Comments on: Review: The Push by Ashley Audrain

By: Joanne

Joanne — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 17:07:34 +0000

I am pleased I read this review and the comments. I was struggling to read The Push. The history of childhood trauma was difficult to absorb, and to realize this tone continued throughout the book gave me permission to put it down.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 21:16:51 +0000

Now i have to read it to see what the buzz is all about…

By: Cat

Cat — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 13:32:04 +0000

I agree with your review 100%. I read this fairly quickly, and even started skimming it towards the end because I just wanted it to end already. Violet was a bloody little psychopath, Fox was a gaslighting asshole. I read all these reviews on goodreads of people who had cried reading this and I just couldn’t see why. I do wonder if Blythe would have felt vindicated at the end (because I sure would have, if I was her). I think they how kind of ruined this book for me, I went in expecting too much I think, and came away pretty disappointed.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 00:25:49 +0000

Yes! Yours was the first non-slavish review I could find (shocking, really) and you’ve echoed my thoughts here exactly. I would add that I thought Audrain’s ability to capture a maternal moment and her descriptive prose, generally, put her above the best of mommy-thriller writers, but like you, I felt like all the elements she seemed to want to connect remained disparate, even distracting. Like, what was that quote in the beginning supposed to end up meaning? I felt like it didn’t even need proving that good mothering isn’t genetic or biological. Were we supposed to believe that she was rewriting or embellishing the narrative while actually being the abuser the whole time?