The Push - BookWyrm

🥒 reviewed The Push by Ashley Audrain

Not Original but Yes, Compulsively Readable

4 stars

Content warning spoiler at end

This book has a fairly monotone vibe. Like We Need to Talk About Kevin without most of the suspense and more inter-generational mommy issues. I found it to be a good read but not necessarily original or interesting.

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It seems to want to explore similar themes as Kevin but with a female psychopathic child. It's a decent start but didn't, in my opinion, push the idea far enough. Pun intended. Likewise, as a character-study of Blythe and the others, it falls short of its aspirations.

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.

KnitAFett reviewed The Push by Ashley Audrain

Well this was a f*cked book...

4 stars

But not really in a bad way.

There is an insane amount of trauma in this book, so please please PLEASE look into the triggers if you have any.

This book had literally no shining moments. You have an unreliable narrator, and it's so hard to decide if what you're reading actually happened or not. Just..insanity. Very good. Would be super cautious for who I would recommend this book to. 10000% would never recommend to someone who suffered from infant loss.

AnneOminous reviewed The Push by Ashley Audrain

Review of 'The Push' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

The only thing about this novel that thrilled me was returning it to the library.

meeg reviewed The Push by Ashley Audrain

Review of 'The Push' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I couldn't read this book in any less than 100-page sittings, it held my attention in a vice. It's been a while since I put a book down and counted down until I had time to pick it back up again. Disturbing plot, painful focus on where familial abuse/ legacies of trauma meet mental illness meet the rollercoaster of motherhood, wanted and not.

Erin reviewed The Push by Ashley Audrain

Review of 'The Push' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

3.5 stars. This was a breeze to read, it dragged just a couple times for me. I don’t know that it added much to this type of story - unreliable narrator, is the kid evil or not, etc. But I did enjoy the emphasis on motherhood and the expectations of motherhood. The shame in expressing anything besides “it’s all worth it!”