The Patient - Jasper DeWitt

The Silent Patient by way of Stephen King: Parker, a young, overconfident psychiatrist new to his job at a mental asylum, miscalculates catastrophically when he undertakes curing a mysterious and profoundly dangerous patient.

In a series of online posts, Parker H., an ambitious young psychiatrist, chronicles the harrowing account of his time working at a dreary mental hospital in New England and his attempt to cure the facility’s most difficult, profoundly dangerous case.

Originally admitted to the hospital as a child, the man has no known diagnosis. Every person who has attempted to treat him has been driven to madness or suicide.

Parker, brilliant and overconfident, takes it upon himself to discover what ails this mystery patient and finally cure him. But things quickly spiral out of control …

Fans of Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes and Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World will be riveted by Jasper DeWitt’s astonishing debut.

My Review of The Patient

I enjoyed this horror-mixed-with-psychological thriller. The format was refreshing, apparently it was originally conceived on reddit threads, so has a bit of a forum-post feel to it. Kind of like diary entries. It didn’t blow me away, but it was a good read.

A young idealistic psychiatrist begins working in an asylum and is intrigued by Joe, a patient who has been in the facility since he was a child. Whenever people come into contact with Joe strange devastating things begin to happen. Can the psychiatrist find out what is truly wrong with Joe? Or will he end up another victim?

I really enjoyed the concept. It was very clever and the author captured the atmosphere really well. The format was unique and captivating.

Ultimately it just missed the mark for me. Yes, it was enjoyable and I appreciated how short the novel was. But I felt that it lacked a depth of character and setting that was detrimental to the overall book. Perhaps it worked much better as snippets on Reddit, to give the reader a gradual immersion into the story. But it just felt like it was missing something.

I was also expecting it to have a bit more of a twist or climax and I was left ultimately underwhelmed.

Despite this, it was well written and gripping. Extremely good for a debut. I will be interested to see what else he has in store!

Would I recommend this book?

It was captivating and a good read. I just felt that it lacked a bit of depth and excitement that I would expect from a horror. But I still enjoyed reading it and got through it in one sitting.

(3 / 5)