October is #WickedGoodReads Month here at GXO, and we’re reading books with wicked people & creatures. dangerous places & things. Today we’re loking at books where the people who are supposed to be our most trusted confidantes – psychologists & psychotherapists – may not be out for our best interests after all. Here are 2 #WickedGoodReads With Questionable Therapists.
The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides
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. 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.
In The Silent Patient, it’s not immediately obvious that it’s just as much about Alicia, as it is about Theo, the psychotherapist who seems to have an obsession with getting Alicia to open up and talk about the murder of her husband – after all – many others have tried. But the book is told from the point of view of each of them, and after a slow careful introduction to the story, the author takes use to places that I did not see coming. The characters and their stories are intense, as the focus is on what precipitated the crime, and why isn’t Alicia talking? Is it a scam, or did something else happen? Why is Theo so obsessed with her? Although the first half is slow, stick with it – I promise, it picks up in the second half.
An Anonymous Girl, by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave. But as the questions grow more and more intense and invasive and the sessions become outings where Jess is told what to wear and how to act, she begins to feel as though Dr. Shields may know what she’s thinking… and what she’s hiding. As Jess’s paranoia grows, it becomes clear that she can no longer trust what in her life is real, and what is one of Dr. Shields’ manipulative experiments. Caught in a web of deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.
One thing you have to know up front about Anonymous Girl – Jessica is ANNOYING AF! You will be constantly amazed by her cluelessness! You also need to know Dr. Shields is a calculating bitch – plain and simple. OK – so if an author can write characters who give us characters that make us feel that intensely – then this is a book that you should read. There are many unexpected twists and surprises that I didn’t see coming. This is another example of when a psychologist crosses the line.
Do you have any recommendations for #WickedGoodReads with Questionable Therapists?
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