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"Of course I wanted to help people."

Theo, the narrator besides Alicia's journal and protagonist describes why he went into psychotherapy, and also his near selfish tendencies based on his own deceptive views of the world. It sets the scene for the characters and who you can and cannot trust, making these characters diverse in opinions.

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"I can't get it out of my mind."

Alicias neurotic tendencies begin to influence the readers opinion on her and believe she may not be completely sane in all truth. She is mistrusting from suggested trauma, and has the most depth about her than any other character as you try to find out more. But for being a character that does not speak she already has more depth than most characters I read about.

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"Oh come on Alicia, I don't know about that, love. I don't think so."

The first flashback of her diary where she introduces direct communication with the victim and husband Gabriel. He automatically shows toxic traits-as well as Alicia-but seems like a manipulative and disruptive partner. Creating more depth to why he was killed, and you begin to look past his surface level savior appearance.

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"Alicia never spoke again."

Contrary to the name of the book, and whole synopsis, Alicia never spoke again. A twist, she seemingly has killed her husband but has not spoke and that is a twist upon itself, with the curiosity of why she would do such a thing and what led her to do it. The first twist of the story.

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"No way out. Only one solution presented itself."

In the context of Theo's rabbit hole of a life, you feel the deep contrast and balance between the action packed details of Alicia's life, and then the more calm aspect of Theo and his journey to the grove. This is not necessarily tension and release, but in its own unique way makes you feel intrigued without stress.

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"We continued seeing each other for several years, Ruth and I. She remained the one constant in my life."

Yet another constant is the lack of dialogue. For the first 15 pages of true writing, there is zero dialogue in the first-person story. However, typically I would complain but he strongly sets up the book and the lack of dialogue almost becomes symbolic of the silent Alicia, and the inner monologue inside.

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"I fell to my knees in front of the toilet and threw up."

Theo finds out his wife, who for the small description of her is his savior, has been cheating on him with another lover, leaving him the victim of an affair. This is devastating and already a crushing twist which leads you curious about if similar effects happened to Alicia, and what other secrets Kathy is hiding.

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"There was no time to waste. Alicia was lost. She was missing and I intended to find her,"

From the few pages of Theo and Alicia's backstory, the jump to The Grove provides an interest like no other and begins to pick up the pace, yet again in its own unique way. The writing style is superb, and allows for more to be revealed in a nice manor.

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"I looked for the TV remote but couldn't see it. Then I located it, peeking out from behind Kathy's open laptop on the coffee table."

However, on the contrary, these pages in Theo's home life lack any dialogue at all. On these next few pages, Theo finds messages between his wife Kathy and her secret lover. He finds out about her affair, but I think the lack of dialogue provides less on their relationship. I want to know more about his love for Kathy and the impact on her cheating, and perhaps the connection between him and Alicia.

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"May I come in? I-I need to talk to you."

Theo goes to his ex-therapist Ruth after going deeper and deeper into the affair. The dialogue and personal monologue balance out at this point, as it is not too much or too little. I hope it continues to improve and balance, but so far it is logical to the book and writing style.

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"I'm calling regarding your niece, Alicia Berenson. I'm a psychotherapist working at the--'

'F off' She hung up."

Yet another balanced point, although fowl, the characters enormously help to create the tension and release. The buildups cause this to be a fast-paced book, but as you continue on, you calm down to read the let downs and peaceful approach.

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"Alicia jumped up. I thought she was about to leap on me."

Alicia's first form of communication at all is as she bangs on the door to get out from talking with Theo, this is the first twist as Theo gets some information out of her.

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"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband."

Similar to this looming trend of a compelling first line, this book follows through. Clearly a psychological thriller, this book makes you immediately ask the question of "Why?" within one page. Whether or not you wish to stick around to find out however is a different story that much be uncovered. But, for a first page this is a great start to it.

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"A gun was on the floor, next to it, in the shadows, Gabriel was seated, motionless, bound to a chair."

The explicit step-by-step description of the crime scene sets the story up and keeps you curious about what has truly happened, and who truly would have done this. The descriptive skills make you so intrigued and make you think about the clues and possibly try to solve the mystery before it truly begins.

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"My name is Theo Faber. I'm forty-two years old. And I became a psychotherapist because I was f----d up."

Besides vile non-school appropriate language, this clearly sets up the character Theo who we learn is infatuated with Alicia's case. Theo has had a traumatic childhood and finds it in himself to save Alicia and try to figure out why her childhood leads her to shoot her husband.

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"If I don't pay them back, I'll be in big trouble."

Paul-Alicia's Cousin-is in trouble due to his gambling issues, leaving Alicia to keep another secret. We as readers learn more about her personal life and the secrets she was left keeping, and how not only she has secrets but all the men surrounding her.

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"I need your help Alicia, that's why I'm here."

Alicia is surrounded by needy people who need her help, and wish to keep her silence. Paul comes from Aunt Lydia's house asking for money from Alicia, at least two thousand. Paul is known as a negative character, but has development on his sweet childhood side to his manipulative but stunted self.

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"A woman's body was sitting in the wreck, slumped at the wheel."

The balance of showing and telling is highlighted here, as there is not too much internal or external dialogue, but a break to describe Alicia's paintings. This is a superb writing style, and allows for calm transitions and details of the mystery.

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"I hate the fact that there's a gun in the house."

Every time Theo or Alicia's tension raises, it switches perspectives into each other's lives, making the slow insanity of the two feel more of a slow burn, successfully balancing showing and telling. When Theo is discussing Kathy and Alicia, Alicia's journal tells the tale of the gun she shoots her husband with. It is balanced and organized.

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"I think its a great idea."
"She doesn't participate in art therapy?"

Theo has an idea to allow Alicia to paint through art due to Jean Carlos. This twists the plot as she begins to have freedom and is allowed to paint her feelings, she begins to paint on a canvas alone, and this is not necessarily a dramatic twist, but an important twist in her development.

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"She kept using the word fireworks."
"Fireworks?"

Theo is debating the history of his relationship with Ruth his ex-therapist/occupational friend, and this contributes to a strong ideal that his wife needed 'fireworks'. This contributes to a strong opening and build up throughout the next 100 pages, that makes the opening have strong drama in itself, even besides Alicia.

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"It's a MAN."

Barbie-Alicia's neighbor and self proclaimed best friend-talks to Theo about reports that a man was watching her. Barbie is dramatic, and seems like lying trouble which adds depth to how much of her perspective was true and how much was false, allowing the diversity to confuse the reader and Theo in his discoveries.

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"Angry.. she's angry."

The dialogue between Theo and Diomedes assists at the dialogue side of things which also leads to clues, the telling of the dialogue can mislead you to small clues but highly contribute to a balanced showing and telling, making the writing style even better with realistic and differing dialogue that shows AND tells.

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"A man?"
"Yes. Watching."

The buildup of Alicia starts to peak, but slowly goes down as the mystery starts to unveil. He begins to find out that a man was allegedly watching Alicia, and you wonder if the man is product of insanity, or if he was true, or who he is. The tension is a roller coaster in the best way possible as it displays the calm before the storm.

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"Leaving Kathy would be like tearing off a limb. I simply wasn't prepared to mutilate myself like that."

Yet again contributing to the opening, the decision that remains for the first 200 pages is that Theo will not leave Kathy even if things raise in tension and get worse. This is good for the twisted concept, and the first phrase Theo reflects back to that you become a psychotherapist, because you are messed up.

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"I want to help you-I want to help you see clearly."

The biggest twist of this book is as you realize Alicia's stalker, the man she was so afraid of wished to help her see clearly, as Theo's affair issue and Alicia's underlying tension were connected in a cross between Gabriel and Theo's wife is a double affair, and he is the reason why Alicia killed Gabriel. He is trying to make her see clearly but in reality he is the cause for all this trouble.

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"I didn't kill Gabriel. He killed me. And all I did was pull the trigger."

Alicia reveals her motives to kill Gabriel, after her savior would no longer save her for any reason. His abuse, neglect and constant disregards build up to this point and allows the readers to fully understand the depth of these characters now, as a whole and what built up Alicia to face her silence.

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"He left without saying a word."

In this final stretch, the balance of dialogue and even lack of dialogue provides suspension as you find out who the killer is, and why they performed such horrible actions. The style of writing with even amounts of descriptive painful paragraphs to emotional dialogue within the last hundred pages.

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"It seems I've gotten everything I wanted. Well, almost."

All balance of tension and release has been neglected through the last 30 pages as all tension builds. The reader now knows the cause of death and it is pure tension, in the best way possible. It abuses the term "psychological thriller" and has your blood pumping in the utmost best way, as you watch the world crumble at Theo's feet.

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"She wanted me to read it."

Although not the direct beginning, the bold opening is concluding and revolving around its statements in order to provide context for Alicia's plot twists and conclusions-providing even more evidence that this book had a strong opening as it all revolves around the nearing end of the book aswell.