The silent patient alicia
But he tells me in ways that has already been written. Well, the author does try to tell me, let’s not brush over that. Why? What did he do? What does Theo feel? I’m just told that his dad had “unpredictable and arbitrary rages”. It’s not written in a specific way that helps me to relate or empathise with Theo. There’s nothing unique about his situation the author makes no effort to shed more light on it than “he was just abusive”. The way it’s written feels like recycled material from other books. Everything is a cliche, from the writing to Theo’s backstory. And as I’m battling through my relatinoship with Theo, then the author begins to annoy me. I try to be forgiving and let him win me over throughout the book, but he’s never capable. It’s filled with Theo’s insanely annoying inner monologue which is more about him than it is about Alicia, and I instantly don’t like him. And right off the bat, I’m not impressed with the writing.
Next, we get a little background about the murder and Alicia and where she is now. But really, I felt from the beginning that the reason would be have to spectacular for me to believe it, because who wouldn’t speak when their husband has just been shot? Like… has that ever happened in the history of any murder ever? We open the book with the million dollar question… why doesn’t Alicia speak? I wanted to know, too, of course. Let’s go! Part One :: Why Does She Not Speak? I’m going to break it up into 5 parts since there are 5 parts to this book. It reads both like a debut novel, and something a successful author has lazily written because they had a deadline. The ending is super rushed and written in a way that felt like the author didn’t really map it out detail by detail. Nothing happens for the first 80 pages, and then it’s scattered. I will be sharing spoilers in this review, but in case you don’t want to read those, here’s my mini review: This book isn’t good. It intentionally changed the rules of fiction – and not in a good way – to work as a story. On the topic of plot and characters, though, this was not good. And I think I learned more about the author’s unconcious bias towards women, people that aren’t white, and people that aren’t skinny, than I did about anything else. Not only was it badly written, but it was so problematic. It has brilliant Goodreads reviews, and the blurb sounded like something that, if nothing else, would be entertaining.īut I was actually kind of shocked to my core with this book. I really did have high hopes about this book. Psychotherapist, Theo Faber, wants to work with her to figure out the truth. Since then, she hasn’t spoken a single word. Synopsis: Alicia Berenson lived a seemingly perfect life until one day six years ago when she shot her husband in the head five times. If you haven’t gathered from my tone already, I did not enjoy this book at all. There are a lot of traumatic elements, many of which aren’t relevant to the plot at all. This author didn’t spare his readers any expense when writing this book. i haven’t proof read this post because, i do not have the energy to relive what i wrote lol)īefore we get into this review, I wanted to share the trigger warnings with you. Trigger warnings: murder, abusive parenst, suicide & suicide attempts, self-harm, stigmatising mental health, domestic abuse fantasy, sexual assault, racism, fatphobia and body shaming.