It's the group again. Don't blame me.

The Silent Patient. Alex Michaelides.

Alicia Berenson shot her husband six times in the face. Then she stopped talking. Completely. Not a word. Not a sound. Just silence and one painting left behind titled Alcestis and a room full of people who want to know why.

That is a great premise. That is genuinely a great premise. A woman who kills and then chooses silence as her only response to the world. I was in. Immediately. No hesitation.

And then the book started.

The Road To The Twist.

The road is long.

The road is very long.

The road is so long that by the time you arrive at the destination you have forgotten why you wanted to go there in the first place. You are tired. You are slightly irritated. You have been on this road for what feels like three weeks and you have seen approximately forty seven red herrings none of which led anywhere and a diary that reads like a published novel written by someone who has clearly never kept an actual diary in their life.

Theo Faber is the psychotherapist who wants to treat Alicia. He maneuvers his way into the psychiatric facility where she is held. He investigates. He interviews people. He follows leads. He uncovers things. He goes down paths that go nowhere and then turns around and goes down other paths that also go nowhere.

Page after page after page of paths that go nowhere.

I kept going. Because the premise. Because somewhere at the end of this very long road there was a twist and I had been promised that twist and I was going to collect it if it killed me.

It nearly did.

The Diary. THE DIARY.

Alicia kept a diary. Before the murder. The diary appears in chapters throughout the book as evidence of what happened leading up to the night she shot Gabriel six times in the face.

Now. I have kept a diary. Many people have kept diaries. I want to show you what a diary entry looks like.

Tuesday. Rained. Argument with Gabriel about the trip. He said he didn't want to go. I said fine. He left. I painted.

That is a diary entry.

Alicia's diary entries read like chapters of a published novel. Full scenes. Dialogue. Interior monologue. Detailed descriptions of rooms and lighting and facial expressions. Complete narrative arcs per entry. The woman wrote like she was submitting to a literary agent while simultaneously being a famous painter with a marriage falling apart and a husband she was allegedly about to shoot six times in the face.

Nobody writes like this in a diary.

Nobody.

The Twist. Which Is Technically Good. Which I Did Not Care About.

⚠️ Spoiler alert — but honestly I am doing you a favour. Skip to the verdict if you insist on finding out yourself.

Theo was there that night.

He was the masked man who broke into Alicia's house. He held Gabriel at gunpoint. He revealed that Gabriel was having an affair. He left without shooting anyone — his only intention was to expose Gabriel's betrayal to Alicia.

And Alicia — standing there with that information, with that betrayal, with all that accumulated rage — shot Gabriel herself.

Then Theo maneuvered his way into her case to make sure she never talked. To control the narrative. To protect himself.

When Alicia finally speaks — and recognizes him — he injects her with morphine to silence her permanently.

But she had already written the truth in her diary.

The police show up at his door at the end.

I had wanted to throw the book across the room in shock. I wanted to gasp. I wanted to lie awake at 3am reconstructing everything I had read from the beginning with new eyes.

Instead I closed it. Went to sleep. Got up the next morning.

This book could have been twenty pages. The twist could have landed like a freight train. Instead it arrived at the end of a very long road and I was too tired to appreciate it.

I want my road back.

I Am Going To Save You The Road.

So I am going to do something generous. Something I wish someone had done for me before I started.

Theo was there that night. He was the masked man. He broke in, held Gabriel at gunpoint, revealed the affair, and left without shooting anyone. Alicia shot Gabriel herself. Then Theo maneuvered his way into her case to make sure she never talked. When she finally speaks and recognizes him he injects her with morphine. But she had already written the truth in her diary. The police show up at his door at the end.

That's it. That's the twist. That's the road.

You're welcome. Go read something else. I have recommendations. They involve a woman in an airport bar who has been doing this since she was a teenager and does not keep an elaborate literary novel disguised as a diary about it.

Twenty pages. This book could have been twenty pages. The premise deserved better. So did I.