The Hypnotist's Love Story

The Hypnotist’s Love Story (2011) is a novel by Liane Moriarty. In it, hypnotherapist Ellen O’Farrell finds her new love affair complicated when Patrick reveals he is being stalked by his ex-girlfriend—and Ellen, far from fearful, becomes fascinated with the woman’s interest in their lives. The Hypnotist’s Love Story explores The Difficulties of Losing a Relationship, The Complexities of Family Dynamics, and The Importance of Self-Improvement and Healing.

Liane Moriarty is the author of 10 bestselling works of fiction, including the novels Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers, and The Husband’s Secret. Several of her books have been adapted for film and TV, and her work has been translated into over 40 languages.

This guide uses the 2011 hardcover edition published by Amy Einhorn Books.

Content Warning: The source material and guide include depictions of stalking and illness leading to death.

Plot Summary

The novel unfolds in two points of view: A first-person narrator who turns out to be Saskia, and a third-person narrative from Ellen’s point of view. The action begins when, over dinner, Ellen O’Farrell’s date, Patrick Scott, reveals a complication to their growing relationship: He is being stalked by his ex-girlfriend, Saskia, whom he dated after his first wife died. Ellen becomes interested in Saskia’s motives and, though she confesses this only to herself, feels flattered by the woman’s interest in her. Ellen is 35 and, after a previous painful breakup, is ready for a long-term relationship. She likes being with Patrick.

As their relationship progresses and Ellen meets Patrick’s son, Jack, as well as his parents, she feels cautiously optimistic that she could be falling in love. Ellen has a successful career as a hypnotherapist, though certain of her patients present a challenge. One bride-to-be, Rosie, who wants to stop smoking before her wedding, suddenly realizes she doesn’t want to be married all, and Ellen doesn’t know why gloomy Mary-Kate keeps coming to see her. Significantly, Ellen also doesn’t realize that Saskia is one of her patients. Saskia is curious to know what Patrick sees in the hypnotist and can’t let go of what Patrick, and Jack, meant to her. It’s painful for her to see Ellen stepping into the life Saskia lived, while Saskia herself feels alone and bereft, as if she is wearing a professional, normal mask over her real, broken self.

Ellen learns she is pregnant. She wants the baby, but she hopes to be a completely different parent from her own mother, Anne, a sharply elegant physician who raised Ellen with the help of two loving godmothers. Ellen decides to tell Patrick about the pregnancy while they’re away for a romantic weekend. On the flight to Noosa from Sydney, Ellen learns that Patrick has booked them the same hotel where he first met Saskia. Ellen also realizes, from his description of his ex, that Saskia is the patient Ellen has been treating for unexplained leg pain—and Ellen told her where they were going. Patrick thinks they have a weekend of freedom and tries to propose to Ellen, only to find Saskia interrupting their moment.

Patrick is stunned to learn that Ellen is pregnant, but Saskia is even more stunned—she wanted a baby with Patrick, but never conceived. Saskia feels Patrick moving further away from her, and she still doesn’t understand what went wrong. Meanwhile, Ellen struggles with the upheaval that accepting Patrick’s proposal brings to her life when he and Jack move into her quiet cottage on the beach. Ellen’s mother reveals that she is dating Ellen’s father and wants them to meet on the same day that Patrick wants Ellen to meet the parents of his dead wife, Colleen. Thrown off balance by pregnancy hormones and uncertain if she’s made the right choice, Ellen is unexpectedly soothed when, after a fight with Patrick, she finds Saskia has entered her home and left her biscuits. Ellen, who fears that Patrick is still in love with Colleen, feels that Saskia may be the only person who really understands her.

With her personal life in upheaval, Ellen confronts unanticipated problems in her work life. One of her clients, Luisa, is furious that Ellen hasn’t treated her infertility and demands a refund. Rosie’s new husband, a newspaper magnate, blames Ellen over the fact that Rosie doesn’t love him, and promises to destroy her business. Nothing seems to be working out in her favor. When she meets her father, he is ordinary, even boring. Her girlfriends think Saskia is a threat. Ellen focuses on the joy of having a baby, but then Saskia shows up at the ultrasound, and Ellen and Patrick realize they might never be free.

That evening, to help calm him, Ellen puts Patrick into a light trance, and while in it he confesses that he doesn’t love Ellen the way he loved Colleen. That night, Ellen wakes from bad dreams to find Saskia in their bedroom, holding the ultrasound pictures. A dust storm rages outside. When Patrick lunges at her, furious, Saskia stumbles and falls down the stairs, tumbling into Jack.

While Patrick rushes Jack to the hospital, Ellen follows Saskia and is there where Saskia regains consciousness, having broken her pelvis. Ellen informs Saskia that it’s time to let go of Patrick and rebuild her life. The confrontation feels healing, and when Ellen returns home, good and then better news awaits. Ellen’s client, Mary-Kate, intervenes to head off the defamation lawsuit that Rosie’s husband is threatening to bring. Jack’s injury is no worse than a broken arm. When their families gather to show their love and support, Patrick makes it clear to Ellen that while Colleen was his first love, his love for Ellen is deeper, more mature, and better all around.

Saskia fears she has nothing in her life, but she unexpectedly finds friends during the course of her recovery and is able, finally, to let go of her hurt over her breakup with Patrick. Ellen finds deep joy in mothering her baby daughter, Grace, and is delighted by her new family arrangement. A year later, when Saskia sees Ellen with her baby, Saskia is on her way to meet up with friends and simply walks away.