Review: The Push by Ashley Audrain (Spoiler-Free)
These are thoughts I never let leave my lips. These are thoughts most mothers don't have.
bruh.
This book drove an icepick into my brain and poked around in it like a sandbox.
I want to start off by saying there is a large portion of the world's population that should never read this book. If you are pregnant or have a baby or even just view motherhood as an important value in your life... you are NOT going to like this. Seriously. I genuinely think that if you're postpartum and in a vulnerable state this could send you over the deep end. I do not mean that lightly.
However. If you're like me and don't want children or are at least far off from that decision, The Push might be for you.
This is what I call horror. Some people might find it slow or repetitive, but I was ENTHRALLED. Every word needled itself into my head and I became Blythe Connor. I was scared for the life she was becoming entrapped in. I was scared for her safety. I was scared for her children. I hated her children. Every thought and feeling she experiences and pours onto the page is felt and experienced by the reader as well.
This story is told in second person as a letter written to her ex-husband. It chronicles her side of the story. Of how everything went wrong in their lives and their marriage. Of how none of it (all of it?) was her fault.
The Push voices thoughts and feelings I thought I wasn't allowed to have. It pushes the boundaries of what it means to be a mother and challenges every expectation that comes with being a woman.
It's impeccable. Flawless. Haunting. I'll never forget it.
I cannot fathom the fact that this is a debut novel and I plan on picking up every other book Ashley Audrain writes.
I don’t want you learning to be like me. But I don’t know how to teach you to be anyone different.
book one: the haunting of hill house
book two: ten
book three: night of the mannequins
book four: the push
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