The best psych out I've had in a while! This book will keep you guessing and leave you contemplating the twist even after you flip the final page.
Summary:
The Berenson's are the picture of marital bliss, he a fashion photographer and she a painter. But wife Alicia inexplicably shatters everything when she murders her husband. Since that event, Alicia hasn't spoken a word and has only painted one mysterious self-portrait. Psychotherapist Theo is convinced that he can get Alicia to talk and, better yet, give some answers about the truth of what really happened that night.
Verdict: 9/10
This was a well-layered mystery. The crime and supposed culprit were bizarre enough that you knew something else must lie underneath... but what? Add the myriad of suspects and the art involved and you have quite the puzzle to assemble. The imagery of Alicia's last painting and the play it is based around was an especially haunting metaphor. I kept reexamining its significance within each of my new theories, and I'm still thinking about it in context of the ending.
The characters and their psychological mindsets were thoughtful and explored a variety of outlooks and possible motives. I did think that the therapy side of it could have been further explained. I'm not as familiar with the difference between psychologists and psychiatrists so that might have made some of the nuances of the plot easier to understand. I also was slightly confused by Christian's use of the term "borderline" as it sounded like the border was between whether she could be saved or not, when in psychology "borderline" is actually a personality disorder. Maybe I read it in the wrong context, but it threw me off a bit.
Ultimately, the end is what makes this book stand out. I never saw it coming. I knew something was off but I never would have guessed this. Yet, it wasn't an unrealistic ending either. Some authors don't provide the reader with enough clues to guess their ending or they write a totally ridiculous solution that no one would find realistic. But Michaelides left a mind-bending trail to the main guilty party from the beginning.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
When the main character starts out obsessed with a client, I automatically don't trust him. However I thought that would just make him an unlikable hero or an unreliable narrator because he was too emotionally invested. I never thought it was intentional by the author and play into the twist!
The pieces didn't line up as clearly as I had hoped. It's well written enough that I know it probably does make sense if you go back and study it, but it's a little hard to grasp at first. My mind was spinning from the reveal and the timeline difference, so it took me a while longer to wrap my head around Theo's motivations to "help" Alicia. Once I realized that he hadn't expected her to recognize him, things locked into place easier.
There's so many moral implications to consider in this story. Theo is a very complex character. You could justify his actions as he never knew his plan would lead to murder, which he feels guilty for more because of Alicia's outcome than the actual killing. After all, Theo almost killed Gabriel himself but decided against it. However whether he intended his death or not, the plan was a little unhinged and he begins to seem more and more out of touch with reality the more he interacts with Alicia.
And I keep going back to the painting. Was Alicia justified since Theo was the one who really set her off? Or is she still technically to blame as the person who actually pulled the trigger? You know it's a good book when you can't stop thinking about it.
One minor critique: I thought the interactions with Diomedes were a bit unnecessary. There were enough red-herrings with Alicia's cousin, her brother-in-law, and her friend from the gallery that the extra drama with Christian and the other asylum personnel didn't seem as relevant. It left some loose ends that I would have liked tied together somehow.
SPOILERS CONCLUDED
You know a story is good when all I want to do at the end is reread it with my new insight into the plot. Loved this and will definitely reread at some point.
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