The Push: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | A New York Times bestseller!
“Utterly addictive.” —Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train
“Hooks you from the very first page and will have you racing to get to the end.”—Good Morning America
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
Ashley Audrain’s second novel, The Whispers, is on sale now
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 thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter—she doesn’t behave like most children do.
Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.
Then their son Sam is born—and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.
For fans of Verity and We Need to talk about Kevin, The The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.
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A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | A New York Times bestseller!
“Utterly addictive.” —Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train
“Hooks you from the very first page and will have you racing to get to the end.”—Good Morning America
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
Ashley Audrain’s second novel, The Whispers, is on sale now
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 thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter—she doesn’t behave like most children do.
Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.
Then their son Sam is born—and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.
For fans of Verity and We Need to talk about Kevin, The The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.
Katherine Y –
Gripping psychological drama about a mother who doesn’t bond with her daughter
If you’re in the mood for a deeply disturbing psychological drama about a motherhood experience gone awry, this is your book. The principal character, Blythe, comes from a line of mothers who have been distant, neglectful, and even abusive to their daughters. Blythe’s grandmother’s domestic strains were the catalyst for her suicide. Blythe’s mother left the family home when Blythe was eleven without a backward glance. When Blythe met Fox in college, she finally found someone who became home to her. They had an idyllic relationship that centered on just the two of them. They eventually married, and Fox pursued his career as an architect. Blythe, who wanted to become a writer, stayed at home. Inside, she was always ambivalent about being a mother but finally agreed with Fox that it was time they started a family.She and Fox became the parents of Violet, a baby girl who, from her first breaths, was anything but easy. While Fox was at work, Violet would cry all day, refuse comfort, and resist her mother at every turn. Blythe began to use headphones to block out the crying and to write. One day Fox came home and discovered that the baby had been crying for a solid hour and a half. From that point on, Blythe and Fox’s relationship began to fracture. Blythe became convinced that something was wrong with her daughter. Fox thought the problem was Blythe, who had never really bonded with Violet. When Violet was four, Blythe became pregnant again. A nightmare for her began to unfold, leaving her distrustful of her daughter, and questioning her sanity. The unimaginable happens, and Blythe’s dreams of a happy family are destroyed.The novel is gripping from page one, not only for the story it tells but for the way most of the story is told. The author, Ashley Audrain, uses a startling second-person voice, so the reader becomes Blythe, and the “you” addressed is Fox. This is a challenging style to carry off, but Audrain does it very effectively. This voice has the added advantage of closing the distance between Blythe and the reader. Of all the books I’ve read lately, this one is the most intense. It’s a perfect read for the times when you want to curl up and shut the door. Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins fans will enjoy this read.
Ethan –
“…a novel that is compulsively readable.”
I have a habit of rushing to buy the book everyone is reading and buzzing about, then ignoring it for so long that the hype has completely died down. The latest casualty of that practice is Ashley Audrain’s celebrated debut novel The Push. I first featured the psychological drama on a stack of 10 other books that I planned to read way back in February of 2021. My bookstagram post featuring the title showed my youngest dog Murphy as a small puppy sitting next to the stack that was nearly as tall as he was. Since then, I’ve read almost 100 titles, and Murphy has grown to easily tower over that stack of books. I decided that enough time had passed and the overwhelming hype had died down enough for me to finally give The Push a read.Generational trauma casts a dark shadow over Blythe as she gives birth to her first child. Her daughter Violet represents a chance to right the wrongs of her family history, to finally give a child a loving home with an attentive mother. Blythe is, of course, apprehensive. What first-time mother wouldn’t be? As she enters motherhood and watches Violet begin to grow, Blythe’s worst fears seem to be coming alive before her very eyes. There is no real connection between the mother and daughter. Try as she might, Blythe just can’t seem to make her daughter love her. Her husband is convinced there is nothing out of the ordinary about Violet. After all, the girl is affectionate and hangs on her father’s every word. Still, Blythe can’t shake the feeling that something is off.Then comes another shot to get everything right. And right it is. The birth of her son Sam is everything Blythe hoped for with Violet. There is an instant bond between mother and son, the kind that still evades Blythe’s relationship with her daughter. This is the motherly bliss she was craving. Even Violet seems to have taken a liking to the bubbly newborn, showing rare signs of affection for the boy. Alas, this euphoria will be short-lived. Sudden tragedy strikes the family, thrusting all of Blythe’s worst fears and suspicions to the forefront. Blythe will face the truth, even if that means reliving the very traumas that she has fought so hard to avoid.Opening the very first pages of The Push, it was easy to see why so many people have fallen under its spell. Ashley Audrain has written a novel that is compulsively readable. I started reading it right before bed, read for more hours than I intended, and finished the entire thing before I went to bed the next night. The main plotline of the book sees a mother reflecting on the events that have brought her to be an outsider in her own family. Audrain weaves themes of psychological trauma, motherhood, and the age-old question of nature vs. nurture into a drama that packs a real punch. The subject matter is dark and twisted, and I could see this being a deterrent to some readers. Still, based on how many glowing reviews I’ve read, it seems most readers are more compelled than concerned. I felt that the momentum of the novel started to lose steam a bit toward the end, especially as I started to see the main plot and flashbacks start to reveal glimmers of the ending. That being said, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think The Push was a solid read. It won’t be my favorite book of the year, but I can certainly understand why so many other readers have loved it.
Vickie Watts –
Awesome thriller with some nail biter scenes
What an unexpectedly good book! I figured with all of the hype that it got, it would be one of those long yawns. Instead, it was an amazing psychological thriller that kept me engrossed, at least after the first part which was kind of slow paced. It was the story of a mother named Blythe who just could not get along with her daughter Violet, no matter how hard she tried. Since her husband Fox bonded with Violet from the beginning, he has no clue about Blythe’s challenges bonding with Violet and her desperate need to be accepted by her child. That desperation led Blythe to have a second child. Sam became the joy of Blythe’s life, until suddenly he wasn’t. I don’t want to spoil anything that happens because parts of this book are real nail biters. The drama is realistic, the characters are three dimensional and the back story of Blythe is amazingly well written. In fact, the way the book is written with insight into Blythe’s heritage and her current situation was nothing short of awesome! I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for good psychological thrillers to read. And I want to urge the readers not to give up after the first chapter or so. The book gets better and it gets intense really fast!DisclaimerDisclosure of Material Connection: I purchased a copy of this book on my Kindle and was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own.
Cliente de Amazon –
What to say about this book? I Just finished it and I am still in shock. A compelling story, told by a beautiful, tortured, very human main character. A pleasure to read.
Wendy Clarke – The Fiction Cafe Book Club –
Oh my word. This book was such a chilling work of art! When you start a book you crave that next unique novel that will stay with you. One you’ll talk about for years to come. This most certainly it and as a psychological thriller it’s about as perfect as it can be.When I started reading this I wasn’t sure what to expect but it honestly wasn’t this! It’s written in first narrative from Blythe’s point of view talking directly to ‘You’ (Her husband) about their daughter Violet. Its the story of mother and daughter and the fractures within their lives.The love between parent and child should be undoubted but this story totally made me regard everything I have within my children so dear and pushes those boundaries of motherhood.I love reading a book after all the hype has died down because it feels like you’re the first to read it and you want to tell everyone to read it too if they haven’t already.This really unsettled me, I felt the mothers fear and her frustration. The scary thoughts, her lack of trust. It was thought provoking. It made me gasp, cry, laugh and fear. The relationship with mother and daughter was intense. As was the previous generations of mother daughter relationships.As a mother you make mistakes but what if you are right in your thoughts and what you strongly feel but no one believes you? Is that what happened? Was it imaginary situations? Is It true that a harrowing past can be inherited into the future? Does a lack of motherly instincts really run in families or is it just that a child can be born bad?It’s a book that has you believing everything isn’t what it should be.
AP –
Looks and feels like a cheap photocopy. Disappointing quality for a bestseller at this price.
Prof. Gunjan Sushil –
What an amazing book. The plot structure and the story line were so good that I read it in one sitting. The Push is not only a psychological thriller but a thought provoking book. Long after I had finished reading it, it kept on haunting me. Strongly recommended and four stars for me.
Maria Isabel L C –
Avaliação do objeto em si: chegou para mim o produto descrito nas informações (tamanho) e na imagem (mesma capa). Chegou em perfeito estado físico, nenhum amassado.