The Push by Ashley Audrain Book Review

Welcome to my review of The Push by Ashley Audrain. I was lucky enough to win some copies of The Push for our book club in the Forest Of Dean from the Publishers. Since it was released, I have wanted to read this, as it has some excellent reviews. It has been selected as one of the Richard and Judy book club reads and is a Sunday Times Bestseller, some great accolades, so I am keen to get stuck in, and this is our read for May.

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Blythe and Violet. Mother and daughter.

It’s a bond like no other.

But what if your little angel is a monster?

And what if no one sees it but you?

Taken from Amazon Uk:

Welcome to my Amazon Author page! My debut novel, THE PUSH, is a story about one woman’s journey through motherhood that turns out to be nothing like what she hoped for—in fact, it’s everything she always feared. It’s a novel that explores the expectations of motherhood, the debate about nature vs. nurture, and the repercussions of silencing women’s truths—all told with page-turning, emotional suspense.

THE PUSH was a New York Times, Sunday Times, and Globe & Mail bestseller, a Good Morning America book club pick, and rights have been sold in 40 territories. A limited television series is in the works with David Heyman’s Heyday Television. To say the publication of this novel has made my dreams come true is an understatement. I’m pinching myself daily! Thank you to everyone who has read THE PUSH, and to those have taken the time to share their reviews here online. I really appreciate it.

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Ashley Audrain previously worked as the publicity director of Penguin Books Canada. Prior to Penguin, she worked in public relations. She lives in Toronto, where she and her partner are raising their two young children. The Push is her debut novel.

First off, I think this is possibly the most challenging book I have ever reviewed. Two days after finishing, I still can’t quite work out if I liked it or not.

Blythe comes from a line of ‘bad mothers’ Etta, her grandmother, was devastated by death and committed suicide in the front garden, hanging herself from a tree. Cecelia, Blythe’s mother, never wanted to be a mother and abandoned her at 11 years old, never to return. However, Blythe’s husband, Fox, manages to convince her it’s not in her nature to be a lousy mother, and she soon finds herself pregnant with her daughter, Violet.

This is a detailed study of Blythe’s life and that of her daughter Violet. I feel pretty sure that Violet is probably suffering from severe postnatal depression. She doesn’t like her daughter much and is convinced that her daughter hates her. She isn’t the best mother but doesn’t have much support or help around her. Fox is back to work quickly, and Violet is a demanding, tearful, screaming newborn.

I liked that this deals with the complexities of becoming a mother for the first time and that not everybody falls in love immediately. The story continues to follow Blythe and Violet through their lives, trials, and tribulations. Fox and Blythe then have a son, Sam. Blythe feels the love for him immediately, but Fox doesn’t seem so sure. Violet is loving and caring, but then one day, everything goes wrong, and we wonder whether Violet is to blame as Blythe would have us believe. Fox eventually has an affair and leaves Blythe for Gemma, a younger model already pregnant with his son, Jet.

There are so many questions here, and I felt it would be better suited to a dark family drama genre rather than a thriller or psychological fiction, as I was led to believe. The ‘shocking twist’ at the end doesn’t really come through for me either.

I enjoyed the premise of the plot, and it is pretty dark. Violet may be evil and have issues but is that nature or nurture? We see the inclusion of the story of Etta and Cecelia possibly to help demonstrate that its nature causing the problems and to intensify why Blythe has such issues with her child. The narration was a little challenging to get to grips with at first, especially with the inclusion of ‘you’, who later turns out to be Fox.

Most confusingly, Blythe writes the story for her daughter Violet to explain why she is the way she is, but it’s more like a long letter written to her husband, Fox. There are some very dark undertones and subjects which I liked. It’s far from the story of a loving, caring mother who is plagued by her daughter and whether there is something wrong with her.

Blythe’s attitude to Sam is entirely different, and by the end of the book, we see that maybe it is Violet that has the issues rather than the other way round, but unfortunately, this was a little unresolved for me. I wanted to know just a little bit more.

The characters were well developed. I didn’t warm to any of them particularly but understood them well. I disliked Fox. As readers, we could see some of the issues with Blythe, but I couldn’t see how Fox was seeing them when he was at work. From that perspective, his treatment of Blythe when Violet was so young seems wholly unfair and uncalled for. I didn’t feel he gave her much chance to be a good mother and offered even less love, support and understanding.

The ending wasn’t as good as I had hoped for. I felt like we were left hanging to know precisely what had happened and whether Violet had done something. I can only assume that she had and that this confirmed her personality.

There were some other issues we discussed in the book club. We are a small group, and some loved the book, others really didn’t, so I felt it gave a good balance. Some of the inconsistencies surrounded the placement of some scenes, for example, the lack of protective flooring around the children’s playgroup equipment. We felt that we couldn’t reliably place the times and ages of Violet at different stages and when certain things happened. How realistic were some of her actions, given her perceived age.

I don’t often reread books, aside from a few special ones, but I feel like this one needs to be reread to be fully understood. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can build myself up to do that now, but maybe I will come back in a year.

I would be really interested in a sequel either explaining more about Violet or seeing Violet as an adult, becoming a mother herself.

Thanks to the publisher and author for the free copies for us to review as a book club. We really enjoyed the opportunity and discussions from this book.

Title	The Push
Author	Ashley Audrain
Series	N/A
Format	eARC
Page Count	400 Pages
Genre	Psychological Fiction
Publisher	Penguin
Release Date	17th February 2022