Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Push by Ashley Audrain

125 reviews

tashrifa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Alcoholism, Self harm, Blood, Gaslighting, Murder, Abandonment, and Pregnancy

mybestfriendisabook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

a page turner! very tense buildup the entire time. the short chapters help make it very easy and addicting to read. i was up until 3:30am during the second to last sitting!
i remember seeing this book around but it never interested me bc of the title until i heard good things about it personally

didn’t think the title would be so literal. i wish the reveal in the end was drawn out more.

the cover scares me so i always had it face down lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

scytheria's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Medical trauma, Child death, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Dementia

kalynnar's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Gaslighting, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Bullying, Car accident, Suicide, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Self harm

lilayylmao's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide and Self harm

Minor: Self harm, Blood, and Abandonment

krush's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Self harm, Stalking, Grief, Suicide, Child death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, and Child abuse

merbears's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Suicide

frozenheartv's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

4.5 stars
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

No one writes about motherhood and mother-daughter relationship like Ashley Audrain. It took me a while to gather up all of the details together with the ending of the book to really got what they author wanted to tell us. The book was phenomenon. My jaw dropped after I had realized the things, and I had chills down my spine. 

To get started, I would say that this book is really "heavy"; not literally, of course, but psychologically heavy. It was not a literal thriller or suspense book either. However, it gripped me from start to end, made me wanted to listen for more. It was written in the first-person point-of-view to make us felt like we were in Blythe's mind. Because of this, I felt more connected to Blythe. I felt her pain, her insecurities, her unstable mind and so on. Throughout the book, the author carefully sprinkled hints here and there for us to really understood the ending. The twist was not hard to guess but it made everything clearer and started to link with each other. 

The author succeeded in portraying how trauma can pass on throughout every generations and how hard for the younger generations try to get rid of the toxic cycle.

Not only that, the author also depicts carefully and smartly the gaslighting technique that Fox did to Blythe. Blythe was clearly a victim of manipulation, abuse, neglect, trauma, maybe even mental illness and so on. Maybe I have an unpopular opinion here; I think Blythe might have internalized misogyny for treating Violet worse than Sam from the start or she just suffered from postpartum depression. "The Push" for me can mean the push that Violet did to Sam or the pushes from the society, family or Fox did to Blythe.

Parenting is difficult but I can never imagined it can be this difficult, especially for the mother. In the end, should we love our children unconditionally? How can we deal with both toxic relationship with our partner and the complicated parenthood with our children? The author leaves us readers to find out the answer within ourselves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Abandonment, and Gaslighting

kennedymartin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Stalking and Infidelity

Minor: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Mental illness

_chelseachelsea's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

While The Push doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the genre (and its ending will leave you a bit dissatisfied) it’s certainly fast-paced and tense enough to keep you locked in. A tight, quick read that explores the choice of motherhood (and how often women feel as though it is not a choice) and the crushing responsibility of it. An excellent pick for your year-end list.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Car accident, Suicide, Death, Child abuse, Dementia, Grief, and Child death

Minor: Miscarriage