A Review of 'The Patient' by Jasper DeWitt

By Aishwarya Chandra

Edited by Nandana

Jasper DeWitt’s The Patient is what happens when psychiatry meets pure nightmare fuel and decides to blog about it. The kind of psychological thriller that tiptoes into the dark corners of the human mind and then slams the door behind you. Narrated to you through a series of online blog posts, the storytelling style is deceptively simple, like a campfire tale told by someone who’s a little too calm for your liking.

The novel draws you into a decaying mental institution where one patient, Joe, has baffled doctors for decades. Every professional who tried to treat him has ended up dead, insane, or mysteriously gone. So naturally, Parker H., a young, ambitious psychiatrist full of confidence and caffeine, believes he can crack the case. (spoiler alert: he cannot)

The format of a first-person post on an online forum gives the book a confessional intimacy. Like you’re scrolling through someone’s descent into madness in real-time. (because what could go wrong in treating someone who’s been institutionalized since the age of six?) What the novel lacks in length, it makes up for in pacing. Each post builds tension until you’re clutching the pages (or your Kindle) like a safety blanket.

But the real brilliance of The Patient lies in how it plays with ambiguity. Is Joe suffering from an extreme psychological condition? Is he possessed? Or is he something worse, something beyond science and sanity? DeWitt never hands you the answer, which is exactly what keeps your brain buzzing long after you’re done reading. At barely 200 pages, The Patient is a quick read but an effective one, a shot of psychological horror that lingers like a bad dream you secretly enjoyed. It’s clever horror with no cheap jump scares, just slow, psychological dread with a dash of “I told you so.” Think The Exorcist meets Reddit. A quick, chilling read that proves curiosity doesn’t just kill the cat—it drives it absolutely insane.