Alex Michaelides

Alicica Berenson, una pintora de éxito, descarga cinco tiros en la cabeza de su marido, y no vuelve a hablar nunca más. Su negativa a pronunciar palabra alguna convierte una tragedia doméstica en un misterio que atrapa lka imaginación de toda Inglaterra. Theo Faber, un ambicioso psicoterapeuta forense obsesionado con el caso, esta empeñado9 en desentrañar el misterios de lo que ocurrió esa noche fatal y consigue una plaza en The Grove, la unidad de seguridad del norte de Londres a la que Alicia fué enviada seis años atrás y en la que sigue obstinada en su silencio. Pronto descubre que el mutismo de la paciente esta mucho más enraizado de lo que creía. Pero, si al final ella hablara, ¿estaría dispueto a escuchar la verdad?… (mer)

This book is highly problematic. The first being that Alicia, the actual silent patient is gas-lighted throughout the entire book by almost every male character including her husband. It would be less egregious if she had some agency in the book other than being a faux symbol for feminism. I'm also disappointed about the care given to mental illness in regards to Theo and Alicia. It kind of paints a very narrow and shallow perspective of psychology and the lack of mental care facilities around the world. Elif in particular was troubling most of all, because it felt like she "deserved" what happened to her, even though she was mentally ill. The pacing was erratic at times. Sometimes it slowly builds and abruptly stops, switches direction and then suddenly free falls until it refocuses on Alicia. The characters are only fleshed out enough to give Theo something "to do". Which wasn't much of anything, because all that investigating was just another red herring that really didn't change anything.… (mer)