"The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides

"She comes alive again. Admetus is moved to tears by the reunion with his wife. Alcestis's emotions are harder to read -- she remains silent. She doesn't speak."

~Alcestis by Euripides

Alicia Berenson's life is perfect. She is an artist with a gallery that has the owner -- and long-time friend -- waiting in anticipation for her latest masterpiece. She is the wife of Gabriel Berenson, a well-known photographer. Sure, she has some madness-filled moments, but who doesn't throughout their life?

Then again...who's madness leads them to shoot their husband five times in the face after tying him up in a chair?

Theo Faber, psychotherapist, applies for a position at the Grove, a mental institution where, six years after her husband's brutal murder, Alicia is assigned. Rather than prison, her mental state was deemed incapacitated and under the suggestion of Dr. Diomedes, she was placed here, with others "like her." Others who have done unspeakable horrors to those they claimed to love. There is only one difference between them and Alicia. Alicia has not spoken a single, solitary word since her husband's death. Theo, on the other hand, is convinced he can get Alicia to break her silence. Amid his own crumbling thoughts, he reaches through to Alicia.

And the result is short of horrifying.

This book will take you on a journey through the inner psyche that is the human mind. With references to Greek mythology, Freud and inner consciousness, the result left me dumbfounded and staring at the wall. Alicia very well may be the definition of sanity, while everyone else around her are the mad ones. I loved the dual POV, which is something I struggle with enjoying in books. However, Michaelides does it exceptionally well with going back and forth between Theo's own experiences and Alicia's diary. I was kept hooked until the last page and am left wanting more and more. Their lives are intertwined and it makes you wonder just who can you truly trust in your own life?

Favorite Quotes

1. "She took a delight in living and was endlessly amused by life." (Pg. 47)

2. "[She] did that for me -- she was my invitation to life, one I grasped with both hands." (Pg. 49)

3. "I silently thanked Him for giving me such unexpected, undeserved happiness. I saw things clearly now, I understood His greater purpose. God hadn't abandoned me during my childhood, when I had felt so alone and so scared -- He had been keeping [her] hidden up in His sleeve, waiting to produce her, like a deft magician." (Pg. 51)

4. "Love that doesn't include honesty doesn't deserve to be called love." (Pg. 103)

5. "I'd rather be lonely than be with the wrong person... for someone real, as solid and true as the others were false." (Pg. 161)

6. "Trust, once lost, is hard to recover." (Pg. 167)