The Push

For me, this read more like a domestic drama than the psychological thriller it was marketed to be. The novel takes place in two time frames. In the recent past, we meet six couples who have gathered together at a local London community center for a pre-natal class led by Nina, a snarky, somewhat self-absorbed facilitator. Each couple is expecting a child, most by birth but one through adoption. I have to say that I didn't really like any of these characters. They displayed a mix of racist, homophobic, classist, and sexist attitudes during the sessions that were hard to stomach and the main pairing, Jax, a 39-year old professional and her husband Aaron were particularly one-dimensional. The fact that the story was told from multiple points of view, (which seems increasingly common nowadays) meant I didn't really feel close to anyone, but instead felt bounced around without serious depth given to any one person's situation.

The second time frame is a few weeks after the babies are born. It's a BBQ held at the mansion of one of the well-to-do mothers and it's there where a murder occurs. Someone falls off the balcony but their identity is kept secret until halfway through the book, reminiscent of a Big Little Lies trope. There are no shortage of suspects in the vicinity and we then read forward to see who the guilty party is and why they committed the crime.

In my opinion, the pacing in this novel was erratic – slow in the first half, a bit rushed in the second as secret after secret unfolded, some telegraphed so early it was irritating and others terribly convoluted and unrealistic. The solution to the murder, rather than being a twist we could figure out, seemed to come out of nowhere. The novel initially seemed more of an Agatha Christie whodunit but toward the end became more of a police procedural as another POV character, the policewoman investigating the crime and who has issues of her own, entered the scene.
It's always hard to pull off juggling upwards of 15 different characters – the couples, the group leader, the daughter of the wealthy woman, the police detectives – and make them more than stereotypes. In this case, I didn't feel the author succeeded, which was a shame because I felt the bones of a good story were there. Perhaps some pruning was needed to shape the novel into a more cohesive whole. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't all that memorable.


My thanks to Net Galley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.