The Push

Wow. This book is a knockout. It's electric. I have literally just finished the ending and it has made all the hairs on the back of my neck prick up. This book is hella dark. It's unnerving and psychologically disturbing but it's razor sharp. I have never read a book like it. Like other reviewers have commented on, it straddles the line perfectly between literary fiction and a dark twisty psychological thriller.

This book follows Blythe who falls in love with her husband Fox and decides to have a baby. While she is apprehensive, as she had a difficult relationship with her own mother. She is optimistic that she will take to motherhood like everyone else. But she didn't bargain on her first born being quite so challenging.

This writer is a triumph. She writes suspense so well. This book had me heartbroken then infuriated and then extremely anxious all in the space of a few pages. She can write sharp edges to the plot that are most widely recognised in horror or thriller genre writing but while also juxtaposing the text with insightful and gorgeous literary writing. That ending was everything.

I loved how the novel played with the reliability of the protagonist. I also loved the accessibility the reader is given into the intimacy of the family dynamic. Some scenes in this book are burnt into my brain. This read has a haunting, claustrophobic beauty to it. A masterpiece.

Thanks to the author Ashley Audrain, Penguin UK and NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.