Offered Books:
The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
Golden State by Ben H. Winters
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Maid by Stephanie Land
Golden Child by Claire Adam
Selected:
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Other Purchased:
None - yet
I am in the minority opinion on this book. It has the distinction (along with the previously reviewed Future Home of the Living God, The Perfect Mother, and The Chalk Man) of being one of the rare books to get the 'dislike' option when rating it at the Book of the Month website. Contrast this with it making the finalist list for Book of the Year at the same site - in fact, as of the typing of this review only 3% of members who have voted have given it the dreaded 'dislike.' Why does my opinion differ from so many others? The ending, my dear friends, the ending.
I'm not going to lie: this book had me going. I tore through it eagerly wanting to see how it resolved itself. Any mild qualms I came across were pushed aside as I powered through to see what happened on the fateful night where Alicia Berenson murdered her husband. Then, in the last 20 or so pages, it all fell apart. The reveal was so convoluted, so stupid, that it made me angry that I had read the book with such passion. In fact, so angered was I by the ending of the book, that looking back at the minor qualms I had made me feel like I had ignored numerous red flags placed throughout the novel. The story itself had tried to warn me of the imminent disappointment... and I ignored it.
To expand on my brief summary above, Alicia Berenson has murdered her husband - both of them fairly famous - and then refused to say anything about what had transpired that evening that had caused her to shoot him multiple times. Five years have passed, Alicia has been committed, and Theo Faber - a criminal psychotherapist - works for the opportunity to examine the famous mystery.
It is here where the first of the major red flags appears: Alicia starts talking to Theo fairly quickly. This isn't much of a spoiler (there would not be much of a novel without this development), but no one really comments on his quick success. There's a few passing mentions of his ability to get her to open up, but for a well-known woman who famously refused to speak for five years. It feels like, at the very least, the other doctors should have reacted. Someone needed to remark on it, and the fact that no one really does destroys the world-building done up to this point.
I can't much into details of the other parts that should have served as a warning to me - far too plot relevant to reveal - but they are very much in the same vein as the above one: Why hasn't anyone else comment on [x]? Why did no one think to [y]? All of them could be addressed fairly quickly and without a bunch of text but they just aren't.
And it pains me, because so much of the novel is so good - Theo and Alicia are interesting characters and the pace of the book is well done. The tone is well-managed without ever being too much. Really, if the ending had so completely and utterly disappointed me, it might have been one of my favorites of the year.
But again, I am in the minority on this opinion. This book is widely beloved by those that read it: I cannot give it a recommend, but with the caveat that most people definitely would.
1.5 out of 5 - maybe a 2 out of 5 depending on my mood.
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