The Silent Patient — Content Guide for Parents
Found in this book
- ViolenceCentral
- Scary contentSupporting
- ProfanityBrief
- Sexual contentBrief
Not found
- Religion
- Race & culture
- Climate
- Gender roles
- Gender & orientation
Content themes
Factual summary of themes present in this book. No opinion — just the facts.
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Summaries and source quotes for every theme.
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Religion
PRESENTContains references to prayer and church attendance. A minister character plays a supporting role in two chapters.
About this book
**THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**
"An unforgettable—and Hollywood-bound—new thriller... A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy."
—Entertainment Weekly
The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....
Frequently asked questions
Is The Silent Patient appropriate for a 7-year-old?
A woman shoots her husband five times, later stabs another patient in the eye with a pencil, and is shown cutting her wrists and being injected with a lethal dose of drugs, and the story also includes a father who violently abused his child. The opening shows a gory murder scene and the story builds dread around a silent patient, a locked psychiatric unit and a hidden killer.
Does The Silent Patient have violence?
Found (Central): A woman shoots her husband five times, later stabs another patient in the eye with a pencil, and is shown cutting her wrists and being injected with a lethal dose of drugs, and the story also includes a father who violently abused his child.
Does The Silent Patient have scary content?
Found (Supporting): The opening shows a gory murder scene and the story builds dread around a silent patient, a locked psychiatric unit and a hidden killer.
Does The Silent Patient have religion?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does The Silent Patient have race & culture?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does The Silent Patient have profanity?
Found (Brief): A reader review quotes a strong swear word from the book's text, and an insult written on a painting is also described.
Does The Silent Patient have climate?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does The Silent Patient have sexual content?
Found (Brief): A reader review says the main characters' sex lives are mentioned in plain, explicit wording, and there are references to an affair and a nude self-portrait, but a rating guide notes no graphic sexual content.
Does The Silent Patient have gender roles?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does The Silent Patient have gender & orientation?
Not found in the sources we checked.
