Thrillers are one of the most timeless and beloved genres in fiction, known for their focus on suspense, tension, and high-stakes scenarios that keep readers on the edge of their seats in a near-constant state of anticipation. And now, Goodreads has officially crowned the best thriller-mystery of the last decade.
Goodreads is one of the best reader resources available. As the world’s largest social media platform and website for readers, it often serves as one of the first stops for readers deciding on their next book. The platform offers personalized recommendations, reviews, ratings, and other insights that help individuals gauge how their book of interest has been received by the wider reading community.
Based on user activity such as the number of times a book is added to users’ digital bookshelves, ratings, reviews, and more, Goodreads is able to collect valuable data about books and their reception among readers. Using this data, the platform has officially named the most popular thriller-mystery of the decade: The Silent Patient, the 2019 novel by Alex Michaelides. Goodreads has generously shared the data with Screen Rant, making it clear that this 2019 novel stands as the cream of the crop in its genre, and Screen Rant is now sharing that data with its readers.
What Makes The Silent Patient The Most Popular Thriller Of The Decade
Ratings, Shelving, Reviews, and More
When it came to determining “the most popular thriller of the decade,” Goodreads set several qualifiers. The Goodreads data team defined “most popular of the decade” by setting parameters for books published from 2017 to now, with popularity measured by total user shelvings. The books considered also had to meet a rating above 3.5 stars as a quality check.
With these three parameters, Michaelides’s The Silent Patient rose to the top as the thriller genre’s clear winner for the last decade. The book earned a 4.16-star average rating with 3.4 million ratings, 6 million shelvings, and 294,647 reviews. In addition to these impressive achievements, The Silent Patient also claimed the number one spot on Goodreads’ “Most Popular Books Published in 2019” list, a ranking determined by the book being the most frequently added to Goodreads members’ shelves that year.
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This is a particularly notable achievement given that the ranking was across all genres, not just the thriller-mystery category. Two other accolades further demonstrate that The Silent Patient more than deserves its “Best Thriller of the Decade” ranking. The novel won the Goodreads Choice Award for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller and was also nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Readers’ Favorite Debut Novel. These statistics and awards make it clear that there is truly something special about Alex Michaelides’s The Silent Patient.
The Silent Patient: The Psychological Thriller Where Violence Meets Obsession
Official Synopsis for Alex Michaelides’s The Silent Patient
Michaelides’s The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller about a famous artist who stops speaking after murdering her husband in a shocking display of brutality, and the therapist who becomes obsessed with uncovering her motive. Those looking for the book’s official synopsis can find it below:
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.
Alicia’s refusal to talk or give any kind of explanation turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander—a mystery that captures public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she—the silent patient—is hidden away from tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
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—a search for truth that threatens to consume him….
For thriller fans who have yet to pick up the book, the recognition it has received is a strong indicator that they should seriously consider giving this decade’s most popular thriller a chance. Of course, it’s important to remember that even with extensive data, terms like “best” can still be subjective. So if you don’t agree that The Silent Patient is the best <em>thriller </em>of the decade, which book would earn your nomination?
