The main character Parker, an overconfident and young egotistical psychiatrist is amazed to work with a patient that everyone says is uncurable. The book The Patient by Jasper Dewit is centered around a patient that is seemingly uncurable and everyone has lost hope for him there since he was 6 years old, he is now 46. Going by the alias "Joe" in the social media posts that the main character formats, a trail of clues and development of the character, the patient, and the facility housing all of the secrets start to unravel.
The horror and psychological thriller this book has are definitely not for the faint of heart. Starts out with Parker telling the story to the world through social media posts talking about his experience with the "incurable patient". "Joe" was 6 when he was first reported to the Connecticut State Asylum reportedly having acute night terrors and paranoia. He is sent home the next day. But when he comes back the second time, there is something different about his behavior, and soon what doctors found out was a series of incidents that all lead back to their communications with "Joe". All of them tried to and did commit suicide. Due to this unexplainable reason, "Joe" was left to stay in the asylum forever having minimal contact with other staff or doctors. But when a new and young enterprising Dr. Parker arrives he is intrigued by the challenge of "Joe's" case. All staff rejects his proposal to meet with "Joe" in fear of another inscitdent until the night-duty nurse one day commits suicide. Parker is then tasked with trying to understand "Joe" and try to diagnose him, but with all the 1 sheet of paper that he found on "Joe's" small file Parker is left to start all over and try to cure the incurable patient.
The novel is amazing! The informal and personal way the book is written as social media posts adds more sureness and almost makes it like reading Parker's experience as some random thread in social media. The novel has the right amount of empathy but also the crudeness of the characters and really shapes their personalities well. The plot was well-formatted and your perspective on how you predict the story ending changed constantly throughout the book. This book really does keep you on your toes and is really good at engaging and bringing you into that atmosphere that Dewit is trying to create. With multiple twists and turns that were pulled out of nowhere, the novel was definitely something that I would recommend to those that are okay with crude language and gore but also are in the thrill of horror and psychological fiction overall would say is not a regrettable choice of reading.
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