Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

993 reviews

macysvibe's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

i did not really like the ending but i did enjoy reading the book the ending just felt rushed i thought i was really going to like the book but idk i need some time to reflect on it

reflecting and watching some reviews on this book just makes me understand why i love reading it but hated the ending the process of reading it was fun and fast but the ending was too rushed like the parts just didn’t make sense how he knew where the gun was how he did this to alica but it was actually all the past including his wife cheating idk it doesn’t add up especially with all the people you learn about for no reason

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Car accident, Chronic illness, Cursing, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Stalking, and Sexual assault

ieotter13's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I liked this book but really only once I was already halfway through. I felt the first half moved slowly and I struggled to stay interested. However, it quickly picked up the pace and I struggled to put it down. I think the twist was good,

kept the characters relatively redeemable and it wasn’t as scary as I sorta expected

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Stalking, Alcohol, Blood, Car accident, Mental illness, Murder, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Forced institutionalization

replovernights's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cursing, Death, Stalking, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Medical content, and Mental illness

paigemushaw's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Murder

Minor: Drug use

bammys's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Murder, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident

meganeliz_1214's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Drug use, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death

lucykae's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gaslighting, Murder, Stalking, Infidelity, Car accident, Gun violence, and Death of parent

the_reading_italian's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I'd like to start this by saying I don't typically read mystery. Or horror. Or anything remotely related to the genres. But wow. I binge read this in a single day, and I am very impressed. The writing is amazing, and I love that I just grew to hate the characters more and more throughout the book. The plot is really impressively hidden from the readers for basically the entirety of the book (so beware!), and as much as I usually dislike unreliable narrators, it was honestly very interesting to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Stalking

Moderate: Murder, Suicide attempt, and Gore

Minor: Self harm and Violence

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Interesting beginning. I almost stopped at 15%

because I wasn't sure if the author knew absolutely nothing about psychotherapy and accidentally made the made the main character extremely inappropriate and incompetent as a therapist OR if the main character was supposed to be weird, inappropriate, unethical, and incompetent. I decided to keep going but just double speed because I wanted to know what happened and realized it was the latter

I found it kind of a slog in the middle and it wasn't great to have to spend so much time in the mind of the main character who I found extremely unlikeable/ incompetent/ inappropriate. But it really picks up at the end and the end really saved the book for me.

One of the most annoying things about the book is that a lot of the mental health stuff doesn't really make a lot of sense. like lol, no one ever tried painting one on one with her??? And he's just wandering around yaking with absolutely everyone and anyone about his patient, does he have any other patients?? There's no cameras on the unit?? She has borderline personality disorder but literally doesn't speak?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Sexism, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Stalking, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

tellingmyselfastory's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

I did not like this book. I found the main character to have a really annoying savior complex. I also think the twist at the end was predictable and unsatisfying

I only finished this book because I wanted to see him get caught. I think the only thing the book does well is how he is found out. He is so full of his own hubris. His focus on trying to control the women in his life was also really weird and offputting to me.

For a book called the silent patient we spend so much time with the psychiatrist. Anyway I don't like him and I don't like the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Mental illness, Death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Misogyny