The Push
The Richard & Judy Book Club Choice & Sunday Times Bestseller
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4.2 • 37 Ratings
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- €3.49
Publisher Description
THE BREATHTAKING RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB SELECTION, SUNDAY TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ABOUT OBSESSION WITH A SHOCKING TWIST . . .
OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE
'Utterly addictive' PAULA HAWKINS
'Compulsive' VOGUE
'Gripping' GUARDIAN
'Inventive' SUNDAY TIMES
'Suspenseful' HEAT
'Not to be missed' LISA JEWELL
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Blythe and Violet. Mother and daughter.
It's a bond like no other.
But what if your little angel is a monster?
And what if no one sees it but you?
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AS RECOMMENDED ON BBC RADIO 2 & SOON TO BE ADAPTED FOR THE SCREEN BY THE PRODUCER OF ONCE UPON A TIME . . . IN HOLLYWOOD
**Nominated for two Goodreads Choice Awards**
'Like The Girl on the Train - but better!' DAILY MAIL
'A blockbusting debut about the dark side of motherhood. Gripping, clever, vividly realised . . . the ending left me flabbergasted' GUARDIAN
'I read it in one sitting. Not to be missed' LISA JEWELL
'An inventive twist on the psychological thriller formula. Audrain sustains the suspense expertly' SUNDAY TIMES
'I can't stop thinking and talking about it . . . it has absolutely blown me away' CANDICE BRATHWAITE
'I was gripped from the first word to the last. I've been wanting a book to take me back to how I felt when I first read We Need to Talk About Kevin. That full body experience of reading, when you close the book but can't function until you know how it ends . . . I really recommend this one' DAWN O'PORTER
'Powerful and immersive' EMMA STONEX, author of The Lamplighters
'Taut, chilling, executed with gripping precision. Audrain nimbly stokes the mystery' New York Times
'A suspenseful thriller. Will have you in its grips from the very first page - and stay with you long after you've put it down. Do not miss' Heat
'Suspenseful, dark and intriguing . . . essential for book groups' Stylist
'Unsettling, visceral, provocative, compulsive' Sarah Vaughan
'The most thought-provoking exploration of motherhood since We Need to Talk About Kevin' Clare Pooley, bestselling author of The Authenticity Project
'Fans of 'mum noir' are in for a treat' Daily Mail
'Audrain sustains the suspense expertly through assured handling of her unravelling protagonist's voice' Sunday Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Here’s a warning: start The Push—Canadian author Ashley Audrain’s astonishing, audacious debut—and you probably won’t get much else done. Indeed, we challenge you not to finish it in one sitting. Here, we meet Blythe, the latest in a line of women who, as she puts it, are “different” and who “weren’t meant to be mothers”. So when Blythe gives birth to her daughter, Violet, she wonders if she’ll ever be able to love her fully—a feeling that only becomes more urgent when she glimpses flashes of cruelty in Violet’s behaviour. Told in tense, propulsive prose, The Push is a breathtaking exploration of motherhood and the expectations we place on women that will draw comparisons with We Need to Talk About Kevin and the 2020 thriller The Heatwave. And, as it forces you to question yourself and what (and who) you believe, it also becomes a story of what happens when women aren’t taken at their word. By the time you reach its explosive, exquisite ending, The Push will have embedded itself in your mind. You should be ready for it to stay there long after its close.
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
Excellent
Thought provoking
Read in 3 days could not put it down
Wow!
A gripping piece of writing that had me hooked from the start to the very last page.
It follows 3 generations of women in a family that claims there is something wrong with the women. The main narrator is Blythe, who tells her own story with her own daughter, while flashing back to her mother and grandmothers stories.
Who is there something wrong with? Is Blythe paranoid or is there something wrong with her daughter?
Maternal legacies
My Recommendation
This book is mind blowingly brilliant. On the uncomfortable theme of Dysfunctional mothering through generations,, it investigates the lineage of Blythe and her daughter Violet. This book weaves in and out through the generations causing some confusions, as many of the events could easily fit into the lives of many of the female characters in the story.
Blythe seems to have trouble bonding with her daughter Violet. Is it because she is a selfish woman, or because she has never had good mothering experience? To tell more would be to add spoilers.
This is such a shocker of a book. Horror unfolds at many levels and by the end, Blythe and the reader are left uncertain of whether we have an unreliable narrator, a confused or deluded narrative.
I really enjoyed this story. It’s going to be huge, I will be recommending it.
Trigger Warning #Neglect #DysfunctionalMothering
Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review