fionag11 reviewed The Push by Ashley Audrain
It's rare I actively dislike a book
2 stars
It's not badly written. technically. It's just so miserable. And I don't mind a book with grim subject matter, but this book feels like the misery is piled on for effect, and I'm not convinced the situation it depicts is realistic, although it may be which is even worse.
One thing that bugs me is a lot of the publishers' and literary reviews, make out that the book is about ambiguous feelings around motherhood. It's not. The woman in the book wanted to be an engaged, loving mother but there was an extreme, unusual, but I think unfortunately not unheard of, factor. There is another book that deals with this topic that I read previously and also found disturbing, and when I read reviews for that book I could hardly believe how many people were stubbornly taking away the opposite message probably because they didn't want to believe, and it's …
It's not badly written. technically. It's just so miserable. And I don't mind a book with grim subject matter, but this book feels like the misery is piled on for effect, and I'm not convinced the situation it depicts is realistic, although it may be which is even worse.
One thing that bugs me is a lot of the publishers' and literary reviews, make out that the book is about ambiguous feelings around motherhood. It's not. The woman in the book wanted to be an engaged, loving mother but there was an extreme, unusual, but I think unfortunately not unheard of, factor. There is another book that deals with this topic that I read previously and also found disturbing, and when I read reviews for that book I could hardly believe how many people were stubbornly taking away the opposite message probably because they didn't want to believe, and it's always easier to blame the mother.
Maybe this book is doing a public service. But I really did not enjoy the subject matter or the treatment of it.
