Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Push by Ashley Audrain

142 reviews

clarahooyer's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Really, really liked it, but was a little offput by the pacing.

The book starts off making me think every problem is the result of the main character being a bad mother. Eventually I started to realize the book meant for the child to be evil. It felt like the book changed halfway through from being a story about generational abuse, to a story about an all out evil child that the mother can't be blamed for. It was very thought provoking( which I like), but I was left wondering how the author intended me to interpret the story. I think that, as a book about abuses cycles, it is almost too extreme in its evolution. However, if viewed as a book about an evil child, than it properly explores all the environmental factors that cause the child to become the way she is.

Definitely a book I will be thinking about for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Cursing, Gaslighting, Abortion, Murder, Mental illness, Grief, Car accident, and Death

Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, Suicide, Abandonment, Infidelity, Sexual content, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Miscarriage, and Emotional abuse

laur_astor's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book kept me on the edge of my seat! I was really enthralled but then lost my interest toward the end because it ended kind of abruptly and it felt a little predictable. I was hoping we would get some other perspective outside of Blythe because I thought she was unreliable. But overall, I really enjoyed the audiobook!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicide, Abandonment, and Pregnancy

wegs's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, and Child death

hollyyym's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, Child death, Death, Self harm, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Abortion, Suicide, and Infidelity

estherk809's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Suicide

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

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

agrismaryy's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, and Suicide

Moderate: Child abuse and Abandonment

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