Circling back to my 12 Books in 12 Months list, for September I read The Push by Ashley Audrain. WOW. Let’s start at the very beginning. This quote was on the first page, before the story starts. I stared at this page silenced, speechless and marveling at this. It took me a while to even move to the next page.
Before we were conceived, we existed in part as an egg in our mother’s ovary. All the eggs a woman will ever carry form in her ovaries while she is a four-month-old fetus in the womb of her mother. This means our cellular life as an egg begins in the womb of our grandmother. Each of us spent five months in our grandmother’s womb and she in turn formed within the womb of her grandmother. We vibrate to the rhythms of our mother’s blood before she herself is born.
The book itself is tense, and a page turner. It has many of the hallmarks of a good psychological thriller – suspense, dysfunction, despair. But what makes it so chilling is that it is all on the topic of motherhood, the bond a mother has with her child, the terrifying idea that that bond does not exist, and the repercussions when a mother knows deep down something is wrong with her child but nobody believes her. This one was good, and one that stays with you, but it might not be for everyone.
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.
But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter—she doesn’t behave like most children do.
Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.
Then their son Sam is born—and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.
12 Books in 12 Months
See the list here:
On the docket for October is The Measure. I’ve already picked it up from the library and plan to dive in over fall break!
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The Push stuck with me for a while afterwards. She has a new book out this year, The Whispers. I’m 120 on my library’s waitlist. I can only image it’s as good. I recently read None of this is True by Lisa Jewell. That’s another tale about motherhood that left me speechless for days afterwards.
Enjoy fall break. Happy to hear of your good news!