The Patient

After forgetting my current read “The Night She Disappeared” at my mom's I was looking through my Scribd app on my E-Reader to find a short novella I had been wanting to read, until I can go get my book from my mom's. Well, this one definitely fit the short novella requirement, being only one hundred-something pages. It was also my first novella ever, most books I read are in the three-hundred range and up. Even though it was okay, ultimately this book was just not for me. It was not a genre I really enjoy but I am glad that I found out for myself and gave it a shot.

To begin with, The Patient is about a psychiatrist, who sets out to cure a very problematic patient, who has been in an insane asylum since he was six. However, he soon realizes that he is in way over his head and that there might be a reason why he incurable. I thought the premise was interesting enough and I really enjoy patient/psychiatrist type stories, so in the beginning I was loving every second of it. I just had to keep reading to see what was wrong with this patient. The pacing was done really well and I really liked that it was written through a blog type thing, a long time after the events actually happened. However, I was hoping it would be more psychological thriller and less horror but that's not what it ultimately was. I don't enjoy horror in general in movies or books because I like there to be a more psychological explanation for things, rather than just gory monster-type things that don't offer much in the way of explanation. This was probably my first true horror novel and I am happy to have ventured into that genre, however, it was just not my cup of tea and I will gladly stick to my psychological thrillers, mysteries and detective type stories from now on.

Further on, the characterization was okay but with it being a novella, I didn't get as in-depth of a look into the characters' psyches as I would have liked. It was nice to get through a book so quickly but it felt rushed and left me wanting more. I thought that we just skimmed the surface of Joe and even Parker, the psychiatrist and there could have been more to find out about them. Overall, this was just okay for me.

Finally, the writing style was precise and to the point and helped me to get through this book in a matter of days. With the story being written a long time after the events already happened, that made it a little less “in-the-moment” for me and took away from the excitement but ultimately I don't have a lot of bad things to say about the writing style. It got the story across and got the job done.

In conclusion, I would recommend this to horror lovers only. I am a psychological thriller lover and this book didn't have enough psychological aspects for me. From now on, I will be sticking to my usual genre but I am very proud of myself for trying something new that I have never tried before.