The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides – Episode 42

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides hits home with the Buddies in many ways. It’s a psychological thriller that takes place in a psych ward – which is where many believe the Buddies belong. And it features a patient, Alicia, that has gone mute since murdering her husband – many wish the Buddies would also go mute. So really a perfect book to kick off 2023. The Buddies once again jumped all over the map discussing awful co-workers, the importance of glasses, and living up to your job title. So strap in (your straightjacket if you’re any character in this book), and join us for this page turning mystery thriller.

Intro: (0:00-2:32)
 Stock Up/Down (2:33-22:08)
 Favorite Scene (22:09-23:32)
 Love/Hate (23:33-32:57)
Movie Casting (32:58-34:26)
Conclusion (34:27-37:19)

Next Book: JURASSIC PARK by MICHAEL CRICHTON
Next Movie: THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂

Alright. Welcome buddy Book Club. I’m Dylan here with the chief. To my Randall. Keith. What’s up, buddy? Oh, wait, chief to your Randall? What? One float of the cougars nest? No, I haven’t read that. Oh, wow. We should add that unfortunately, we’re not doing one flow of the cougars nest here, but it did have a psychological spec at the Buddy Book Club. We’re working out bestsellers this week. We’re going to be headed to The Grove, which is, I guess, the main place they do The Silent Patient by Alex Michelite’s. Terrible intro by me, but it is The Grove. I forgot it for a second. But if you like to recommend a book for us to read to reach out to us about our past episodes, you can visit our website, buddybuckle. Do. Or sign to our dams on Twitter or Instagram. Buddy book podcast. You can listen to us on itunes and spotify. So please download and subscribe. Keith, the silent patient. I listened to it on a road trip with the SGF. Not a bad road trip book, I’ll tell you that. But the point of the book, I think, is that if you have a shitty childhood, you’re undoubtedly going to be a psychopath. Yeah, that’s what it seems like. And yeah, one thing I also wanted to point out, D man and you might have taken this from the book a little bit differently but if you do see a mysterious figure outside that’s stalking you and watching your every move as you wake up and I see you putting I mean, someone sees you putting that peanut butter on the toast, don’t worry. That’s just a mysterious figure. You don’t need to worry about him, me, or that person outside your window watching you in every second, every time you sleep. Just don’t worry about that. Talking about gas lighting, this guy, I could not imagine if my serious girlfriend said, there is someone outside the house watching us, I would say, okay, let’s burn the house down and move it’s. The only option. There was a little bit of boy cried wolf on her. All right, well, this book, The Foundation, was the goodreads thriller of the year in 2019. 2020 was the Guest List by Lucy Foley, which we did not read. We we read the hunting party. But you read yeah, which I guess led us to The Hunting Party and one of her early episodes. I also want to say before we get into Stock Up, Stock Down, the number one listen to episode is Holes, which is understandable because it’s our first episode, but probably our worst, right? Yeah, 100%. I mean, that’s every podcast. Yeah, no, I I totally understand, but I’m hoping that people just didn’t listen to Holes and we were like, what the fuck is going on? I don’t even think I had a microphone. Then we were doing zoom audio, too. Yeah, pretty bad. Terrible. So if you’re one of those people that just happened to stumble upon this, then thank you for sticking around. Let’s get into stock up. Stock down for the silent patient. Stock up? What are you stock up? Doing drugs and being sedentary. Okay, now you’re speaking my language. So Theo goes and talks with Alicia for the first time. She’s described as a bateau, redhead, very thin and arty person. That’s like, when we know her as a normal person. She’s now been in this institute for seven years. She’s been drugged up every single day for seven years. Her days consist of her just sitting there aimlessly, looking off into space, not talking. She attacks the and almost kills them. This would be like a small gust of wind hitting you if someone came up and started fighting you. That has not moved for seven years and is already a small, petite woman. That’s the most embarrassing thing that could possibly happen to you. Right. I was imagining it’d be like your nieces and nephew. They’re young. They come up, and they’re pulling at your clothes. They’re like, give it back, give it back. And you’re pretending like it’s affecting you. That’s what I assumed it would be like, but this dude Theo is, like, getting beat up by her. It’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen. I would be so ashamed, though. It’s Theo. I’d honestly either immediately quit or start doing steroids, or I’d at least have to make something up. Be like, oh, yeah, she threw coffee in my eyes and kicked me in the nut. So, like, I couldn’t the other person comes in like, Yuri comes in to break it up, and you throw coffee in your own eyes? You have to. I attributed it to okay, so there’s going to be spoilers throughout this whole thing, but I attributed it to when there’s a baby under a burning car and someone has that crazy strength within them to lift it up and flip it over, which is seemingly impossible because Theo is the reason why she’s in here. Like, Theo is the masked man. It turns out he’s the one that killed her husband and go into this asylum. Well, she killed her husband, but yeah. Okay. I kind of want to talk about that later. I’m wondering if that’s what happened. She just had that dad’s strength or whatever they call it. That’s what I attributed to at least you used to imagine everyone at the office is just making fun of him behind his back, right? Like, you just have to oh, yeah, for sure. You got beat up by her. Yikes. That’s embarrassing. One star recruit. My first stock up is messing with the timeline, so Nolan did it in Memento. Which great movie do you like? Memento? Yeah. That was my favorite movie. Oh, really? That used to be your favorite movie? Not as good on rewatch, unfortunately. But the first time I saw it, I said, this is exactly what I think movie should be. I’d never seen in a movie like that. Made you rethink everything. I thought it was one of the best. Yeah. On repeat, you watch it, you’re like, it’s not as good, but it’s still a great movie. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I would say the second watch is also great because then you start seeing things, but after that, it’s kind of useless. We had the DVD back in high school or whatever. It came out, and you could watch it in real time. Like it basically reversed all the scenes. Oh, yeah. Which was weird, but an interesting way to watch it. I mean, it’s obviously not as yeah, but like I said, messing with the timeline. I think Alex McAleese does a pretty slick job here, making multiple timelines seem like they’re happening at the same time because that’s how it all comes about, is that whole story about Theo and Kathy. We kind of think it’s happening in real time, but actually it’s happening in the past and at the end ties everything together. I don’t know about you. I feel like this book is a psychological thriller. I think of it more as just kind of like a standard mystery because there’s not a ton of thriller aspects to it. And yes, it takes place in a psych ward, but it’s not like, whoa, psychological. I don’t know. It just was like a typical mystery. But it all hinged on us believing that those things were happening simultaneously. And it was successful for me. But I’m a duller. Yeah. And I had this in my loves as well. But what I really liked about it is that every single character that’s introduced you’re almost kind of like finding an angle for them. Like, okay, they could have done this. Where’s this going to end up? You’re the only person you’re not questioning is Theo. Yeah. Although, you know, he’s got some something going on. Yeah, that’s true. But there’s so many other characters introduced that it kind of makes you put your guard down. Yeah. I thought he was going to be like a willing cook or something like that at the end. Like a chicken or what do you mean? What’s a cook? I think it was invented by the thespian Shakespeare playwright. Shakespeare. We’ll get into that later. Did you have anything else for stock up? Having glasses stock up? Oh, as the glasses wear. I appreciate that. Go on. Yeah. And I’ll tell you a little pro tip here. I recently got some of those green light or blue light glasses. When I have occasional video calls, I throw those on. It gives me a supreme sense of confidence that I’m much smarter than I am, which really is all that matters in this type of game of working. It’s just got to pretend like you know what you’re doing. Yeah. But that’s nonetheless, she keeps on seeing this blurry figure in the distance, keeps on saying, I feel like there’s someone outside. Hey, maybe grab a pair of glasses. You just not see this person. Do you not know what they look like? Maybe a set of binoculars. I’m such a different person than her. If someone says I’m crazy, I’ll go so far out of the way to prove I’m not crazy that I will be crazy by the end of it. Oh, really? Yeah. I’d be buying literally cameras and technology and all this gear in order to catch this dude that I think is out there. She’s just like, I’ll just grind about it and I’ll call someone. It’s like, go do something yourself. Pull that gun out. Start walking down the street. Start shooting at things. That’s what I would do. I’m insane, but that’s what you know what I mean? She’s going to, like, the least attempt to figure out if there’s someone’s actually following her. Prove it. Shoot that guy. And then be like, this is the guy that’s selling me every time I go into Costco. It’s like four different home security cameras you can buy for $100. There’s four different companies that are selling them. There’s Amazon. Now just go on Amazon, buy a little camera and put it outside. Because the only thing she has is this, like, bigfoot type photo where he’s kind of blurry in the background. You just need to do more. Like, I would be doing everything to prove that I’m not psychotic. And really, I’m not trying to prove that I’m not psychotic. I’m just trying to get back at Gabriel for calling me a psycho. I’d be like, oh, yeah, you think I’m crazy. Well, look. Look at this. Now who’s crazy? You’re crazy for gaslighting me. I wrote a blog about I don’t like the word gaslighting, but yeah, just not believing someone. We are really on the same page with the gaslighting term, okay? You have used it multiple times. Just twice in this because this is kind of multiple. Multiple. Just twice, which is multiple. Are you gaslighting me? You’re gaslighting me. I’ve had significant conversations with the SGF about the term gaslighting. Not that I was I’m just saying that the term is used and we’ll be watching a show, and she’s like, oh, that guy’s gaslighting her. I’m like, no, gas lighting is those people in the 18 hundreds that went around with a light and lit torches in the street. Get over it. This person’s just tricking her. My next stock up is psychotherapists. Okay? Yeah, theo is a bad guy for sure, but can we blame him? His job is literally psychotherapist. Did he succeed? Yes. He’s a psychopath and a therapist. Psychotherapist. I had never heard the term psychotherapist before reading this book. I’ve heard psychiatrist, I’ve heard psychologist. But psychotherapist never understood, never heard until this. And now it makes sense because you have to be part psycho and part therapist, which he does very well. So I say give the guy promotion that’s like a me stock up. That was a very undemandinglike one, which I really appreciate. Thank you very much. I’m trying to get out of the box for you. Yeah. Really bring the hard hitters, terror listeners up there. But have you heard of a psychotherapist before? No. Was it from the book? Yeah, that’s what he was. It’s probably a British term. It’s like trolley or whatever. What do they use for Laurie? Yeah, I think the point is you assume the feelings of your patient. Like, that’s the idea. So that’s different. I think that’s different. Isn’t that what a psychologist does? I don’t know, but that’s kind of how they explained it, so I just I just went with it. But Theo is a psycho, so let’s jump into Stock Down. What do you have for stockdown? Stockdown coworkers. Yeah. D man and I met as coworkers. This is true. This is a hard one to sell. And we didn’t like each other. I don’t think, at the beginning you didn’t like me. I liked you. Well, you treat everyone exactly the same, which I appreciate. Actually. I came to like that. But at the time, when you’re a new person, you don’t really like being shit on when you’re new to the group. So you kind of did that, and I was like, who is this guy? Then you realize, oh, he shits on everybody. Yeah. Then I was like, oh, this is just his personality. He wasn’t just giving me a hard time. He just doesn’t know how to turn it off. Yeah, I respect that. I have been told that I do not know how to turn it off. But Theo’s coworkers are the worst. They’re awful. Oh, terrible diabetes. Who. Five minutes into the job puts Theo in the spot in front of all the patients, all the employees at, like, the team meeting. Theo hasn’t even grabbed a cup of coffee yet, and he’s like, yeah, why don’t you break down what’s going on here? It’s like, I don’t know who any fucking people are. Like, what do you why are you putting me on the spot here? If a boss did that to me my first day, I walk in and they’re just like, well, Keith, what do you think is the like, the answer to this? Like, tough question is I’d be like, I’m quitting. This is a person that just wants to make you look bad. That’s all they’re doing. Right? 100%. And then another thing which I really, really hate is he went to him being like, hey, I’m having problems. Like, what do you think of this? He would just ask the question back to him. So he’d be like, I read this book. What do you think about the ending? And he’s like, well, what do you think about the ending? I fucking hate that. First of all, I’m crazy. I talk to myself all the time. I’ve had multiple conversations with myself. So I’m not coming to you for you to ask me a question back. I already done that question. You’re supposed to answer the question or don’t fucking say anything. You know what I’m saying? Am I getting mad? I’m getting mad right now, but I hate when people do that. It’s like, no, I don’t need you to prompt me with another question. I’ve already thought of this. Just answer the question. Or say, I don’t know. And then he answers the question about the book, and Dimetes is like, you idiot, that’s wrong. I’m like, well, if you knew the answer, why did you just answer it? Right? Yeah, I didn’t know. This is the test. Yeah, sorry. So Dimetes is the worst. Then we got Christian, who’s just an asshole. I don’t really understand. What was his deal? Why he was just such a ticket? We got Yuri, who 2 seconds into meeting him, he’s like, yeah, I taught myself English. And he just starts bragging to him, all right, this Yuri guy sucks. What are you doing here? I got things to say about Yuri later, but yeah, okay, good. And then lastly, I think my name is Stephanie, or the manager. That was the Caribbean accent in the book, just as being a huge bitch. Also, it’s like, why are these people what’s going on here? Coworkers stockdown. Okay, I hope none of your coworkers are listening. These coworkers specifically. But yeah, it’s funny that you said that because similarly but different, I had my first doctor as mental health professionals because we’re led to believe that these people are good and here for us. But Theo is obsessed with his patient, and the rest of The Grove is just like, yeah, cool, cool. Keep treating her, no problem. Like, obsessed with her. The first thing he does is like, all right, here’s all the patients. He’s like, Where’s Alicia? They’re like, she’s over there. I need to treat her. I need to treat her. Okay, cool. Yeah, you can treat her. You definitely can treat her. This guy who’s literally drooling over there could treat her. Christian, no ethics. He used to treat Alicia, but keeps it close to the vest and is, like, a total dick. Like, doesn’t want to help anyone else. Not a great guy. Yuri, who’s the head nurse, slang in drugs on the side. How can anyone get treated? He’s just slang in drugs and diabetes. Your boy, you just tore apart. He just wants to puff on a cigar and talk about classical music and make other people feel small. Like, that’s his only goal. He’s like, I’m going to lead The Grove to make everyone else feel this big and make them understand that I know classical music, and they don’t know shit. I mean, even Theo’s own therapist, Ruth, who is seemingly the only actual person that is a mental health professional in this, instead of just telling Theo, buddy, you need to get admitted, you’re psycho, she gives him tools and whatnot to like, okay, deal with it this way. And I think that’s the problem sometimes with therapists is that people like Theo, who are manipulators in general, have the ability to show their story to people like Ruth in a way that he’s victimized for some reason. I mean, obviously he was as a child. I’m not making any light of that but where he’s currently still the victim. And they’re like, okay, yeah, here’s how you should be better, as opposed to be like, buddy, just leave this crazy woman and get out of there. And if you don’t, then you should be admitted because you’re also a psychopath. I kind of went hard on the root thing when really she was trying to help the rest of them out of here. Worst part two is that you go to a place where all the patients are supposed to be, like, the hardest thing. Your job. The people around you should be light hearted and having a laugh. Now you can go in and talk to someone that’s actually seriously in trouble. That’s where you have to turn your serious face on. You can’t be, like, having to defend yourself and having all these serious discussions outside of who you’re treating. You can’t have that. That’s just too much. You’d hope that there was some off time as opposed to just, like, always being on. They’re like talking with a serial killer at the Grove, and then they go into the break room, and the fucking Christians like, yeah, you piece of shit, you didn’t do it right. It’s like, what’s going on here? Why are you talking to me now? Yeah, what else do you have for stock down Americans? Stockpile? Whoa. This is your big thing? You don’t like what I do? Well, I mean, I guess it’s a new perspective. I guess you’re just pandering to our German listeners. We’re switching sides. We’re switching sides right now. You’re doing what I usually do. I’m doing what you do well. I mean, I didn’t realize that even though there’s that many Americans in England, because this book you throw a fucking rock and you’re hitting a red, white and blue. Yeah, it was very odd. What are all these expats doing in England? Don’t they realize we won the war? We won. Yeah, well, maybe we’re like stationing there. Is there a wall that needs to get tore down? Is that what’s going on? I don’t know. But anyways, everyone that was introduced that’s American was the stereotypical awful American. We got his wife, who wants to be an actress and wants to be famous and basically has no attention span and sleeps around and cheats on. Her name is Kathy, a terrible name. And she’s, like, judging everyone for innocuous things while she’s doing, like, shitty things. She’s like, how dare you smoke, you pothead. And he thought, I’m going to go bang this dude on the side. See you later, you don’t understand the hypocrisy there. Obviously, we have another terrible name, Barbie, who is basically kardashian watching Gossip Girl. Good show also. But anyways but these are like one dimensional kind of shitty characters, but they’re believable. I was like, yeah, those are Americans. That makes sense to me. So stock down americans. Not great. Not a great look for the kids. Fair enough. Yeah. I have more to say about the theo Kathy stuff later. But good God, and I apologize if you just heard my dog barking. She’s a menace. Six month old menace. My next stock town is cheating. I know. They’re talking about sneaking in a crib sheet to a test. All of Matt Damon in School Ties. Great movie. Go watch it. It never ends well. For the cheater or the cheeky. The message here is that if you cheat, what’s the stock price? If you cheat, you’re most likely getting murdered. The stock price. I don’t know. Ashley Madison is a real website that people were into or made the news or whatnot. I would wanted you to go with the stock up cheating and then somehow found a way to buy it. Kid. That’s what we do here at the Buddy Book Club. We can’t be going, come on. But go on. I feel like the stock is secret. People aren’t trading it openly. They have it on the side portfolio. It’s definitely not in the house portfolio. Everyone’s like, oh, people that are cheating are the worst. I mean, it’s a commandment, kid. Oh, covet my neighbor’s wife. Yeah. I never understood what that meant, though, when I was a young boy and in Catholicism, which I was never into it, but I had to be. All I knew about COVID was that it sounded close to covenant, which sounded close to Indiana Jones in the back of the covenant. That’s right. So I was like, cool. Sounds good. Covenant, neighbor’s wife. Don’t open it up or there will be skulls, which was actually close to what it really is. It really is. I mean, what do you think that scene that was about where he takes the cup and drinks the water out of it? That’s the Last Crusade. That’s a different one. It’s all Indiana Jones, though. It is, but as is the crystal skull, which is terrible quick. Two stock down is specialization nowadays, especially, like, kids sports and stuff. It’s like, oh, you want to be a baseball player? Like, you got to play only baseball from eight until high school. Otherwise you’re screwed. At least for me. That doesn’t make any sense. And if I’m ever blessed with children, then that will not be the case. It’s like, yeah, play whatever. Play fucking Calvin ball. I don’t care what you’re playing. It’s just like, get out there and have a good time. Don’t get obsessed with one sport. It’s just never going to work out for you. And Alex mikoliti is here. He’s a writer. But this project, at least this book he had been working on for years and years and years, but was able to do other things. He worked in a psych ward for a bit, which is why he has all of that psych ward stuff in here. And when he was a kid, he grew up in Cyprus, so they did a lot of the Greek tragedies. Like, they had to read them and study them, and he was interested in them, and he found the Euripides one, and he was fascinated by it. So that whole euripides thing came in here. So by not specializing and kind of dipping his toes into lots of things, he was able to bring it back to his main body of work, which was writing and write this book, which I think we both found to be above average or enjoyable. So I think the same thing can be done with sports, too. It’s like, hey, there’s a reason why NHL players, when you see them before a game, they’re like playing hackysack in the hallway. Just get those feet moving, get stuff going, see what happens. And yeah, don’t specialize that’s stuck down in that. And the second one is ethicssecurity. I don’t know what kind of establishment diabetes is running here. No wonder they’re getting shut down. I mean, the security at this place makes zero sense. These are convicted murderers, and it’s just like, oh, yeah, they’re hanging out together. Yeah, we’re going to give them paint brushes that they can whittle into shanks and stab each other in the face with. Oh, we just write up a report and keep going, keep moving forward. What? I didn’t make any sense. And then at the beginning, they confiscate Theo’s lighter. It’s like, okay, cool. Like confiscate a letter that makes sense. But then give her paint brushes that she can just carry around. And even though she’s attacked Theo, she’s presumably murdered her husband and is a suicide risk. And she’s given basically, like, a vampire stake that doesn’t check out. Doesn’t check out. No. Checks and balances with Yuri dole it out drugs to people. Come on, what’s going on here? Where are the orderlies? Prisons aren’t necessarily the most strictly regulated, especially ones that have low funding. But how about what you’re talking about? Like the stabbing someone in the eye? How about Theo being like, can we think of Alicia in this moment? She just stabbed someone. Can you imagine what she’s going through? It’s like wait, what? Yes. And then diabetes is like, cool, go treat her. He just witnessed this whole thing, and now he’s like, okay, hold on. Let’s sympathize with our attacker, and he should be the one treating her? I don’t think so. Move on. Did you have a favorite scene in this one? I didn’t have a specific scene, but no, I mean, the best part, like I already mentioned, was every single person was a suspect that you got introduced to from Gabriel’s brother to basically anyone in at least his family, to people that worked there, to Christian, to all these people, basically. And even, like, I really did think that Ruth was going to play some role because she was mentioned so many times. I’m like, she has to be connected to something going on here. Right? Really? Even her? Yeah. She was the only likable person in the book, and that was my favorite character. Ruth was good. I appreciate her. But the fact that she was so kind and everything made me think that she had to be the prime suspect. That’s how my mind was working in this book, which made it awesome. Everyone could potentially get it. What about you? I just kind of liked the Twist, I guess, which is obvious with a book like this. The twist itself, once it comes to you, it’s like, oh, shoot. It was like as it was happening, I would listen to it, like I said. So I rewound it back to really catch it and see it again. But I feel like that’s slightly obvious considering it’s kind of a Twist book. And honestly, I didn’t really love a ton of it. Like I liked it. I thought it was entertaining enough to keep listening to it, but I didn’t really love many of the characters or, like, Theo story wasn’t that interesting to me. Once the twist happened and it was actually surprising, I was like, oh, cool. That’s fun. So I’m going to go with that. Love, hate. Would you love? You already mentioned it. I mean, the Twist, the ending. I thought it was really good. I did the audiobook as well, and I wasn’t on a road trip, but I was just, like, sitting, listening to it. And then I used to do, like, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, it’s max. I listened to the last three, two or 3 hours just straight through. I just couldn’t put it down. I was like, I got to finish this shit. What’s going on? This is always what happens with these kind of books. The first three fourths half of it at least, you’re kind of like, all right, what’s going on here? And then if it can get you that last quarter, which this book really did for me, that’s a huge success. I love that part. Yeah, I agree with you. And it really brought more into Jean Claude Van Dam or whatever the guy’s name was. Like, he got brought more into it. Oh, yeah. That’s another bad guy I forgot to name. He was very Felix or something. John Felix. Yeah, John Felix. He was just another red herring, but totally hateful. And I just don’t really love the real artsy fartsy. I could just picture him in a scarf the whole time. It’s warm out, but he’s wearing a scarf. That part I wasn’t really into. It seemed like a lot of set up to make him seem like the. Murderer, but it was able to hold through that part, which I was impressed by because it was not very good. It’s like a weird four handed insult. What I would have done differently, and this is my hate, but I think it’s applicable right now is with the John Felix thing. I would have had him visit Theo instead of the cop at the end and be like, hey, by the way, I ended up finding this diary. So what’s going to happen here is I’m going to hold on to this and I’m going to not bring to any authorities, but I’m also taking all of her paintings, and they’re now my position. You know how he threatened John Felix being like, she didn’t want you to have the gallery? So he’s like, well, now I’m actually going to keep all the paintings and you’re not going to talk about it. That would have been a good way, because then make him more of a worse character, John Felix. And I do think at the end, Theo would have got away with it anyways. There’s no proof other than a crazy person’s diary. Yeah, I totally agreed with that as well. At the end, when the cops like, Got you, I’ve got this diary, and Theo, smartly, I guess, was like, hey, anything I say here is going to affect me down the road. He should have just shut the hell up. The only evidence here is this person saying it was you. They might reopen the case and see if there’s any physical evidence you might get got. But as of now, it’s all circumstantial. Right. And this all comes from watching four TV shows when I was 17. It’s called CSI. I really have no idea. We’re pretty much lawyers here, so I think we’re good. Yeah, I think we’re all on point. My First Love is a good red herring. I think that this book, like, we’ve kind of talked about, did a decent job of the red herring thing. I think the cousin and the lawyer, Gabriel’s brother, were the best of the red herrings in terms of the way they were set up, especially the lawyer. I think that was really well done. The strategy you went with this red herring was kind of cluster bomb vibe, where every single person can be a red herring, which can be effective. I mean, I get the Christie, the book that we read, and then that one did the same strategy, but built up all the storylines so well that it made a lot of sense where this was a cluster bomb, but some were more effective than the others. So I did love the good ones. The first thing on My Hate is a bad red herring. And the rest of them were bad red herrings like Yuri, who we talked about before that first time he goes out with Theo. The only reason why Yuri is a red herring is because Yuri sits down with him to get a beard, a pub, and before the beer can even touch Theo’s lips, yuri is like, so I used to stalk this woman and I was like, wait, what? Pardon me? That’s how he built the red herring into Yuri. And it was just by saying he’s a stalker, which is, like creepy and makes no sense. And then Theo’s like, yeah, this guy’s actually pretty cool. Well, Yuri seemed down to earth compared to everyone else he worked with. I liked it because it did seem real. It was her cousin or whatever that lived with their mom. That could have been its own story. Right? It was a full relationship. They really built that up. Which had nothing to do you could say that’s a red herring. Yeah, it was. That felt real. Gambling losses and stuff like that. If you didn’t have that, then you just start narrowing the focus to other things, where I think I like when the scope kind of opens up and you’re looking for everyone rather than just like well, it’s obviously going to be this twist because some of the thrillers or psychological thrillers we read involve three people total. Well, there’s basically, like three or four things that could possibly happen here. This person killed this person, or this person’s. Like, duping. You know, there’s not really much to go on. I do know what you’re saying. And the only problem is I feel like we’re comparing Drinking Raw Eggs, which is some of the other terrible thrillers we’ve listened to or read to, over Hard Boiled Eggs, which is this book, which was totally fine, totally serviceable. What an analogy. It’s funny. A little bit of salt, a little bit of pepper. I’m fine with it. I think this is a nice over medium, honestly. No, that’s a good point. That’s what it is. It’s over medium, which is not my preferred egg consumption. Oh, what’s your preferred? I want them like Gollum wants them raw and wriggling. So is that over easy? Yeah, over easy. Like the whites just set. Like just just set. Well, I mean, we’ve talked about this before, but that’s the barometer of a good diner is if they can fucking crush it over easy. If they can’t get the fuck out of here. Yeah, 100%. And I’ll tell you where you could get a good OverEasy egg for sure. The pub in this book is called The Slaughtered Lamb. What a name. You know, if a bar has a name like that, that one, it’s an old timey bar. They just said, fuck you. We’re not changing the name. Maybe we don’t care. Two, it’s going to be like some regulars there. And three, they know what they’re doing. You’re not not saying in business if you don’t know what you’re doing with the name. Slaughtered lamb. Great. If you go to a place called The Slaughtered Lamb and they have a Scotch egg on the menu, that’s where I’m ordering it. I would not order a Scotch egg anywhere else. Do you know what a Scotch egg is? Go on. A soft boiled egg that’s surrounded in sausage and then breaded and deep fried and so that the sausage is cooked. It’s nice and crispy on the outside, but when you cut it open, the soft boiled egg is still soft. Yeah. Okay. I don’t hate that. Yeah, really nice. I mean, the soldered lamb probably only gives you, like, three beer options and three things to order from the menu. I just went to my love and my hate. So what else do you have for love? Theo setting up Christian because he’s a dickhead. She’s like, you know what? I’ll make this guy the fall guy for the murder, which I appreciate it. That was nice. Nice touch. Yeah. Hate wise, I already told you the ending. I would have changed. One thing was that Theo was like this whole, like, I’m not going to kill anyone. He put just a gun on the table for Alicia, who ends up killing her husband, but then he has no qualms about killing Alicia with the drugs. And that’s all based off of well, she told the story slightly different, and so she must know who I am, so I’ll have to kill her. Now. That seems like a huge leap all of a sudden, right? Okay, so I guess it wasn’t clear to me whether or not she actually was the one that killed Gabriel. I know he gave her the gun and said, you kill him now. But did she do it? I don’t know if it explicitly said that she killed him. He said you can choose. I’m going to either kill you, Alicia, or Gabriel, and Gabriel is going to determine with that. And Gabriel is like, I don’t want to die. And so he said, all right. And he pointed the gun at Lisa, pretending he’s going to shoot her, then shot in the air and then put the gun down. So he shot it into the roof and put the gun down. And that was the whole, like, Greek tragedy thing. After hearing that her husband cheated on her and didn’t give a shit about her at all, she basically came back mute, killed him. Technically, he might go to jail for a couple of years for, like, I don’t know, kidnapping, breaking entry, assault and battery. But then he kills her because he’s like she may or may not know. That doesn’t seem like the most well thought out idea there to make any sense. Well, I thought Theo’s character and this is one of my hates, his story wasn’t that interesting in general. Yeah, he’s a cock. So what? Just say something. It just was so weird to me, and I know it drives the narrative and whatnot, and probably part of his psychosis, but I found this gross text chain on your email. Can we talk about it? And if she’s all of a sudden asking you, hey, don’t smoke on that pipe in here. That pipe weed, whatever. It’s like, well, how about you don’t smoke that skin flute? Because I saw the email chain where you were talking to that guy, and it’s disgusting. And what’s wrong with the love we make under the covers with the lights off and my penis through my pajama pants? There’s nothing wrong with that. Is that what happened? Dave Chappellskit, Trading Spouses. I know. That the Dave chappelle. Yeah, I know. It blows my gourd that you would go through all these other means to, like, catch her in the act. Well, she’s been blowing a lot of gold, you know what I mean? Anyway, it’s gone. But it’s like, why would you go through all these hurdles to catch her in the act when you’ve literally caught her in the act via this email exchange? Because he secretly likes it. He wants to be the willing cock. Hey, if that’s the life you want to live, live it. But just live in your own home. Don’t put your business here. Okay, so, yes, this is going to be made into a movie. Plan B and Anapurna are in development. Plan B is the production company that’s run by Brad Pitt and Co. They made like Twelve Years a Slave and moonlight. Yeah. So it’s going to be a movie, and there’s really no other details. So the cast is open. Do you have anything for cast? The movie here, so I’ll run through mine here. Quick casting Actress theo. I did Benedict Cumberbatch. He’s got that psychiatrist. Okay. So that’s the one person I had. Cumberbatch. Yeah. He has that vibe of, like, I did a rough childhood and now I’m potentially turned into a psychopath. Yeah, but you immediately want to like him. You’re immediately on his side. You think of him as a victim. Yeah. You wouldn’t think of him as the bad guy, which makes a better cast for that. Alicia, I think I’ve cast as her before Marion Coltillard, the girl from Inception. I think she’s French. She’s got really good eyes or emotion through her face, you know what I mean? Yes, for sure. Yeah. And that movie with Brad Pitt, which he hooked up with her, and then that’s why he, him and Angela Joel broke up. The spy one. She’s got great eyes. Like really, really good situation because this character can’t talk, so it really has to all be in the eyes. Gabriel. I did. Orlando bloom. He’s like the cool artist. Definitely wearing a wool cap at all times. I can see it. And then the last one. This one is the easiest casting I’ve ever done. Ruth therapist. Judy Dench. Easy day. Signed, sealed and delivered. Yeah, let’s get into it. Would you recommend silent patient? Keith, what do you say? Yeah, I really liked it. I think I liked it better than you did because it’s going to go in my top ten. Oh. Whoa. Really? You look back at these books and review it. You always say, oh, I guess that really wasn’t as good as I remember, because we’re just, like, talking through it now, and you’re like, there’s all this stuff that doesn’t really add up, but when you’re reading it and you can’t put it down, that’s what a book is. That’s what you’re what a good book is. So I probably wouldn’t read it again, but I don’t care. It’s still a top ten book for me. I think it was better than Sharp Objects, which I have in my top ten. Did I read that? Yeah, we read it on the phone. Hey, we’re 41 or 42, episode ten. So, yeah, if that’s your top ten, you like it more as simple as that. It’s an interesting way that you put this, because it’s like we talked about when we recently did the movie review, is I like to review movies. Rate movies. Not review, but rate movies immediately after I see them, because that’s when I feel like it’s the best. And if you let it sit a while, you can kind of change your feeling towards it. And with this, I liked it. I still like it. I still would say, like, oh. Someone was like, hey, I need a mystery kind of thing. I think check it out. But the more that we talked about it, the less I actually really enjoyed it or the more shit I had to say about it. So I would probably recommend it. But not over sharp objects. I loved that book. I remember every little piece of that book. I would say it’s a good book. I think the SGF, when we listened to it on our card, we both enjoyed listening to it. So, yes, I would recommend it, but probably not clusterbomb recommended I’d recommend it to specific people. I did book club questions on Verity. Very similar genre, the exact same kind of psychological thriller. But when I now think about the book, I’m like, how did I like that book? But when I was reading it, I said it was a five star. I was like, this is fucking incredible. But I would recommend Married to people too. But when I think about it, I’m like plot. Like, why is it not that great? In general? I just don’t think this is necessarily one of my favorite genres. I don’t really have the mystery. I think it’s easiest for the pod because there’s so much stuff you can shit on because there’s much more likely to be plot holes. Foundation. I have three notes. We’re 7 hours in. I’m like what? Am I supposed to fucking comment on this? All right, well, I guess that is a slight spoiler to our next book, which is foundation, a Sci-Fi classic by Isaac Asimov, which was recently made into an Apple Plus. I think it’s Apple Plus, right? TV series or miniseries. So our next book is going to be foundation Sci-Fi classic. I don’t even know when it came out, but, like, the 60s or whatever, but this was the silent Patient. Alex McAleese, thanks for sharing that book with us. And Keith, until next time, brother. All right, bye. Now