I couldn't put this book down! I'm not a huge fan of thrillers usually, but this one had me completely hooked. The writing is of high quality, the characters complex and the plot relentless, with a genius ending. The Push has all the telltale signs of a future bestseller, and one of the good sort at that. It will be a real pleasure to recommend it to those customers who love psychological thrillers in particular.

Oh my word! For once I don't know what to write. This book made me feel so sad but I couldn't stop reading it, I felt compelled to carry on. Every child, every mother differ. We all know this, some mothers fall in love instantly with their child, some take months. Some,sadly, never do. No one can explain it. The Push is all about the darker side of being a mum, it's heartbreaking!
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.

I devoured this book. It was quite uncomfortable to read in the best way - because it was so powerful and dark. Totally compelling and extremely memorable.

Well there are so many secrets that are told throughout this novel. What is it like to not like your own daughter, to not know how to have that bond? Can you really love a child who doesn't love you back? Is it nature or nurture at work? Is Fox the same and does he cover up.for her to make Blythe think she's looking her mind? loved this book would love to see it written from Violets point of view.

This is incredible writing. From the very start the story is compelling and so well written. The stories of the three women, Etta, Cecilia and Blythe are stand out on their own, but when entwined it is a masterpiece of storytelling. The heartbreak of Blythe is so raw, and the psychological issues of Etta and Cecilia are tragic. Violet ensures that there will not be a happy ending. I could not stop reading, it was such a roller coaster of a story. The meetings between Blythe and Gemma at the mothers group were tense! A powerful, emotional book that deserves every accolade it gets.

This is one of the most spine chilling books I have ever read. About 3 generations of women and how they were as mothers/grandmothers, it’s about the knock on effect from generation to generation and the whole nature versus nurture.

The story is told mainly from Blythe who is pregnant and is the main character of the book, it’s a constant stream of her memories and the thoughts she had daily, you feel like you are in her head throughly the book.

Blythe had an awful childhood, her mother Cecilia is cruel, neglectful and shows her no love, her grandmother is even worse, Blythes only example of been mothered or been cared for growing up came in the form of her nice neighbour called Mrs Ellington, and now Blythe is worried she can’t break the cycle with her baby Violet, it’s such a sad situation.

This is such a dark book yet I couldn’t stop reading it and devoured it in two sittings as I couldn’t put it down. A very good book and one I’m glad I read 😃

This is a definitely a fast paced thriller, but it's not your standard murder mystery which is fantastic. It's a hard subject to read about, motherhood that isn't what you want or expect it to be and for that it might not be for everyone. I don't want to say too much and give anything away, but it may be worth there being some trigger warnings added for the delicate subjects that are handled throughout the story.

I loved it though, I devoured it in a couple of days as I couldn't stop myself. It's going to be a huge talking point when it's released at the start of 2021. I can't recommend enough, although as previously stated the delicate subjects may be too much for all readers.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review</i>

I loved everything about The Push - the theme of the often unspoken issues of motherhood and bonding is such an important one and Ashley Audrain handles it exceptionally well.

When Blythe becomes pregnant her husband Fox is thrilled but Blythe less so. Her experience of parenthood illustrated by her own mother and grandmother has contributed to Blythe's concerns. When Violet is born Blythe cannot bond with her and she becomes the apple of her father's eye. Blythe gives birth to her second child, a boy, and her reaction is completely different towards her son.

While covering the important issues of motherhood Hush is also a psychological thriller and, although I anticipated the ending, the final sentence is one of the best I've ever read. Many thanks to Penguin/Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I read the book very quickly over three days, needing breaks to absorb the darkness of the story. The writing is excellent with a good sense of pace and the flashbacks didn't disrupt the flow. Push covers similar territory to We Must Talk About Kevin and I expect it to be talked about in much the same way. It deserves to be very successful and I highly recommend it. Many thanks to

This was an uncomfortable, sometimes distressing read about a really important issue. I squirmed a lot to begin with, but really appreciate the way the writer tackled the myth of perfect motherhood and bonding, and the ways in which the mothering we've had shapes the mothering we're able to provide to our children. Someone wrote that it takes three generations to make a gentleman - well, in this instance, it takes three generations to make a severely disturbed child. It made me wonder about Mary Bell's background.
Strongly recommend it: it's not a 'light' read because of the subject matter, but it's a very easy read and I found myself racing through and almost wanting more.

I just want to start by saying that I didn't finish.
I found the subject matter horrible and a bit triggering to be honest but that's not the author's fault.

The writing was good and going by other reviews it seems the story is very popular, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

We need to talk about Violet: Marriage, Motherhood, Malevolence

This is an immediate pull the reader in; don’t let go, uncomfortable, compelling, dark. Blythe and Fox have a successful life, a successful marriage. And then Blythe becomes pregnant. Fox is thrilled, but Blythe has some concerns. Her own experience of mothering, the mothering templates handed down from her own mother, from her grandmother to her mother, are not ones to be followed. She feels herself flawed, indeed, she deeply is so.

Are the connections between mother and child always reliable?. What happens if a mother cannot feel the rush of a love strong enough to withstand the maelstrom of change a child will bring to her life, and to the relationship with her partner?.

And what of the child? Is every child an innocent, to be formed and nurtured into health by the ‘good enough’ parent.

This is absolutely a psychological thriller, and the relationship under the searchlight is that of mother and child.

“All the eggs a woman will ever carry form in her ovaries while she is a four month-old foetus in the womb of her mother. This means our cellular life as an egg begins in the womb of our grandmother. Each of us spent five months in our grandmother’s womb and she in turn formed within the womb of her grandmother. We vibrate to the rhythms of our mother’s blood before she herself is born” Epigraph, Foreword quote from When The Drummer’s Were women by Layne Redmond

Audrain’s book has generated a huge amount of positive advance publicity. And deserves all of it.

The Push is a very well-written story about a mother's love for a child who isn't quite right; a very similar concept to "We Need to Talk About Kevin". The opening chapters were visceral and frightening in their exacting fury against motherhood and childbirth.

The Etta and Cecilia sections were a little confusing, and I'm not sure what work they were doing.

Although an engrossing and well done read, I do feel like the premise has been done before, a lot. Having said that, I think Audrain is a very talented writer: I look forward to reading her future books.

This first person story unfolds as 4 generations of women, (Blythe, Cecelia, Etta and finally Violet), from the same family battle through their flawed mother/daughter relationships. Beautiful writing. Heartbreaking in parts. A book that will stay.

This is one of those books that will leave you thinking of the story for days to come after you have finished it. The writing is excellent, The tension builds and the story just grips you from the first page until that last sentence. I have a feeling this will be a big talked about novel in 2021 I could not put it down once I started it. .

The story is an honest and at times brutal look at motherhood. Not every woman it maternal, not every woman wants children.

Fox and Blythe had met whilst doing their last years in education they hit it off straight away, their romance continued and the got married. But Fox wanted children where’s for Blythe she worried she would not be a good mother. She had not had good role models, her mother Cecelia had left when she was 10, and she had only seen her once when she was 13. But equally Cecelia had also not had a good role model in her mother Etta who had spent most of her life in bed, unable to cope with what life had dealt her.

When Blythe is pregnant with her daughter she tries to be enthusiastic, they attend ante natal classes, but when Violet is born, Blythe doesn’t want to hold her. Fox holds her, however once home she tries to feed the baby but she constantly screams when in Blythe’s arms. She adores her daddy Fox. Blythe tries some of the time but also some of the time she tries to clock the baby out. She feels inadequate, when Fox’s mother comes to stay Violet behaves so well it is only for Blythe that she doesn’t.

But then there is more to come from Violet which makes you think of the nature/nurture debate, is the behaviour she exhibits inherited or is it being taught by some negligence and learned behaviours.

The story is told through the eyes of Blythe, how reliable is she as a witness? Fox never seems to back Blythe up in anyway at all, he always refers to his mum. When they have another child Blythe is determined things will go better this time and that they will be a happy family unit. When baby Sam arrives Blythe adores him and so does Violet, she holds her doll in the same way that Blythe holds Sam. Until one day tragedy strikes and their lives will never be the same again. The marriage was struggling can it survive this loss.

The story is also interspersed with details of Blythe relationship with her mother Cecelia as well as Cecelia’s relationship with her mother Etta and these women seem to fail as mothers is it any wonder that Blythe doubts her own capabilities. The only compassion and caring Blythe is shown is by a family in the neighbourhood the Ellinghams, especially Mrs Ellingham who has two boys one at the same age as Blythe and she welcomes Blythe into their home as if she is her daughter.

This is such an emotional read, it’s covers some very complex matters when it comes to having and raising children, no two children when born are the same, if you read every guide book on child rearing there is it still doesn’t mean you will have raised your child right for them. But can Fox really not see what Blythe can see? Or is he burying his head in the sand not wanting to see

Made up of short punchy chapter that raise the tension the further you get in, you really get to feel Blythe desperation from fear of her daughter and the fear of what her daughter is possibly capable of doing, but with no one ever listening. At times it is heartbreaking but puts forward some very clear message.

I loved the fact that the characters are are all relatable, believable and each are trying to do their best for their families. This is one powerful debut novel by Ashley Audrain that will really make you think. I look forward to reading whatever she writes next.

Wow! I consumed this book in two heartrending sittings, it was that good. Where or where did Audrain send her mind and thoughts when she wrote The Push? It felt so personal, so deep, so affecting that when I closed the final page, I had to take a deep breath, close my eyes and think about what I had just read.
Audrain's decision to write in the first person was, I think, the key to how so devastatingly effective her narrative was. She introduced us to Blythe, a woman sat in a car outside a home watching a family enjoy time with their children. Why we asked herself? Was she stalking them, or was there another reason?
That’s when Audrain took us back to the beginning to Blythe’s life as a young girl, as a student, a girlfriend, a wife and finally a mother, the source of what we were about to read full of torment, anguish and love.
What followed was an outpouring of consciousness, of asking where it all went wrong, of internal conversations as to the rights and wrongs of motherly instinct and feelings. I found it utterly fascinating and mesmerising to the point I couldn’t stop reading.
Audrain seemed to think of everything from Blythe’s upbringing, a largely absent mother, who was at times cruel, heartless, love distance unreachable. Then we had her own experience of motherhood, the perceived feelings of overwhelming love that she should have had as her daughter was placed in her chest. Where was it, where were those feelings, was history to repeat herself, was she replicating herself own mother and upbringing?
The disconnect was absolute, the reactions of her daughter, Violet distressing, the questioning remarks from hAudain made me feel empathy with Blythe, I wanted people to believe her when she saw that glint of hate, of cruelty in Violet. And that was the most terrifying and indeed distressing aspect, that a little girl could seemingly wield so much power, manipulate, bend others to her will. er husband Fox to try harder, seemed insensitive, dismissive.
You watched as Blythe tried so hard, questioned her lack of feeling, that maybe she wasn’t cut out to be a mother until a son arrives and that motherly love rushed at her and consumed her.
You read as the dynamics of the family changed, a status quo achieved until bang, tragedy and the world fell apart.
It was hard to read the fallout, I felt frustrated and anger at those that surrounded Blythe, sometimes at Blythe herself as I wanted her to fight back, to prevail and find happiness.
The true impact of this novel lay in the final sentence, one that was hard to forget, one that filled your mind, that reverberated, that left a sour taste in your mouth.
An absolutely stunning, terrifying novel.

Argh this book is amazing! It's the first time in a long time that I've read a book in under 24 hours, carrying it from room to room, reading it whenever I had the chance.

I could not put it down.

It's gripping, addictive, tense, creepy, challenging, fascinating, I'm running out of words here!

It's a story about motherhood, and what we hope it will be like and what it can be really like. It's about the fear of not being a good mum and the pressure to be the perfect wife with the perfect family. It's about hoping history doesn't repeat itself. Can you be a good mum if you never had an example to learn from? If you can see something no-one else can, is it really happening?

The story is told almost purely from main character Blythe Conner as a stream of her thoughts and memories. This really made me connect with Blythe and the story, you feel like you are right inside her head. It also only shows you one side of the story of course, which made me wonder how reliable our narrator is. Our truth is always different to someone else's truth.

This book is going to be huge when it comes out next year! Pre order it now!

An absorbing story covering three generations of women and the spine chilling experiences that formed the development or lack of, mother love towards their children. A car crash in slow motion, where the reader is a passenger in a series of catastrophic events that slowly unfold drawing a complex picture of family estrangement. A family saga which becomes too difficult to comprehend yet a story and writing style that forces the reader to turn each page reluctantly but as if hypnotically mesmerised. Moving between three different timelines and the subsequent effect on three different women a tragedy unfolds that leaves the protagonists helpless in its wake. Impossible to rate this book or the author too highly as the subject matter and content would draw on the reserves of the most experienced of writers not withstanding this was an editorial debut. A conclusion that in hindsight was unavoidable and did worthy justice to a five star read on every level. The film rights must be secured in the next stage for what is obviously going to be a best seller.

This is ridiculously gripping! Just bear in the mind that something that starts off like We Need To Talk About Kevin Lite turns into one of those domestic thrillers involving wigs and advanced stalking... The thoughtful material is balanced by the need for a last minute 'twist' but the writing is pacy, and the pages turn themselves - compulsive commercial fiction that mixes up creepy children with a questioning of the cultural fetishisation of motherhood.

Anyone who has read We Need To Talk about Kevin will feel they have been here before, but it didn’t stop this being a really good, gripping read. An agonisingly real description of Undiagnosed post natal depression , and I genuinely wasn’t sure how things would end.

This book is an exploration of motherhood from the perspective that is rarely explored. The perspective of a hesitate mother who didn't fall in love with motherhood on the first look at her baby. We regularly hear about hesitate mothers who take to motherhood like a duck to water in the end - where everything just works out. This isn't the case here.

The world surrounding the mother is fully explored from her past through to her current mental state. What happens when the word mother becomes your identity? What happens when your career sits on the back burner? What happens when you don't listen to your gut? What does it mean when your own mother was not the ideal mother?

This book raises so many interesting questions - and that is before the psychology of the child enters the story.

To me, this is a story of identity and the need to belong which is relevant to all of us. I found it heart-breaking, fascinating and profound.