So many times I would read a sentence in this book and my heart would clench because I could feel exactly what the author was describing it struck me as such an accurate, if horrible, depiction of what someone would feel in those circumstances. She shows women pushed to the brink in their desperation to be the perfect mother, or a mother at all. Whitney is a working parent, causing both envy (for being the woman who 'has it all') and judgement (for not being there full-time for her kids) Blair is a stay-at-home parent who often feels taken for granted, unappreciated, unmoored Rebecca desperately wants a baby but a series of miscarriages have left her heartbroken Mara had a neurodivergent son and blames herself for what happened to him.Īudrain shows why different women make the choices they do and depicts how they punish themselves (and each other) for those choices.

This book follows four very different women who live in the same neighbourhood, whose lives intersect in various ways. It's a true talent that she can make them so wholly convincing, so deeply-flawed and often unlikable and yet still make us care about them.

I found it gripping, but where The Push was a sharp punchy thriller as well as a character-driven psychological drama, this one is firmly the latter.Īudrain writes in such a raw, honest and emotive way that I feel sure she must have experienced what she's describing herself, yet each character, each experience of motherhood and womanhood is so vastly different that she cannot possibly have been all these characters. The Whispers, in many ways, feels like it could be a companion novel to The Push but I'm not sure I'll be recommending it quite as widely. She'd once heard them described as the whispers- the moments that are trying to tell you something isn't right here. But more than any proof she has, is a feeling.

The whispers book ashley audrain