The Push
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4.3 • 468 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES' 50 BEST THRILLERS OF THE 21st CENTURY
WINNER OF THE CRIME WRITERS OF CANADA BEST FIRST CRIME NOVEL AWARD • SHORTLISTED FOR THE RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
“Original and compulsively readable.” —Kristin Hannah
“Set my nerves jangling. Not to be missed.” —Lisa Jewell
“Utterly addictive.” —Paula Hawkins
“[A] taut, chilling debut.” —The New York Times
“As suspenseful as any thriller, as thoughtful as any literary
novel. . . . Stunning.” —Toronto Star
“A provocative, compulsive novel about modern motherhood.”
—Vogue
A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family—and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for—and everything she feared
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby, Violet, that she herself never had.
But in the exhaustion of early motherhood, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter.
Or is it all in Blythe’s head? The more her husband, Fox, dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity.
Then their son, Sam, is born—and with him Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. But when their lives are changed in an instant, the devastating fallout forces Blythe to face the truth.
The Push is an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Early in Ashley Audrain’s tense, bone-chilling debut novel, new mother Blythe silently wonders why her infant daughter Violet “didn’t feel like the best thing that ever happened to me.” Faced with disapproval from her once-supportive husband, Blythe desperately tries to connect with Violet while worrying that a family history of maternal abuse has doomed their relationship. As Blythe grapples with the question of nature versus nurture, Violet’s apparent hostility intensifies, raising sinister possibilities. Audrain’s compassion for a lonely mother who fears that she has failed at her most primal task keeps this deftly paced thriller grounded in reality, even as suspense mounts. The Push doesn’t relax its grip until the very last sentence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Growing up as the latest link in a long chain of toxic mother-daughter dyads, aspiring writer Blythe, the narrator of Audrain's emotionally devastating debut, has no desire for parenthood herself, until she falls for gentle, supportive Fox Connor, who can't imagine not having kids and convinces her otherwise. Daughter Violet's birth three years later starts the clock ticking toward the implosion of the couple's marriage. In the eyes of Fox, who is away most of the day at work, Violet's an angel; to exhausted and overwhelmed Blythe, there's something fundamentally wrong with the baby. Or is there? As Blythe worries over the years that Violet lacks normal feelings of empathy and affection, concerns that Fox keeps dismissing as only in her head, things continue to deteriorate until, desperate not to lose Fox, Blythe becomes pregnant again. Son Sam's arrival blindsides her: to her astonishment, she loves Sam ecstatically. A tragedy precipitated by seven-year-old Violet is by no means the end of the twisty, harrowing ride to the dark side of motherhood Audrain pilots so skillfully. This is a sterling addition to the burgeoning canon of bad seed suspense, from an arrestingly original new voice.
Customer Reviews
Good Read!
I really loved the story but wanted more! Especially at the end
Thriller!
Couldn’t put it down!
Thrilling
Such a good book, beautifully written too. Finished it super fast too I couldn’t stop reading it.