Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Whispers

This book was way better than I expected! I read it really quickly and enjoyed it more than I anticipated. When you think about it, the plot isn't very deep or complex, but the way the author tells the stories about these families in the neighborhood just sucked me in. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the moms/neighbors.
Plot summary:

Four families live on this one street - 3 are friends and one is an OG outcast house that others are waiting to tear down and buy the land to build a new house. One family has the aesthetically pleasing wife with a powerhouse job, but she's a terrible mother with anger problems. This wife, Whitney's, best friend across the street is Blair. Blair is the perfect wife, turning a blind eye to her husband's obviously wandering eyes, and perfect mother to their daughter. Whitney and Blair envy each other, but Blair is unaware of Whitney's envy of Blair being the perfect mother. The 3rd family - Rebecca lives in the neighborhood, picture-perfect marriage and intense job of ER doctor. She desperately wants kids but has had 5 miscarriages. Whitney's oldest son and most challenging (to her) child falls from his 3rd story window. The book delves into what may have happened. In a nutshell- Blair thinks her husband is having an affair with Whitney. He's not, but he is a cheater that she just stays ignorant to. Whitney is a huge cheater, just to feel like she isn't trapped in her life of being a mom when she doesn't want to be. So a twist is that she isn't having an affair with Blair's husband, but with Rebecca's husband!!!! The supposedly sweet, kind, doting, affectionate husband! Whitney's son saw them having some wild sex on the patio one night, he yelled out for them to stop, and he fell out of his window. Whitney and her son had an argument that night so everyone, including her husband, thought that Whitney had pushed him because she can have explosive angry moments. In the Epilogue, her son is awake and fine and alive. She's desperate to show him she's still around and she didn't leave like she threatened before he fell out the window. He agrees to talk, it's a super tender moment. Bringing the book to a happy ending. Then basically the last line is the son saying "what will happen to you when I tell everyone what you did." 🎤⬇️ If I was a mom I feel like this would break my heart. But since I'm not, this feels perfectly calculated, cruel as only kids could be, and definitely not what i expected!!!!!!!

Content Warnings

luurenee's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Content Warnings

mya320's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

There was a bit of build up only for the second half to be disappointing.

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mariafh91's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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jennabeck13's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The Whispers by Ashley Audrain

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5/5)

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

About 325 pages

The Whispers tells the stories of four women (Whitney, Rebecca, Blair, and Mara) living on Harlow St. Mara is an older woman who feels disconnected from her young neighbors and her husband. Blair is the picture-perfect stay-at-home mom, but lately, she's felt a sense of longing for something more. Rebecca is an extremely successful ER doctor who desperately wants to become a mother but has suffered several miscarriages. And Whitney is a career-driven woman with three kids that she isn’t very interested in. Rumors are continuously whispered on their street. Especially when Whitney is caught screaming at her son, Xavier, at a neighborhood barbecue. The whispers get louder when months later, Xavier is hospitalized after “falling” out of his bedroom window. As we read about what happened in the months leading up to the incident and the days after, we learn these four women are more entangled than they seem.

This was a solid mix between a family drama and a thriller that I couldn’t put down. The pacing in the beginning was slow but picked up dramatically about halfway through. I loved trying to figure out the deeper connections between the women, and Audrain did a terrific job building a lot of tension in the book. She also tackled a lot of the complexities of womanhood in an impactful matter. Her other book, The Push, is currently on my shelf and I’m excited to hopefully read that one soon!

Favorite Quote: “They were broken, but they had not shattered together.”

Content Warnings

samagra's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

nice and suspenseful. did not get too attached to the characters tho

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