Read from April 29 – May 04, 2024
1/5 stars I HATED THIS
NOTE: I started out with an open mind read the first chapter, and then this turned into a hate-read.
That being said, no hate to anyone who enjoyed this book, I would love to hear what your opinions are, both on the book and this review 🙂
Let’s start with my ‘favourite’ quote:
“but it is impossible for someone who was not abused to become an abuser.”
Theo Faber, Psychotherapist
I genuinely do not understand what the hype around this book is.
To be fair, the second I read the words ‘TikTok sensation’ in the advertising, I should have known better.
The thing that struck me is that Michaelides is a SCREENWRITER, and this very much reads like a script, it felt like it was written solely for the purpose of selling the movie rights.
TLDR: This book wants to be Gone Girl so bad.
So, save yourself, if this is on your TBR, forget about it, read something else, ANYTHING else, read a newspaper, just don’t read this.
Longer rant Review, including the writing, characters, setting, and my main issues with this novel.
The Writing:
Is mediocre, at best. It’s very much in the style of ‘he said, she said’.
The best way I can describe it is that it reminds me of a middle-grade novel, where everything is stated clear cut and there isn’t much effort needed on the reader’s part.
There’s nothing wrong with that, for a KID’S book, but this is NOT written for a 10-year-old.
There’s long swaths of exposition, the chapters are between 2-5 pages long, we are constantly told who’s speaking, points are stated and then re-stated kind of like:
“Alicia Berenson has not spoken in 6 years” Diomedes said.
That’s right, from what I remember, she has not spoken since her husband was killed, 6 years ago.
So much needless repetition.
The reason I said that it reads like a script is because there is a lot of useless dialogue + endless descriptions.
Each character and setting is described in such needless detail, going on for entire paragraphs, for example:
Barbie was a Californian blonde in her mid-sixties, possibly older. She was drenched in Chanel No 5, and she’d had a considerable amount of plastic surgery. Her name suited her – she looked like a startled Barbie doll. She was obviously the kind of woman who was used to getting what she wanted – hence her loud protestations at the reception desk when she discovered she needed to make an appointment to visit a patient.
This character has been mentioned once or twice previously but she is relevant for MAYBE 15 pages out of 336.
Majority of the side characters are introduced like this, however, Theo isn’t really described in much detail beyond the ‘tall, dark and brooding’ trope and neither is Alicia, so the 2 protagonists are essentially blank slates.
The dialogue is so cringey, almost every chapter mentions the weather [this is set in the UK], like the weather is used as filler relentlessly.
There’s a bunch of continuity errors, the main one that comes to mind is that at the start of the book when Theo first enters The Grove [don’t even get me started on the name of the hospital, it sounds like the name of a cartoon villain’s layer, not a psych hospital] he is asked to give up his lighter and any other objects that could be used as weapons, yet he and majority of the side characters smoke CONSTANTLY INSIDE THE HOSPITAL.
The writing also reminded me A LOT of Colleen Hoover’s writing, and if that women has no haters, then I’m dead.
The Diary Entries:
Like I said, this book wants to be Gone Girl so bad.
The diary entries are written very weirdly, they don’t read like a journal, where you might get more of a stream of consciousness sort of style, they read like POV switches from 6 years in the past.
They don’t flow and amble like you would expect.
Examples:
Tears collected in my eyes as I walked up the hill. I wasn’t crying for my mother – or myself – or even that poor homeless man. I was crying for all of us. There’s so much pain everywhere, and we just close our eyes to it.
But I ruined the mood, stupidly, clumsily – by asking if he would sit for me. ‘I want to paint you,’ I said. ‘Again? You already did.’ ‘That was four years ago. I want to paint you again.’ ‘Uh-huh.’ He didn’t look enthusiastic. ‘What kind of thing do you have in mind?’ I hesitated – and then said it was for the Jesus picture. Gabriel sat up and gave a kind of strangled laugh. ‘Oh, come on, Alicia.’
The diary entries are not diary entries, they are memories.
People don’t write down entire conversations word for word like this when they journal, like “’
I had lunch with Martha’ he said”, you write it like “Gabriel had lunch with Martha today.”
I know why the diary entries feel so weird, they read like movie scenes, like a flashback.
Like the memory/subject of the diary entry should be playing in the background while someone narrates.
Again, this was a script, not a novel, I stand by this point.
The Characters:
Character development is frankly non-existent, the characters don’t exists as themselves, they exist to serve the plot.
They have no depth, and their motivations are lacking.
Theo faber: he was abused as a kid and is therefore damaged.
Chapter 3 was literally just an exposition dump of his entire childhood, just straight out of the blue.
It was like Chapter one: a report of the murder, chapter 2 further recollection, chapter 3: so my father beat throughout my childhood, I don’t know why.
Theo’s father was verbally and physically abuse, Theo attempted suicide when he was at uni, because the things his dad said made him feel like a failure.
But we are never told WHAT has been said, and therefore, we don’t see why exactly Theo would have doubts about himself.
Abuse shapes you as a person, if we got to hear his inner thoughts about what his father said, it would give greater insight into Theo’s identity as a character.
Besides that, Theo has a RAGING saviour complex,
“Unable to come to terms with what she had done, Alicia stuttered and came to a halt, like a broken car. I wanted to help start her up again – help Alicia tell her story, to heal and get well. I wanted to fix her.”
The book is filled with passages like that.
And besides that, it’s just filled with loads of nonsense psychobabble.
Theo is also OBSESSED with Alicia, the book tells us it’s out of guilt, but I contest and say that he’s just a creep who very much treats Alicia like a failed version of a manic pixie dream girl.
Alicia Berenson: Alicia is a walking contradiction.
We are told that she is beautiful, charming, sophisticated, but she instead comes across as an anti-social, paranoid shut in with serious co-dependency issues.
She has no friends, no relationships outside of her husband Gabriel, no hobbies, or interests outside of painting and having sex with her husband.
All she does in her chapters is paint, have arguments with people, have sex, and walk around.
Side characters: only exist to serve the plot.
Professor Lazarus Diomedes: the name alone makes me cringe.
He’s Greek, he has a lot of instruments in his office including a piano and a harp [which are never brought up after the initial chapters he’s introduced and he never plays any of them], he’s “unorthodox” and shunned, and he basically exists to be Theo Faber’s ‘yes man’.
Christian: stereotypical work rival who has a habit of calling all the patients bitches.
Yuri: He’s a psych nurse who takes Theo to bar and tell him that he and his wife divorced, and he fell in love with someone else. Fine fair enough, but does he approach this woman like a normal person?
No, he pulls a Joe from YOU and stalks and harasses her.
Yet later on THEO SAYS THAT HE IS A GOOD MAN AND THAT HE IS SORRY DOUBTING YURI. DESPITE INITIALLY BEING UNCOMFORTABLE WITH HIS BEHAVIOUR.
Then again Theo himself is a stalker so go figure.
The Setting:
The Grove is supposed to be a mental hospital used to detain mentally ill criminals.
Firstly, all the patients are female. It is never stated that the hospital is an all-female facility.
Second, we never get an idea of the scope of this place, there’s only one therapy room for EVERYONE to use, only 2 psychiatrists on payroll, Diomedes and Christian, 2 therapists, Theo and a side character named Indira, one psychiatric nurse, Yuri and an admin assistant, Stephanie.
The layout and descriptions are confusing, one area is referred to as the ‘Fishbowl’ throughout the novel.
Racism:
I don’t know if Michaelides has some internalized racism going on but every single foreign character has a habit of erasing their cultural identity.
Examples:
Yuri, the psych nurse who is Latvian –
Yuri was good-looking, well built, and in his late thirties. He had dark hair and a tribal tattoo creeping up his neck, above his collar. He smelled of tobacco and too much sweet aftershave. And although he spoke with an accent, his English was perfect.
This sort of backhanded compliment is considered racist, as someone who is POC myself, I’ve gotten this plenty of times and it always gives me the ick.
Jean-Felix, the gallerist –
He spoke with an accent. I asked if he was French. ‘Originally – from Paris. But I’ve been here since I was a student – oh, twenty years at least. I think of myself more as British these days.’
There were more examples, but these are the main ones I found in my notes.
Misogyny:
Firstly, the patients are all female, like I said earlier, it is never stated that it is an all-female facility.
This book is dripping with it, every single female character is either described as a manic pixie dream girl, a maternal figure, or a psychotic bitch.
The DOCTORS refer to their patients as bitches multiple times.
Example:
“She was entirely consumed with herself and her art. All the empathy you have for her, all the kindness – she isn’t capable of giving it back. She’s a lost cause. A total bitch.’ Christian said this with a scornful expression-“
Rowena gave a derisive snort. ‘Because Alicia’s the least responsive, most uncommunicative bitch I’ve ever worked with.’
Besides that, they are often compared to birds:
“I remember Mum and those colourful tops she’d wear, with the yellow stringy straps, so flimsy and delicate – just like her. She was so thin, like a little bird.”
“Alicia was sitting alone, I noticed, at the back of the room. She was picking at a meagre bit of fish like an anorexic bird;”
Alicia is also very much painted as a manic pixie dream girl in her diary entries, almost every page of her POV mentions sex, and it has no effect on the plot.
It was mentioned so often that I ended up keeping track out of boredom [I should have also tracked how often the weather was mentioned].
I think I have 15 tabs in 300 pages by the end of it for just sex scenes.
I don't have an issue with sex, but just like in movies when it gets thrown in for no reason, that's when it irritates me.
And of course the mentally ill woman with possible psychosis and BPD has to be shown as hot and a nymphomaniac.
Every one of her POVs reads like:
“Gabriel and I had an argument and then we had sex.”
“I went for a walk and fantasized about Gabriel.”
“I was trying to paint Gabriel but then we had sex.”
“I had an argument with someone and came home to wake up Gabriel and we had sex.”
I can see why this atrocity is a BookTok favourite.
Oh, and this line: [Warning NSFW]
“It’s still populated by sixteen-year-olds, embracing the sunshine, sprawled on either side of the canal, a jumble of bodies – boys in rolled-up shorts with bare chests, girls in bikinis or bras – skin everywhere, burning, reddening flesh. The sexual energy was palpable – their hungry, impatient thirst for life. I felt a sudden desire for Gabriel – for his body and his strong legs, his thick thighs lain over mine. When we have sex, I always feel an insatiable hunger for him – for a kind of union between us – something that’s bigger than me, bigger than us, beyond words – something holy.”
She’s out on a walk and salivating over 16-year-olds. Enough said.
Medical Malpractice:
Not only is a lot of the psychology in this book outdated, but in general, there is so much misinformation.
The psychology is so outdated, and it's mostly centered around Freud.
The biggest example I can think of is Alicia’s initial treatment, she has been put on Risperidone, which is an anti-psychotic prescribed to schizophrenic patients [Also prescribed for autism, BPD, etc. but that's on a case by case basis]
In the book, Alicia is shown to be completely out if it, she’s drooling on the floor, and practically comatose.
Risperidone is NOT a sedative [it can have sedative EFFECTS, but sedation is not the function] it acts on dopamine and serotine receptors and is used to reduce symptoms of schizophrenia, i.e. prevent hallucinations and help stabilize mood.
It should not be causing Alicia to be unresponsive.
[Disclaimer, this is just coming from my basic knowledge as a med student and a few quick google searches, if I'm wrong, please correct me.]
Moving on, Theo wants to treat Alicia but she’s on 16 mg of Risperidone, which is the highest safe dose possible.
He asks Christian to lower the dose, what does Christian do?
He stops giving Alicia 16 mg and switches her to 5 mg.
An 11 mg decrease. IN ONE DAY.
There is no gradual decrease, no safety precautions, NOTHING.
For context, Risperidone is prescribed in 0.5 – 1 mg increments.
This means that an 11 mg decrease is incredibly dramatic and DANGEROUS, it can send a patient into a psychotic episode, cause them to relapse and lead to withdrawal.
Christian being a psychiatrist should know this.
Patients are allowed access to a pool table without supervision, all the doctors smoke and offer their patients cigarettes,
Yuri deals drugs, Theo seemingly does no ither work besides talk to Alicia and play detective.
Depiction of mentally ill patients:
Throughout the book the patients are often referred to as animals, monstrous or zombies.
Examples:
“Her [Elif, a patient] face was pressed up against it, squashing her nose, distorting her features, making her almost monstrous.”
“It took four nurses to hold Alicia down. She writhed and kicked and fought like a creature possessed. She didn’t seem human, more like a wild animal; something monstrous.”
[Alicia is painting, Theo is watching]
“I felt like I was present at an intimate moment, watching a wild animal give birth. And although Alicia was aware of my presence, she didn’t seem to mind.”
On top of that, the word borderline gets thrown out A LOT, but it is never explained and is often derogatory.
Example:
[This is Christian the psychiatrist speaking, warning Theo about Alicia]
‘I’m just saying. Borderlines are seductive. That’s what’s going on here. I don’t think you fully get that.’
I am not against problematic writing, as long as it serves a purpose, but Michaelides is not talented enough to do something like this intentionally, and showing patients in this light serves no purpose.
Theo makes it very clear that he thinks that Elif, a Turkish woman, is ugly and rude, it is mentioned every time she is on the page.
This sort of depiction is harmful, mental health gets a bad enough rep as it is, again, I take no issue with problematic writing, but this is not problematic or controversial, this is ignorance.
The depiction of mental illness, coupled with the use of Risperidone, indicates, to me, that Michaelides did not do his research whatsoever.
He just thought of a cool idea and ran with it.
Oh, and lastly, let’s not forget:
“but it is impossible for someone who was not abused to become an abuser.”
No, just no. ANYONE can be abusive.
Correlation does not equal causation.
This is blatant misinformation and a very harmful message to send and I was actually so angry when I read that.
The Twist [spoilers]
The twist is the most ridiculous thing, and it hangs on by a thread.
I had already guessed that Gabriel was the one who Kathy’s affair partner was, and the entire thing falls apart when you realize that if any of Theo’s chapters were dated, you would figure it out immediately.
That’s a very loose basis for a dramatic reveal.
Yes, Theo is an unreliable narrator and I usually enjoy such stories, but this was just lazy.
I’m sorry, Theo followed Gabriel all over London and never ONCE saw his face, never heard Kathy moan his name when he was spying on them, not ONCE.
It’s poor when your twist relies on my suspension of disbelief.
Conclusion
– Poorly written, reads like a middle-grade novel. Michaelides is a screenwriter, and this very much reads like a script, designed to be easy to follow and direct.
– Horrible depiction mental health, both as a patient and in practice.
– Hollow, 2D characters.
– Misogynistic.
– Overall waste of time, save yourself.
by Hale-117
46 Comments
While I agree that the novel is not great in terms of prose and craft, I don’t believe it is a 1-star book.
The Silent Patient commercially succeeds despite its flaws because it keeps the reader hooked, and the final twist catches a lot of entry-level thriller readers off guard. The characters were intriguing and a bit unlikeable; however, they could have benefitted from a bit more layering.
The writing and prose are definitely not something to talk about—it’s very barebones and pedestrian, but that also has an advantage; it’s accessible to all readers, native and non-native English speakers.
Although Michaelides didn’t do a good job depicting the whole facets of psychology, he does have degrees in the field and has worked in therapy, so it’s pretty much the opinion of an expert.
Your arguments about racism and misogyny are very thin—I am Arabic, and if I meet a European who speaks perfect Arabic, I’d be VERY impressed much like Theo was impressed with a foreigner speaking perfect English. Nothing to be offended by.
If you read books with a PC checklist, you’re bound to be disappointed. The world is not all rainbows and unicorns.
As someone whose husband is a clinical psychologist, I just laughed and then DNF. Horribly written with a worrying potrayal of mental health and mysoginistic. Just no.
Yeah, it’s truly one of the worst books I’ve ever read in my life.
Any book that’s outcome relies heavily on someone’s shaky mental health for shock value. Usually isn’t very good. It’s like an advancement on the ‘It was all a dream’ trope.
If you enjoyed writing this review I suggest you check out The Maidens by the same author. It is equally shite and I’m sure you’ll do just as good a job explaining why.
I’ve read similar reviews on goodreads before reading the book and most of the people who are not satisfied with the book are the ones that have some knowledge about psychiatry. I guess it has mostly good notes on goodreads because most of the readers don’t have psychiatry knowlede and they just go over the inaccuracies.
Personally I liked the book, although I could spot some of the inaccuracies that you’ve mentioned. I didn’t have high expectations and read it during a rainy weekend. It was fast to read and sometimes enjoyable. Also, the fact that it was written like a screenplay helped with the story twist.
I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time. I’ve read worse books (since you mentioned Colleen Hoover, Verity felt like a real waste of time compared to this). In my opinion it’s not a 5/5 but certainly is not a 1/5 book. I would put it somewhere between 3-4/5. I would not read it again because I don’t think there are lots of details to dig in but for a light read it is fine.
Holy shit you need to be a writer yourself
I work in mental health. DNF’d this 50 pages in. This book makes me so mad.
You typed all that out?
I thought it was just OK. I don’t understand the hype either. I usually don’t read trendy books, but I thought I’d give this one a try. If anything, the book convinced me to go with my gut and avoid trendy books.
Thank you!!
A girl I had a crush on recommended me this book so I read through it in 2-3 sittings so I could talk about it… and oh man, I couldn’t stop cringing and laughing my way through it. The writing was so bad.
I didn’t see the twist coming partly because I stopped caring about Theo and felt like he was unbelievable because he was written so poorly and he kept acting out-of-character for the therapist he supposedly was. It seems like too much credit to call Theo an unreliable narrator when the author was just a bad writer.
Enjoyed all of your review. Please do more bad books
I read his other book, The Madiens, and it is a so awful. I hate it so much. The twist does not make sense at all and I hate it. I did not know it was a TikTok approved book when I bought it. The entire time I was reading, The Madiens, I was thinking how to fix the book to make it better. I found out there is already a book that is the better version – The Secret History by Donna Tart. I also didn’t know it was a The Secret History fanfic until I read that book.
If you want a book that is about abuse and takes place in a mental hospital I highly recommend The Lost Girls of Williowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman. It’s very well written, details the abuse that happens in a mental hospital and empathizes the patients.
> Barbie was a Californian blonde in her mid-sixties, possibly older. She was drenched in Chanel No 5, and she’d had a considerable amount of plastic surgery. Her name suited her – she looked like a startled Barbie doll.
This paragraph by itself is enough to put me off. Her name is Barbie, and she looks like a Barbie doll. *Barbie* is her name, get it? Clever, huh?
The depictions of mental health and therapy are infuriating.
Thank you for this review. I know now not to bother with this one. 🙂
I barely remember this book, but I read a review that reminded me that this book requires an unreliable narrator to perform as if he didn’t know what was happening and talk to himself when he was alone, which is just bad writing. Reminds me of Heavy Rain.
I hated it so much! I’m surprised it has such good ratings on Goodreads
This book was terrible and every one of this author’s following books have sucked too. I guessed the “twist” in his most recent book The Fury after reading a sample and went to look up if I was right, and I was.
I also barely remember this book which is not a good sign, but I do remember that I thought it was one of those books in which the author thought of the ‘twist’ first, and wrote the story around that. It was really clunky and obvious.
You mentioned Colleen Hoover, and I’m one of those who recently read Verity on a recommendation from a friend. What you say here about the (paraphrasing your review) “every situation leads to sex” was my big takeaway from Verity. It felt like I was just reading this woman’s personal sex fantasy disguised as some sort of story with a massively predictable twist. This sounds a lot like the same.
Plenty of people enjoy that sort of thing, but I always feel like when authors beat you over the head with that same theme over and over it turns into a parody of itself and, at least for me, makes it totally unenjoyable.
The stuff just _sells_ though, which is why we keep getting more of it and why some of these otherwise unremarkable authors get continued book and movie deals. I feel like there is plenty of room for something in between that is well written, still sex-charged, has believable twist(s), and still doesn’t feel bluntly written, but…ugh.
Somebody recently said to me that the best kind of plot twist in any medium is one that you don’t see coming, but immediately kick yourself and say wow, that was obvious or makes total sense in hindsight. It’s undoubtedly a difficult thing to pull off. Likewise, a powerful sex scene is one that is built up to, with characters that have some tension between them and aren’t just banging in every other chapter. I wish more modern authors understood that.
Wow – thanks for this! I also hated the book and very much resented the PR that convinced me to buy it.
I donated this one to the recycle bin. Picked it up when I asked for a recommendation at the bookstore.
I have some hatred for twists where, OH, THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR DID IT!!! How unsurprising. Am I supposed to feel like I *am* the narrator, and therefore would know idunnit? Or should it be like the narrator is talking to me… from his prison cell… in which case obviously it was him?
I haven’t read much ever since I graduated from school. I try for a few books a year so it was pretty damn disappointing to spend a moment on something soooooooo bad. Love seeing people hate on it though, which almost makes it worth it.
>It’s poor when your twist relies on my suspension of disbelief.
So, literally every thriller in the past 20 years then?
lol. I wrote a similar review for [The Maidens](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1c0xxtr/the_maidens_is_godawful_trash/), which wants to be The Secret History so bad. I think Michaelides is just a sub-mediocre writer who can ape popular styles well enough to fool a chunk of the population, and a really really good agent.
The thing that got to me about the very begining of the book was that it starts about how the story is about whatshername and then immediately goes into about himself. I knew from that point this was going to suck.
Not exaggerating when I say it’s one of the worst books I’ve ever read. I can’t fathom why it’s so highly recommended
Thank you for the thorough and accurate post. This book sucked so bad. I questioned the judgement of my friend who recommended it to me.
Yeah it’s a shit read
I HATE this book too
I take pride in finishing every book I start. I did not finish this one.
The Faber quote about abusers is incorrect. I classify abusers/murderers etc. as either Monsters or Scorpions.
Monsters are made. Had they not experienced terrible things they would have never done terrible things. With the right therapies early enough they can be diverted from that path completely, or at least healed later so they will not be a danger when released.
Scorpions (as in the frog and the scorpion story – “because it is my nature”) are born broken. They are those born with antisocial personality disorders whose lack of empathy is key to their behaviours. They can have a great upbringing, yet they can do the most terrible things later in life simply because they want to. And sadly there is no fixing them.
This makes me feel better considering my book went to his editor and he turned me down because and I quote “I’ve already seen a few books like this one, one even had a queer couple.”
So my culty book with two husbands didn’t fit on shelves because there was already one (that wasn’t even bought) that had a queer couple.
So fucking infuriating.
If there is nobody around to cheer on rant reviews of The Silent Patient, then I am dead.
(I ended up hate reading this book as well.)
I hated this book so much, that I left it on the flight I was travelling on.
The doctor is made to relinquish even small things that can be used as weapon, yet all the patients are given all freedom.
The author just came up with this twist and they did not think to make the surrounding plot believable.
It’s the perfect book for people with a strange fascination with the mentally ill, but no actual compassion for their condition.
It’s so inherently misogynistic! Especially with the descriptions of good VS bad women. The good women are either maternal or beautiful sex objects, and the bad women are always fat and ugly. After Kathy’s betrayal she goes from beautiful to grotesque.
I red it and enjoyed it, but it is not a good book. Mediocre at best. A book you can read without engaging your brain. And you shouldn’t be working in Healthcare. The Risperidon made me laugh lol
This book was so infuriating. It was so hyped that when I picked it up, I thought that I was about to read the most thrilling and unexpected mystery ever, and it turned out to be the exact polar opposite.
It flopped when it came to mental health. It was almost too embarrassing to keep reading.
So not worth it?
I’m late to this thread but had to say that I found reading your review very cathartic! I read this book a few years ago and still occasionally think about how awful it was. Top five (bottom five?) worst books I’ve ever read.
It takes me alot to dnf a book but i just couldnt get into this book. I dont understand why people rave about it
With all this hype, I am so glad to find this review. I finished the book a couple of days ago, and I am absolutely horrified at how bad the psychology is. I can’t believe that the author has studied psychotherapy. I literally laughed reading the risperidone dose reduction. I am not even a med student, just a person who takes medicines, and has a bit of common sense.
If Theo never went to the grove he never would have been caught. Also what bothered me was that he had caught Kathy cheating 6 years ago I guess and never confronted her they just stayed together? Why was all his anger at Gabriel and none towards Kathy
Yall are fucking miserable people
One very important question that must be raised is how theo conveniently glosses over his own infidelity in the narrative. This connection is never made in the story how theo and kathy’s relationship itself started out as a result of double infidelity. I think it is highly hypocritical of him to never question it. He does question at one point saying something along the lines of “why is this happening to me?” And “what is god punishing me for?” But its never brought to light how poorly he had treated his ex girlfriend during their breakup when he had spent the night with kathy.
He broke up with his ex over a phone call and hung up abruptly never mentioning the cheating either. Isnt this exactly what kathy did? Never mentioned the cheating. Its very funny actually
And as for kathy’s character- infidelity was not a surprise. This is what happened before and was bound to happen again.
In retrospect kathy and theo were perfect for each other. Two narcissistic, lying, hypocritical people:)
I personally think that the misogyny and racism is part of theo and other character’s characterizations, not necessarily a reflection of the author’s personal sentiments.
Also,
>**Alicia Berenson:** Alicia is a walking contradiction.
We are told that she is beautiful, charming, sophisticated, but she instead comes across as an anti-social, paranoid shut in with serious co-dependency issues.
She has no friends, no relationships outside of her husband Gabriel, no hobbies, or interests outside of painting and having sex with her husband.
All she does in her chapters is paint, have arguments with people, have sex, and walk around.
I don’t think that’s a flaw in writing, in my opinion it is a very reasonable perception vs reality thing, like someone can be described to be something and not actually be that something, especially Alicia because she is a very infamous person and people project themselves onto her, they see what they want to see, and because she doesn’t talk, nobody really knows her except the image of her from before she killed her husband, which isn’t what it seems to be on the surface. Being a walking contradiction is very human, i find a lot of people are like that actually.
I am also torn between whether it is because of Alicia’s co dependency issues and being attached to her favourite person Gabriel (im assuming she is borderline as she seems to be and it is also said a lot in the book) that she has nothing much going on about her other than gabriel and painting, or if this is a result of one-dimensional/flat writing, especially worse as a female character. Could be both, really.
The chapters on Kathy’s cheating threw me off immediately because Theo would appear to be normal in every following chapter when he is at the hospital despite the chaos in his personal life. It didn’t add up.
Like OP said the twist relied on not revealing the timelines too heavily which is why in the end it just didn’t have that much of an impact.
Also I wanted there to be some consequence or confrontation with Kathy at the end, given she was a the main reason this all even started
I see a lot of people saying they work mental health and didn’t like the book. I’m curious if which sector of mental health they work in. I am several chapters in and enjoying it as a nurse employed in an institution.