I didn't really know what this book was about when I first started reading it. I just heard that it was good and I loved the cover.

This is about a woman called Blythe. She has just become a first-time mum to Violet. Being a mother is really hard for Blythe and she feels it is a daily struggle. Especially to form a bond with her new daughter.

The chapters also go back in time to when Blythe was a child and how her relationship was with her mum Cecelia. It also touches on Celeclia's childhood with her mum Etta.

All 3 woman have had problems loving or connecting with their child and it seems to be passing on through the generations.

But when something happens at a playground, Blythe thinks her daughter had something to do with it. But her husband thinks it is just her pushing Violet away more.

When Blythe has a second child, a son called, Sam. Everything changes. She loves Sam immediately and dotes on him. But still finds it hard with Violet. When Sam, is in an accident, Blythe's world is turned up-side-down. And to make matters worse, she blames Violet.

It took me a few chapters to get into this book. But the chapters were really short, which was good, so kept me going. I really started to enjoy learning about all three of these women and their relationships with their daughters. I loved the second half of the book more when it got a bit darker. I don't want to go into too much without giving anything away. But it was really good.

I don't know how I feel about the ending. In one way I loved it, but another way I felt I wanted to know just a little bit more.

A really exciting read and I speed through the last third of the book.
4-4.5/5 stars

A truly captivating book about three mothers and the consequences of their feelings and actions. Are some people born evil or does circumstances change them? This book will help you make a decision.

Darkly gripping - one of my best books of the year so far. Darkly gripping- I found it hard to put this one down.

I found this book quite dark and upsetting but very well written and completely unputdownable. Really look forward to seeing what the author does next.

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Michael Joseph and Ashley Audrain for my arc of The Push in exchange for an honest review.

Out now

The Push spans 3 generations of women and motherhood. We see young couple Fox and Blythe happy and in love and Blythe's determination to be a good mother despite her own mother's failings. Flash backwards show us her experience of childhood with her neglectful and sometimes abusive mother and also of her mother Cecelia's experiences with her own difficult mother Etta. But after Violet is born Blythe finds motherhood is nothing like she expected or hoped it would be, something is wrong with Violet. Fox says it's all in her head. But when baby Sam arrives Blythe finds in him the mother son connection she's always wanted...

I've seen this book everywhere. I genuinely don't know when I'm going to learn the lesson of not buying into the hype because this was hugely disappointing for me. I was expecting to enjoy a creepy thriller and what I got instead was a depressing, mood hoovering, soul sucker of a book with the most unlikeable characters I've ever read. Blythe is supposed to be an unreliable narrator but doesn't come across that way, instead of questioning whether she's imagining violet's behaviour I fully believed it from the get go and consequently ended up hating Fox for being so unsupportive and blind to what his daughter was doing and not supporting his wife. This book took my relatively good mood and turned into a dark and miserable one that left me waking up this morning feeling maudlin and miserable.
If you're not the sort of person who absorbs the mood of a book then you may be ok with this one but to be honest I wouldn't even recommend it for the plot it's just not that interesting or unique.

Hard-hitting, biting, upsetting and deeply insightful.

4.5 stars

As a separated mum living apart from her children, the first images of this story really hit me - the mother watching her daughter from outside her new family's home. I immediately felt a connection to Blythe, though I had no idea how my feelings were going to be pulled at and wrung out by the time we returned to this bookend scene at the end of this short novel.

I wasn't quite ready for what came, though it all rang true. The story of Blythe and Fox, the overwhelming love and early days of affection and support, the excitement of homes and jobs and aspirations... and starting a family.

All of that I could relate to. And then as Blythe gave birth and her whole world changed, the experiences seemed to pour out from the author as someone who knows what an explosion becoming a mother is. The anger at the other parent who gets to leave every day, the monotony, and the complicated emotions you're left struggling with. Though the story takes a turn with little Violet, who could be a Lionel Shriver 'Kevin' or William Landay's 'Jacob'.... we just don't know.

We can't trust Blythe's frame of mind or narrative at times. What she sees in her growing daughter, others don't seem to. Do we trust her?

Blythe is a fascinating character as a mother. We get snippets of her own story, with an unloving mother (and also go back one more generation to see her mother's upbringing and history). I felt that this wasn't all that necessary actually, and didn't add anything to the book - illumination, clarity or perspective. It added a little confusion on the audiobook as to whose story we were following, and it was only really Blythe's I wanted.

Violet is key to everything of course, and we only get the perspective of her mother. Violet occasionally is given a voice. And it's quite a creepy one, wise and thoughtful beyond her years. With context, it could be said to be prescient and foreshadowing, dark and calculating.... or is it?!

There are books like this out there - the two mentioned above are well-known. The idea of the 'is she or isn't she' demonic child character isn't new. But Blythe as mother is a little different. Her narration hurts. It's more about her as mother and and wife, two stories in one really.

Personally I loved the ending. I felt satisfied. I would still like to know what happens after the final scene. I wanted to hear more from Fox, throughout really. The changes in their relationship felt very real and I wanted his thoughts on his marriage, his wife, his child. Blythe does try to give us his views through her eyes, but his actions are thoughts are largely hidden or not fully explained.

It's hard-hitting. It's tense. It raises questions.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.

This was an extraordinary book, written, unusually, in the second person, which works very well. The narrator is Blythe, who writes as if she is addressing her husband, Fox. Blythe comes from a line of disturbed women, who were unsuited to and uninterested in motherhood. Blythe fears she may be the same and when she becomes a mother to Violet, her life changes dramatically, despite her determination to break the mould of her past

I was immediately hooked and stayed up far too late, just to finish one more chapter, and then one more. It's harrowing in places, and brutally honest, but utterly compelling right to the last full stop. I'll definitely be seeking out more work from Ashley Audrain.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me download this book in return for an honest review.

Exhaustingly Riveting!
What a clever, addictive, challenging and compulsive read. I didn’t know what to expect when I started this book, but it certainly wasn’t the shocking and sad tale of motherhood, with a compulsive tale wrapped in fear, which I read.

The story unfolds with flashbacks to the childhood of both Cecilia and Blythe, (mother and daughter) each facing their own challenging circumstances growing up, neither set a good example of motherhood (or fatherhood) or high expectations. The main body of the tale revolves around Blythe and her efforts to be the mother she dreamt of to her ever-challenging daughter Violet. The plot entwined tragic events with
obsession, fear, jealousy and control. The inter-generational story holds you in icy fear as the plot unwraps.

The story encapsulates family circumstances that many will face, a marriage break-up and children provoking reactions, playing parents off against each other. Add into this a seemingly bright and controlling, wilful child Violet, and you have tragic events waiting to happen. It awakens every mother’s worst fears.

This book is unsettling and tense whilst engrossing and thought provoking. A read that will stay with me for a long time.

Disturbing but so good.
I loved this hooked from the start. I would say it is along the lines of we must talk about Kevin and an old fav Doris Lessing's The fifth child. A child who we know is instinctively not right where instead if getting help the Mother is seen as odd, hysterical selfish or insane.
Blythe background story of her own disturbed unmotherly Mother and her Grandmother does not bode well for the birth of her daughter Violet, her husband is of course the perfect Father and his Mother although she sympathises with Blythe can not believe the truth about her Granddaughter.
A beautiful romance between Blythe and Fox is tested to its limits and does not survive.
Parts of this book are heart-breaking, some of it humorous but a lot of it involves the reader being sympathetic and rooting for Blythe.
Thank you NetGalley and Ashley..

After a slow start I became hooked on this book about a quarter of the way in!

The plots a familiar one but the writing really makes you want to keep reading just to see how it all unfolds. I’m not sure how to categorise this book, while the premise could lend itself to a thriller this isn’t the direction the author takes. Instead, Audrain focuses on the psychological element, building the intensity of her main character until you are fully drawn in.

The majority of the story is told from Blythe’s point of view, recounting her experiences as a mother and the relationship she had with her own mother. We are never sure if Blythe is a reliable narrator and at times her actions are incredibly frustrating but it’s also easy to emphasize and form a connection with her as we dive deep into her emotions. This means some of the tragic events in the book hit particularly hard, everything is written with sensitivity but it can be an uncomfortable read at times.

As well as snippets from Blanches childhood, we get an insight into her mother’s childhood exploring the cycle of neglect. I found these sections helpful for understanding Blythe further but it was difficult to distinguish them from each other, perhaps that highlights just how similar each generation is but I did find it a bit more confusing than it needed to be. Overall though this book is well written and really very engaging!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

WOW. I'm unsure how to review this, I absolutely loved the book but the topics within the storyline are not ones you enjoy.

The book is written first person following Blythe, with flashbacks to Blythe as a young girl and the relationship with her mother Cecilia and then to Cecilia as a young girl with her mother Etta. The plot follows Blythe as a young woman who's always been afraid of the thought of motherhood, to finding herself in agreement with her husband Fox that it was time to start a family. Coming from a line of unhealthy mothers Blythe's experience with motherhood is not as to be expected. It's very apparent she has a resentment towards her child and battle's daily with her feelings and what she feels is expected from her. Finding herself noticing a side to her daughter she wasn't comfortable with Blythe tries to gain some support but finds a wall at every turn leaving her to believe it's all in her head... 'MADE' to believe it's all in her head. Not knowing how to take control of the situation she's in, Blythe finds herself with far more heartache than she ever expected.

For all her downfalls I did connect with Blythe as a character. Coming from such a heartbreaking childhood she battled constantly with her feelings resenting herself as a mother and her ability to love Violet in the way a mother should. Blythe is certainly not an innocent party throughout the pages but deals with far more pain and heartache than I feel her character deserved.

What I did appreciate about the book is the male figures were portrayed as the ones trying to hold everything together, they did come across quite weak and their efforts were not always without fault, but most of the time trying to do their best!!

The narrative is fast paced and delves in to many delicate subjects and the story is not without it trigger warnings, childhood Deaths, suicide, mental health, psychosis, abuse, neglect, manipulation.

As a debut this is amazing and I'd love to see a sequel to find out what happened! I absolutely love Ashley Audrain's style of writing, short punchy chapters filled with build up and suspense I couldn't put the book down and devoured it in two sittings.

this book grew on me. It is very good at describing how motherhood can make a woman a stranger to her own mind and body. Is the mother a bad mother or is something else happening? I finished the book and wanted to read it again for all the clues I may have missed.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW!
Many thanks to Netgalley for the free eARC to review. The Push has just been released in this last week and it’s really interesting. This review is hard to write as my mood has been exceedingly low recently and this book probably isn’t one you should read when feeling low. In some ways I found it hard to read but I think a lot of that was the subject matter on top of my low mood.
I liked the way this book is written, the point of views and the snippets back to show the family history. In these ways I found it an good, easy, flowing read.
The synopsis really intrigued me, which is why I requested this book, and it really doesn’t disappoint - but the subject matter and the family dynamics are not the easiest to read about (probably 10 times more so if you’re low to begin with!).
I was worried about three quarters of the way through that I wasn’t going to like the ending at all and in some ways you aren’t given a definite ending but I wasn’t unhappy when I finished reading.
I enjoyed this story overall and gave it 4 stars out of 5.

I have seen this book everywhere so was really looking forward to reading it. It did take me a few chapters to get in to it but once I'd established who was who it was a brilliant read.
Dark and twisted, a 5 star read.

What a powerful, dark, disturbing, emotional and thought provoking read.

Blythe and Fox are so in love, it made sense to start a family. But something isn't right, Blythe doesn't feel that maternal instinct when she births her daughter Violet, she feels her child hates her. She's forced to put on an act of how a 'normal' mother should behave, watching and mimicking other parents, hiding the truth.

Blythe begins to think its in her genes, she could never be a good mother. We hear how her own mother didn't care for her and left when she was young. And how her grandmother also struggled greatly with being a mother.

I found Blythes story heartbreaking. She so desperately wanted to be a good mum. I felt the raw, emotional pain she felt, I felt like I was intruding on her personal dark thoughts, and I so desperately wanted to reach out and help her as if she were a real person and not a character in a book. The grief, the loneliness, the pain, left me breathless at times.

Such powerful writing, and I will be thinking about this book for a long time I'm sure.

The eternal question; nature versus nurture. Does the way that you were brought up affect the way that you raise your kids? What happens when no one believes you that your child is slightly different from the rest?

Excellent; tense, page-turning thriller.

Wow. This book is a knockout. It’s electric. I have literally just finished the ending and it has made all the hairs on the back of my neck prick up. This book is hella dark. It’s unnerving and psychologically disturbing but it’s razor sharp. I have never read a book like it. Like other reviewers have commented on, it straddles the line perfectly between literary fiction and a dark twisty psychological thriller.

This book follows Blythe who falls in love with her husband Fox and decides to have a baby. While she is apprehensive, as she had a difficult relationship with her own mother. She is optimistic that she will take to motherhood like everyone else. But she didn’t bargain on her first born being quite so challenging.

This writer is a triumph. She writes suspense so well. This book had me heartbroken then infuriated and then extremely anxious all in the space of a few pages. She can write sharp edges to the plot that are most widely recognised in horror or thriller genre writing but while also juxtaposing the text with insightful and gorgeous literary writing. That ending was everything.

I loved how the novel played with the reliability of the protagonist. I also loved the accessibility the reader is given into the intimacy of the family dynamic. Some scenes in this book are burnt into my brain. This read has a haunting, claustrophobic beauty to it. A masterpiece.

Thanks to the author Ashley Audrain, Penguin UK and NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

One of several much-heralded titles for 2021, The Push lives up to its promise - it is compulsive, dark and disturbing, tracing many of the same issues grounded into We Need to Talk about Kevin around nature/nurture and what a good mother (and indeed child) should be and is, for my money, a much sharper read than Shriver''s, digging deep not only into the psychology of mother/parenthood, but relationships and a deft eye for cliques and class and social mores.
That said, it's not just the subject matter that's unrelenting - the second-person narration can feel like a bit of a slog at times and characters tend to fall into 'types', but it's a quibble.
Appreciate that many will be put off by the themes - suspect many, many more will not and this will be a hit worthy of the hype.

Thank you to Penguin Michael Joseph UK for providing access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

This was not an enjoyable read. Though it is obvious from the synopsis that this will deal with dark and uncomfortable topics, it simply does not present them well and this, combined with a host of almost entirely unengaging and unlikeable characters, did not make for a title I would recommend.

While Audrain has a unique and undoubtedly talented way of writing, it is not a style of writing that is for everyone and it prevents the audience from losing themselves in the reading process.

What an absolute belter of a debut! Ashley Audrain will certainly be an author I now look out for after this unforgettable thriller.

The Push is an incredibly readable novel which left me enthralled, with no awareness of the world around me, from the first chapters. Audrain manages to create instant connections with the characters, building a level of realism and authenticity from very early on. This is an extremely strong psychological thriller, especially given it is a debut. This comes very close to horror territory at times given how dark, unsettling and downright disturbing the subject matter is. I found this all the more terrifying because the horror came not from mythical monsters but genuine events. The writing style is from the point of view of Blythe, speaking directly to "you" (her husband, Fox); it is emotive and raw - no sugar coating anywhere - and discusses in great depth and detail an array of emotionally charged and complex circumstances, from how barbaric birth is to the expectations and realities of motherhood, as well as the nature vs nurture debate to the long-lasting impacts of generational abuse and neglect. The descriptions of such events are expert, and throughout Audrain shows skilled proficiency in writing painfully accurate, profound and devastating truths, especially those depicting the accident, loneliness, femininity and motherhood.

The Push hasn't left my mind since I finished it and I've spent a lot of time thinking about psychopaths and sociopaths: how often these types of adults are portrayed in the media and arts, and the question about whether their traits - the deceit, manipulation, indifference and lack of empathy - were present too during childhood, and how this would present itself. Certainly, this novel gives a very real portrayal into how this looks in the form of Violet, even if this is only through Blythe's eyes (or is it?). The ending was perfect: I was not at all ready for this to end and I was left wanting more, wanting every last detail, wanting to know exactly what had happened. Yet on reflection there is no better way to leave this - I left this read with the same sense of unease and anxiety that it inflicted upon me throughout. Truly phenomenal; the rest of my 2021 reads will have a lot to live up to - 5 whole stars.

*I received an advance review copy of The Push through the published cos NetGalley.