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The Push by Ashley Audrain

Thriller

The Push

Debut

We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Ashley Audrain, on your first book!

by Ashley Audrain

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Quick take

A nightmarish look at what happens when a mother's little bundle of joy becomes her greatest source of fear.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, Critically_Acclaimed

    Critically acclaimed

  • Illustrated icon, Mama_Drama

    Mama drama

  • Illustrated icon, Unsettling

    Unsettling

Synopsis

Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.

But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter—she doesn’t behave like most children do.

Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.

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

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of The Push.

The Push

Your house glows at night like everything inside is on fire.

The drapes she chose for the windows look like linen. Expensive linen. The weave is loose enough that I can usually read your mood. I can watch the girl flip her ponytail while she finishes homework. I can watch the little boy toss tennis balls at the twelve-?­foot ceiling while your wife lunges around the living room in leggings, reversing the day’s mess. Toys back in the basket. Pillows back on the couch.

Tonight, though, you’ve left the drapes open. Maybe to see the snow falling. Maybe so your daughter could look for reindeer. She’s long stopped believing, but she will pretend for you. Anything for you.

You’ve all dressed up. The children are in matching plaid, sitting on the leather ottoman as your wife takes their picture with her phone. The girl is holding the boy’s hand. You’re fiddling with the record player at the back of the room and your wife is speaking to you, but you hold up a finger—you’ve almost got it. The girl jumps up and your wife, she sweeps up the boy, and they spin. You lift a drink, Scotch, and sip it once, twice, and slink from the record like it’s a sleeping baby. That’s how you always start to dance. You take him. He throws his head back. You tip him upside down. Your daughter reaches up for Daddy’s kiss and your wife holds your drink for you. She sways over to the tree and adjusts a string of lights that isn’t sitting quite right. And then you all stop and lean toward one another and shout something in unison, some word, perfectly timed, and then you all move again—this is a song you know well. Your wife slips out of the room and her son’s face follows robotically. I remember that feeling. Of being the needed one.

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Why I love it

Confession: it’s been a while since I’ve been able to read a book cover to cover. No matter how much I’ve longed to read, or how many worthy books have found their way to me, I’ve been too distracted by the state of the world to stick with anything for long. And then, behold, I received a copy of The Push by Ashley Audrain. I’ll just take a peek, I thought. Hours later, there I was, reading the last page by iPhone flashlight, unaware of anything other than the world I’d just inhabited.

The premise: A woman named Blythe, who is disinclined to motherhood, gets married and then pregnant. Her daughter Violet arrives and, overwhelmed and exhausted, Blythe decides there’s something very wrong with the child. Her husband disagrees, accuses Blythe of imagining things. But he’s out of the house most of the day and doesn’t see what she does—a young girl, devoid of empathy and incapable of affection.

Blythe’s complicated feelings for her daughter are made more complicated by the arrival of a second child, a son she adores. Blythe narrates as if she’s speaking directly to her husband and the technique provides for a wonderfully immersive and intimate read that culminates in one of the best last lines I’ve read in years, hands down.

Bottom line: This debut is a masterful mix of suspense and inventiveness, captivating from the first page—in other words, the exact thing we could all use right now.

Member ratings (23,344)

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View all
The Boyfriend
Sleep Tight
First Lie Wins
House of Glass
Middle of the Night
Listen for the Lie
A Talent for Murder
Someone in the Attic
One Perfect Couple
Like Mother, Like Daughter
Darling Girls
Kill for Me, Kill for You
Bad Tourists
Murder Road
Daughter of Mine
The Fury
Only if You’re Lucky
The Other Mothers
When I’m Dead
The Soulmate
What Lies in the Woods
She Started It
The Only One Left
Dark Corners
Blacktop Wasteland
All the Dangerous Things
The Only Survivors
The Broken Girls
The Family Game
The Push
We Were Never Here
Things We Do in the Dark
The Golden Couple
The Collective
The Stranger Upstairs
Gone Tonight
Too Good to Be True
The Last Word
You Are Not Alone
Rock Paper Scissors
Not a Happy Family
A Flicker in the Dark
The Last Flight
Reckless Girls
The House Across the Lake
The Wife Upstairs
The Last Thing He Told Me
The Maidens
Everything We Didn't Say
Invisible Girl
The Paris Apartment
You're Invited
The Last Party
Dark Places
Pieces of Her
The Wife Between Us
Sharp Objects
None of This Is True
The Silent Patient
The Winter Sister
The Other Woman
Necessary People
The Family Upstairs
The Night Swim
Girl A
The Hunting Wives
Just Another Missing Person
First Born
The Lies I Tell
Breathless