the director of the Grove. Christian is the Grove psychiatrist who has treated Alicia since she was admitted to the hospital before Theo took over. Paul, Alicia’s cousin who lived with Alicia and her parents, along with his mother and Jean-Felix: The art gallery owner where Alicia’s paintings were showcased, and her friend.
The Silent Patient Plot
The Silent Patient is one of the best psychological thriller novels by Alex Michaelides. It begins with Alicia Berenson, who was a painter and led a peaceful life, with her husband Gabriel Berenson, who was a fashion photographer. One day, their neighbor hears a gun being fired from Alicia’s house and calls the police. Alicia was found on the floor with several cuts on her wrists, and Gabriel with five bullet wounds on his face.
Alicia gets arrested for killing her husband after her fingerprints are found on the gun, and she is sent to Grove, a psychiatric hospital, for being mentally ill. She never spoke a word again about why she killed her husband. Six years later, Theo Faber, who was a psychotherapist, sees an opportunity to be Alicia’s psychiatrist and decides to jump on it because he wants to get her to speak and find out the reason for her crime. Theo meets with Alicia, who doesn’t say a word to him.
He sees her previous reports and finds out that she tried to commit suicide several times along with self-harm and attacked another patient. In order to find out more about Alicia, he meets with Max, Alicia’s brother-in-law, who tells him that Gabriel and Alicia are good to each other and suggests that he talks to Jean-Felix, the art gallery owner, where Alicia’s artwork is shown.
Theo goes to meet Jean-Felix and discovers the portrait that Alicia had made after committing the murder. She had named it ‘Alcestis,’ which was the name of a Greek Mythology heroine who sacrificed her life to save her husband but then was later saved and never spoke a word again.
After that, Theo decides to let Alicia paint again and reduces the dose of her medication. Meanwhile, he finds out that his wife Kathy has been cheating on him with another man who was also married. In between the sessions with Alicia, Theo reads her journal, which tells him that her cousin Paul had asked her for money to pay off his debts, so he decides to meet him, who reveals that he did ask Alicia for money.
But she never gave it to him. Paul also reveals that Alicia’s mother had committed suicide by driving her car into a wall with Alicia in it, and while hanging out on the roof of their house, Paul and Alicia had heard her father say that he wished Alicia had died in that car instead of her mother. Theo reveals to Alicia that he knows about what her father said and encourages her to talk to him, and she agrees with an ‘okay.’ She tells him that she saw a man outside her house several times and one day while she was going to her art studio, after talking to Gabriel, who was going to be late, she was attacked by the same man.
The man pushes her inside the house and ties her hands with a wire. Before Gabriel arrives, the man knocks him unconscious with his gun and ties him to the. When Gabriel gains consciousness, the man shoots him six times and walks out the door. Theo doesn’t believe her because Gabriel was shot five times, not six. When he tells Diomedes about her story, Diomedes thinks Alicia is delusional and makes up the story about the man.
Theo catches Kathy with her lover as they go to his house. One day, he decides to visit Kathy’s lover’s house, which turns out to be Gabriel, and his wife Alicia is there too. Then we are told the real story from Alicia’s diary about how Theo goes over to Alicia’s house with a mask on to tell her about Gabriel’s affair. He ties both of them in a chair against each other and tells her what a dirtbag Gabriel is before asking them who he should kill. Alicia tells the man to save her husband. Meanwhile, Gabriel says he should kill Alicia to save himself.
Theo fires a bullet into the air before untying Alicia and walking out of the house. Alicia kills her husband after hearing everything that Theo says. Later, Alicia is put in a coma by Theo when he realizes that Alicia recognized him from that night six years ago and tries to kill her by injecting morphine into her body which puts her into a coma. After a while, Theo’s secret comes out, and he is arrested by the police for killing Alicia.
The Silent Patient Ending Explained:
The Silent Patient’s author has deceived us by using two timelines in a way to make s believe that both stories are happening at once when in fact, they are happening six years apart. The first timeline follows Theo finding out about his wife Kathy’s affair with Gabriel and his visiting his house in a mask six years ago. The second timeline follows Theo’s presence as he is assigned Alicia’s psychotherapist and gets her to talk again.
Theo decides to become Alicia’s therapist when he hears that she is stuck in an asylum and isn’t doing well. He felt responsible for triggering the events that may have caused her to end up in such a situation and genuinely wanted to help her to talk again.
He had no idea that she would recognize him with a mask. When he had gone over to her house to tell Alicia about Gabriel’s affair, Theo just wanted to rat him out. He didn’t know about Alicia’s troubled past and didn’t think that she would kill Gabriel. When he finds out that she remembers everything, he decides to kill her and injects drugs into her body which causes her to overdose, and she ends up in a coma.
Unbeknownst to Theo, Alicia had already written down her story about Theo being the masked man in her journal, which was later found by the art gallery owner and her friend Jean-Felix who handed it over to the police. In the end, the police go over to Theo’s house to confront him about Alicia’s journal.
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