Book Name : The Silent Patient
What is it about : Alicia shot her husband Gabriel five times in the face and refused to utter a word ever since. She was charged murder by reason of insanity / diminished responsibility and was sent to a psychiatric ward, The Grove, to be "further analysed" and "mentally assisted". Out of reasons only he knew better, psychotherapist, Theo, himself a victim of parental abuse and a failing relationship, came in to The Grove, to attempt rescuing Alicia from this damaging downward spiral, only to find himself being drawn into a dark past which he had no escape.
Some thoughts after having read the book : To become the present day best sellers, one would need to write the story in easily-digestible chunks of 5 pages to no more than 10 pages per chapter - just as not to be over-taxing our present day attention-lacking general reading public; so they could have an easy read with the occasional check for their incoming SMS or get themselves a refill of wine and so that the book would not hurt their brains too much with over-length development which they failed to cope and would eventually give up - instead with the book divided into simple chew-able bits and in reaching the end of the book, they would reflect : "oh, that was a pleasant, wonderful straight-forward read, I would give it high marks.". The style and structure of this bestseller deployed exactly such technique; so in my case, my train of thoughts and concentration were constantly disrupted by the shortness of story development and I felt rather annoyed at the lack of substance to feed my curiosity and hunger for a solid read. And yes, of course I could have read more pages in one go, but in that case, the book would be finished quickly without much to mull over.
Would I recommend this book to you : The book would receive a good "Pass" grade from me, although the story-telling had an artificial feel to it and did not flow easily since the book was divided into too many short sections, as I had mentioned above. The rather shocking ending would make up much of the frustration but it still lacked the "oomph" to mesmersie the readers. Perfect book for that lazy holiday by the pool - a bit of barbecue, a sip of beer, a quick cool-off in the pool and a bit of reading to catch up on the story. Relaxing !
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