The Push Book Review

I heard about this book for the first time two weeks ago as a Green Light from Jamie B. Golden on one of my favorite podcasts, The Podcast. I then saw one of my other favorite Podcasters, Meredith from the Currently Reading Podcast post about it on her Instagram. Both of these women said that it lived up to the hype and man, this book is being hyped. I decided to put it on hold on my Libby app at my local library. I was told that I had a 24 week wait (the book did just come out in the beginning of this month, so it’s pretty new) but I was pleasantly surprised when this book became available to me only 3 days later!

After having her first child, Blythe doesn't feel the connection with her daughter Violet that she always heard other mother’s talk about, what she always thought she had. Their relationship is strained right from the start and Blythe starts to question why that is, is there something wrong, something dark within this daughter that she created? Her marriage starts to strain when her husband Fox starts to disregard her thoughts and feelings about their daughter.

Right from the moment I started reading, I was thrown for a loop. It’s written in 2nd person, meaning the narrator is talking directly to another character in the novel. Lots of use of “you” and “us” and “we” and that can be difficult to get into at first, it certainly was for me. But I was quickly swept up into the story by the author’s writing style. Audrain writes in short sentence bursts that are highly descriptive. She does an incredible job describing emotions, childbirth, and loss in such a raw and real way. I was taken aback by how real this book felt while I was reading it. I found this book so easy to read, in that I would get caught up in it, and then need to take a step back and put it down to catch my breath.

This novel wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I was expecting something more like a popcorn thriller with an ending that threw you for a loop, but what I got was something more powerful. Something haunting and something that will stick with me for a long while.

This book leaves you wondering how much can you trust yourself and your instincts and how your past can cloud your present if you allow it to.

I had to sit on what star rating to give this book. Could a book I had to physically put down and put space between be a 5 star book? I find that any book that makes me think deeply about aspects of what it means to be human, is usually a 5 star book. This book made me question and think, it made me criticize and ponder and reflect. This book is a 5 star for me.

Trigger warnings for abuse, child death, suicide, mental illness and instability.