The Push

by Ashley Audrain

Jeepers.. this book!  As I mentioned above, I literally finished it with my heart in my mouth!  Chilling, heart-stopping, compulsive…

What happens when your experience of motherhood is nothing at all what you hoped for, but everything you always feared?

Blythe Connor is reluctant to become a mother.  She is desperate to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. Violet is her first child and she will give her daughter all the love her own mother, and her grandmother before her, withheld.  But Violet is demanding and fretful and as she grows from baby to toddler to pre-schooler, Blythe can’t seem to get close to her.  She feels that something’s very wrong. Either with her daughter, or herself.  Her husband says she’s imagining it and that Violet’s a darling little thing. But Violet’s different with him. And he can’t understand what Blythe suffered as a child. No one can.

Then their son Sam is born and with him, Blythe has the instant connection she’d always imagined with her baby. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.

Well thought out, carefully crafted, vividly realised and gripping, this is a clever concept novel that manipulates and exploits the fears and insecurities almost every mother has – The Guardian

A child as the deadly threat — and so the mother as potential victim and quasi-sleuth — is an inventive twist on the psychological thriller formula, and Audrain sustains the suspense expertly through assured handling of her unravelling protagonist’s voice. – London Sunday Times

“Starkly original and compulsively readable, The Push is a deep dive into the darkest nooks and crannies of motherhood.” – Kristin Hannah