Book · 2019
The Silent Patient
by Alex Michaelides
A famous painter goes silent the day she shoots her husband, and the psychotherapist assigned to her case won't let the case stay closed.
What does Reddit think of The Silent Patient?
r/suggestmeabook holds nearly all of this one, 401 of 404 tracked mentions, and the top-upvoted comments are unusually blunt for a book this widely read. The single highest-voted line (↑259) is "I hated The Silent Patient, I didn't like anything about it." Right behind it, a 251-upvote comment calls it "horribly written, predictable and boring," and a 159-upvote comment calls the plot "absolutely absurd" before adding "No idea how anyone likes this book." One reader who works in mental health quit at page 20, describing it as mean-spirited (↑162) — an objection to content, not just craft. It gets paired with The Midnight Library as a shared disappointment (↑151), and dismissed elsewhere in one word: "Trash!" Not unanimous, though: a 90-upvote comment still recommends it for the twist ending, filed next to Circe. Mentions peaked at 89 in 2021 and have held up since, so the volume hasn't followed the sentiment down.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · a top-upvoted backlash against a bestseller
- · twist-ending thriller comparisons
- · a mental-health professional's objection to the book's content
- · grouped with other 'hated it' bestsellers (The Midnight Library)
Common praise
- + One 90-upvote comment still recommends it flatly, filed next to Circe and Crazy Rich Asians as the pick "if you like thrillers with a twist ending."
- + It gets named in the same breath as Silence of the Lambs when a commenter lists psychological-thriller touchstones (↑75).
Common criticism
- − The most-upvoted comment on the book (↑259) is a flat "I hated The Silent Patient, I didn't like anything about it" — the loudest voice in the threads is dismissal.
- − A 251-upvote comment calls it "horribly written, predictable and boring," and a 159-upvote comment calls the plot "absolutely absurd," adding "No idea how anyone likes this book."
- − A reader who works in mental health reads only 20 pages before quitting, calling it "mean-spirited" and something they didn't want in their head (↑162) — a complaint about content, not pacing.
- − It gets lumped in with The Midnight Library as a shared "hated it" pair (↑151), and dismissed elsewhere in a single word: "Trash!" (↑70).
Who it's for
Come for the twist if you're still chasing one after the genre's been thoroughly spoiled by imitators; the 90-upvote recommendation pairs it with Circe and Crazy Rich Asians for exactly that reason. If you work in mental health or have personal history with inpatient psychiatric settings, take the page-20 dropout comment (↑162) seriously before starting, since it's a content objection rather than a pacing gripe. Thriller readers who already found Gone Girl-style unreliable narration exhausting won't find a convert here — the loudest voices in these threads (↑259, ↑251) got there first.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Silent Patient?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“I hated The Silent Patient, I didn’t like anything about it.
“Late for the party, but The silent patient is horribly written, predictable and boring.
“The Silent Patient. I work in mental health and I got about 20 pages in. It felt so mean-spirited to me and I didn’t want it in my head.
“The Silent Patient….absolutely absurd plot line and not even written well. No idea how anyone likes this book.
“The Midnight Library. Hated it. The Silent Patient. Ugh.
“The crazy rich Asians series and Circe. Also the Silent Patient if you like thrillers with a twist ending.
“Most of my favorite thrillers have some psychological component. Off the top of my head: - {{Silence of the Lambs}} is a classic psychological thriller, with plenty of 1980s-era psychologists and “criminal profiling.” I read it many, many years ago but still remember the moment Clarice reads her b…
“I’ve been scrolling forever so has someone already posted “The Silent patient?” Trash!
Convinced? Pick up The Silent Patient
What else does r/suggestmeabook read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
A high-school teacher wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of how he got there and one job left: save Earth.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
J. K. Rowling
A neglected eleven-year-old discovers he belongs to a hidden magical world, enters Hogwarts, and learns that wonder carries history and danger with it.
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries)
Martha Wells
A security robot hacks its own governor module, gains free will, and spends its days streaming soap operas instead of killing anyone.
Mistborn: The Final Empire
Brandon Sanderson
A street thief gets recruited into a heist crew plotting to overthrow a god-emperor who has ruled unchallenged for a thousand years.
Circe
Madeline Miller
An exiled witch on a deserted island turns men into pigs and spends three thousand years deciding what she actually wants.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
A framed sailor rots in an island prison for fourteen years, escapes with a fortune, and spends the rest of the book collecting on every debt of vengeance.
The Silent Patient — frequently asked
Does Reddit actually like The Silent Patient?+
The top-upvoted comments say no, and by a wide margin. The single highest-voted line (↑259) reads "I hated The Silent Patient, I didn't like anything about it," and a 251-upvote comment calls it "horribly written, predictable and boring." A 90-upvote comment still recommends it for the twist, but it reads as an outlier against everything sitting above it in the thread.
Is The Silent Patient badly written?+
That's the most common specific complaint in the tracked mentions. A 251-upvote comment calls it "horribly written, predictable and boring," and a separate 159-upvote comment calls the plot "absolutely absurd," adding "No idea how anyone likes this book." Nobody in the top quotes steps in to defend the prose directly, even in threads where someone recommends it anyway.
Why do some readers find The Silent Patient's portrayal of mental illness objectionable?+
One reader who works in mental health quit around page 20, calling the book "mean-spirited" and saying they didn't want it in their head (↑162). That's the only quote in the tracked data objecting to content rather than plot mechanics or prose quality, and it reads as a specific, considered complaint rather than a pacing gripe dressed up as something bigger.
Does The Silent Patient get grouped with other popular thrillers on Reddit?+
Yes. A 90-upvote comment lists it with Circe and Crazy Rich Asians under "thrillers with a twist ending," and elsewhere it's paired with The Midnight Library as a shared disappointment (↑151: "Hated it... Ugh."). The company it keeps ranges from an enthusiastic genre recommendation to shared regret, sometimes within the same thread.