The Silent Patient

 

Silence is the best ditty but when silence is the mystery to hide an answer, no ever theory proves to be the same! It has been six years since Alicia murdered the love of her life, Gabriel. Some voices say that she has been victimized, other voices curse her for killing such a sweet and innocent husband. One of the voice who believed that the former was true was her ardent fan and a psychotherapist, Theo Faber. With six years of silence daunting a few, the news became less sensational and now, most of them don’t care to the mental patient, Alicia.

Applying to The Grove was Theo’s inner call for Alicia to find out what prompted the victim or what happened. The credit goes to his curious mind and her last painting which reveals so many important things. When Theo gets practical, he gets her to sit face-t-face only to receive silence. No sounds were blocking the psychotherapist, except his own point of views. Yet the tried and tested failure came to life when Alicia attacked her psychotherapist and gripped her long nails on his throat. The attack alerted people who were against Theo’s principles and gave them a branch to perch their clawed nails which didn’t work on Alicia. Yet, Theo wasn’t someone to loose on this and took it as a compliment to read her mind that she was trying to communicate through his perilous act.

Receiving silence became Theo’s hobby only to receive Alicia’s personal diary from herself. There was no turning back now and all he investigated and spoke to her, gifted him ‘her’ words after six long years! Reviving her talents, he made her walk through a trail of catharsis through her painting! A psychological twist to what he wanted and what she would lead him to! With her paintings being shut down after a horrendous day, all Theo was left was with her diary which showed him the path! Different days of her diary and the people in it told a different story! Getting frustrated, a last meeting was arranged where he had a tinge of hope! The tinge of hope became fruitious as the silenced Alicia smoked and talked about the million-dollar question! She revealed the million-dollar answer only for him to notice her shift from foot to foot and scratch herself! The lies weren’t bought but it didn’t help him either rather than find him hopeless. Wasn’t there trust between them? Why did she give him the diary then?

With a twist every page or so, The Silent Patient ends as how Alicia painted the Greek woman on her canvas just after her husband’s death. It’s a half-mystery as to how everything coincides automatically with Theo Faber and his wife, Kathy as they finally meet the new ACP who is the current holder of her diary!

Even though it loses its narrative in the middle, the beginning and the end intrigue us enough to turn the pages. Some more research could be done into the mental wealth of the story and their mannerisms but it doesn’t disappoint us to an extent either. The Silence is the key and so are the characters that illustrate their narrative through descriptions that makes us blow a whistle!