The Push
By Ashley Audrain
Blurb
What if your experience of motherhood was nothing like what you hoped for - but everything you always feared?
'The women in this family, we're different . . .'
The arrival of baby Violet was meant to be the happiest day of my life.
It was meant to be a fresh start.
But as soon as I held her in my arms I knew something wasn't right. I have always known that the women in my family aren't meant to be mothers.
My husband Fox says I'm imagining it. He tells me I'm nothing like my own mother, and that Violet is the sweetest child.
But she's different with me. Something feels very wrong.
Is it her? Or is it me?
Is she the monster? Or am I?
The Push is a heart-pounding exploration of motherhood, obsession and the terrible price of unconditional love.
Our Review
The Push by Audrey Audrain is a spectacular book. I stayed up until around 3 am to finish reading it because I couldn’t wait until morning to finish it.
The Push follows three generations of women and their relationship with motherhood. Etta, her daughter Cecilia and her daughter Blythe. Blythe and her daughter Violet are the central focus of the book, but it is implied that the impact of these other relationships should not be ignored. The Push is a living embodiment of nature vs nurture.
Etta and Cecilia would both be considered to be unfit mothers and after the birth of her daughter the reader has to decide if Blythe has inherited their problems or if her daughter Violet is an innocent victim or evil.
Fox is dismissive of Blythe’s misgivings about Violet and several times goes as far as to suggest that Blythe is the problem.
The Push is an intense book and left me on edge during the whole time I was reading it.
It begins with a woman sat in her car on Christmas Eve watching her ex-husband and her daughter with their new family. Next to her on the car seat is a document written to explain her said of the story to her husband.
We watch Blythe transform from someone who is determined to escape the pitfalls of her past and is confident she can do so to someone who is not confident in her mothering skills and sometimes wonders if maybe she is the problem after all.
“I would be different. I would be like other women for whom it all came so easily. I would be everything my own mother was not.”
I can see why The Push is already being spoken about and I think it will be one people are divided on.
I loved it.
Our Final Rating...
Read & Shared 52 Times.
I hope you enjoyed this book review, please consider sharing it with others.
Get In Touch
Please feel free to leave a comment to this book review below. Or even leave your own review if you like.
If you run a blog and/or have posted a review to this book, a Q & A or general author interview online you can always add a trackback to it here and following moderation we'll add a link to it below.