The Patient

May 1, 2020
A young psychiatrist goes head-to-head with a patient with a reputation for driving caregivers mad. It's 2008, and Parker, the narrator of DeWitt's crisp and creepy debut, is moved to blog about his experience treating Joe, an institutionalized young man with a terrifying ability to exploit others' worst fears. Previous doctors have given up on Joe, left emotionally shaken by him; on Parker's first day, one orderly exits Joe's asylum room in hysterics, and soon after his nurse kills herself in despair. Still, Parker plunges in, inspired by youthful determination and a commitment to his profession. (His mother's mental illness inspired him to pursue psychiatry.) Joe is initially polite and seemingly sane, an experience that cues a series of twists until Parker discovers the truth about whether Joe is misunderstood, mad, or something harder to define. DeWitt's story exploits some well-worn tropes ("lunatics running the asylum" prominent among them) and nakedly evokes The Exorcist and Dracula (Parker's name seems an homage to Stoker's Jonathan Harker); subplots involving Parker's fiancee and the asylum's administration don't have much life to them, and the nurse's early departure spares the reader extended time with her clich�d Irish accent. But the central plot and storytelling are gripping, built on smart psychological parrying and good old-fashioned gross-outs: Parker recalls his mom pleading for help because "the damn maggots won't crawl out of me, baby," and Joe says he was haunted by a creature with "fly eyes and two big, superstrong spider arms" that "eats bad thoughts." The story's blog format gives the novel a casual, galloping pace (DeWitt posted an early version to a Reddit horror-fiction community), and the climactic confrontations between Parker and Joe are entertainingly intense. A clever cocktail of psychological thriller and supernatural horror.

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May 15, 2020
Told in a series of blog posts, this compact novella was first published on Reddit in r/nosleep, a forum for horror writers to post original works. In 2008, Parker is a new doctor, young and hungry, eager to make his mark on the world of psychiatry. He takes a job with the Connecticut State Asylum (CSA), seeing this as the first rung on the ladder to success. Parker soon learns that CSA is home to a famous patient, Joe, who has been there since he was a child. Every person who has treated Joe has either died, gone insane, or suffers from PTSD. The young doctor sees this as a challenge, not realizing he's also in danger. While the gore factor is relatively low, DeWitt imbues the narrative with existential horror, and its creeping dread will linger in readers' minds. Fans of Alex Michaelides' The Silent Patient (2019) and Zoje Stage's Baby Teeth (2018) will gobble this one up. Ryan Reynolds' production company has snapped up the rights to it, so readers will be curious.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

May 18, 2020
DeWitt’s taut debut, a psychological thriller with horror elements, purports to be a manuscript that “was posted in several installments under the thread ‘Why I Almost Quit Medicine’ on... a now-defunct forum for medical professionals.” Parker, a Yale medical school graduate recently hired as a psychiatrist at the underfunded Connecticut State Asylum, becomes fascinated with Joe, an isolated, long-term patient, whom no one has successfully diagnosed since he was committed as a child. Ignoring the advice of Nessie, a veteran nurse, as well as his superiors’ instructions, the arrogant Parker delves into Joe’s background and uncovers years of medical negligence at the asylum. When Nessie dies, the latest victim in a decades-long string of caregivers whose interactions with Joe induced deadly feelings of anger or self-harm, Parker seizes the chance to volunteer to treat Joe. Parker’s brushes with the supernatural heighten the tension. Fans of Alex Michaelides’s The Silent Patient will want to check this one out. Agent: Joel Gotler, Intellectual Property Group.

February 1, 2020

As he outlines in a series of posts, cocky young psychiatrist Parker H. believes he can help the undiagnosed 40-year-old patient who since age six has been at the hospital to which Parker has just been assigned--never mind that in the interim everyone who has intervened to help this patient has literally gone mad or committed suicide. Good luck, Parker. DeWitt's debut started life as an idea that's already been bought for film; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

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