The Whispers

read for the tarot readathon 2023: the tower

i really lovees this story and even though it is a slower drama, i really resonate with the themes and the writing. ashley audrain truly knows how to keep me engaged. i do think there were too many perspectives and if there were less this would have been a full 5 star. 

Was so so so excited for this after The Push being one of my all-time favorites. This one was just as masterful in getting inside a mother's head. The women in this book were all dealing with a tragedy of some sort, and some of it was very heavy to read, particularly with infertility. I loved Rebecca and Blair's POVs, Whitney's I found boring but necessary, Mara's felt boring and unnecessary. Her chapters I did not enjoy in the slightest. I also had an issue with the story hopping around. I love different timelines but this one was confusing, jumping around even within chapters. This was very slow, but the last 75 pages pack a punch, and the last line of this book is so chilling, once again. 

DNF @ 32%

I loved The Push but I really didn't get on with this one.

I expected a tense, twisty domestic thriller but instead got a bland story about dysfunctional families and spouses cheating on each other. It was weirdly sexual to the point of being vulgar and distasteful. The whole scene with someone sneaking into her neighbours house and smelling her vibrator 🤢 was the final straw, I tried to look past it but couldn't do it.

The beginning of this book almost put me in a reading slump. Something about the pacing felt off. This felt like watching a reality show about rich people. The second half of the book did get better, the story managed to grip me, and I was satisfied with the story. However, I just didn't connect with the characters in any deep, meaningful way. Maybe I'm not the target audience, being a young woman without kids, but something about the writing style prevented me from caring about these fictional characters. I also feel like Mara's thing had so much more to give, and so much potential to add this additional element to the story. With so much tragedy and drama, I was hoping to feel something more as I read these pages. Alas, it's the story that we got. And it's a good story, but not a great story. It's probably a 3.5 if I could give half-star ratings.

I just finished The Whispers by Ashley Audrain and here is my review.

Being perfect in public is exhausting and Whitney, the hostess of the big summer BBQ of the neighborhood, needs her neighbors to see what she wants them to see... But during the party she loses her temper on her son and everyone hears. To make matters worse, her son falls from his bedroom window in the middle of the night and is now on life support.

Following the lives of Blair, Whitney's BFF, Rebecca the ER doctor working in the unit where Whitney's son is and Mara, their older neighbor, we get a glimpse of the three days post accident with all the cracks coming to light from their picture perfect neighborhood. The lies, deceit and darkness is more than any of these women can bear.

This was a really clever book. I don't usually enjoy books with so many POV but I understand how it was necessary to tie it all in together.

Firstly, the character development was so good that I hated Whitney from the get go. Even when her son fell, still hated her. Blair is my kind of person. I really felt sorry for her and Rebecca. The characters took on a life of their own and I dig that.

The plot.. I hate those cliquey groups. The snobby neighborhoods. I loved seeing the seedy underbelly of those HOA who use where they live as a reason to look down on others. There's some really interesting plot twists in the book too which were a nice surprise. The pace could have been better. I felt it dragged a bit in some areas.

I don't usually do TW but I know how traumatic miscarriages can be so please be aware of that in this book.

The ending was excellent though. I was quite cheered at how it closed to an end. I feel it was well deserved. Whitney's son deserves a better mother in my opinion.

All in all it was a solid read. If the pace had been better, it would have got 5 stars but it still managed to get 4 from me.

Thank you to @penguinrandomhouseca and @netgalley for my gifted copy

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