Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Push by Ashley Audrain

106 reviews

lthumphrey's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

amiegold's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This may be one of the scariest books I have read this year!  It definitely is not for everyone, as the main character spends much of the book struggling to bond with her daughter and then suspecting that something is not quite right with her and her moral compass. It’s just such a horrifying idea, that watching it play out, even mildly… it was enough to give me goosebumps. I enjoyed it, and it kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was real. My favorite kind of thriller.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, and Murder

gabforshort's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Self harm

batcaves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

kelly_e's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Title: The Push
Author: Ashley Audrain
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 2.75
Pub Date: January 5, 2021

T H R E E • W O R D S

Visceral • Unsettling • Complex

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Blythe is sure she will be the nurturing and comforting mother she never had. But in the midst of the exhausting early months, and incapable of connecting with her newborn daughter, she is convinced something is wrong with Violet. When she shares her concerns with her husband, he dismisses her claims.

When Blythe gives birth to her son, Sam, the situation is very different, and it's everything she always imagined a mother/child relationship to be. When their lives change on a dime, it will force them to face the truth.

💭 T H O U G H T S

The hype had definitely subsided when I finally picked up The Push, unfortunately it stilled influenced my reading experience and it ended up not living up to all my expectations.

What I like:
- I appreciated the honest insight and portrayal of the expectations versus the realities of motherhood, yet as a childless woman I didn't connect to the plot line.
- The plot line of multi-generational trauma
- Written as a letter, I thought the format was clever. And it was obvious that Audrain is a strong writer.

What I didn't like:
- The plot delivers quite a few stereotypes but I don't know that it leaves us a whole lot further ahead in our understanding, but rather upholds stigmas that can be detrimental to mental health awareness.
- I believe I'd have liked it more if the ending was different. For me, the ending felt like it was used for shock value rather than a natural resolution.

At the end of the day, I wouldn't call this a thriller, rather it's a psychological drama that is sure to spark discussion. But because the plot has been so overdone, The Push is easily forgettable to me.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers looking for a compulsive read
• bookclubs

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"A mother’s heart breaks a million ways in her lifetime." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Medical content, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, and Death of parent

postpartum depression

floratristan's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

luckily the ending felt satisfactory, that although the narrator behaves irrationally she isn't completely unreliable and her suspicions about her daughter turn out to be true. I could have read another chapter where Gemma and Fox grovel at Blythes feat and everyone admits that she was right, but I'm still satisfied with the end as it is. I just don't understand why she wants joint custody of her evil little daughter who killed her son and why, instead of turning her back in her ex, the house etc, she turn into a deranged stalker and pretends to befriend Gemma. On the other hand, she probably wants to stay involved because she thinks she might save Jet. Still, she became much less relatable and likable from that point. Still overall pretty suspenseful audio book and well read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

ashlyreadsevrythg's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

keijiwolf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Excrement, Dementia, Car accident, and Abortion

genny'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

4.0

I appreciated the gritty depiction of motherhood (it made me question whether I truly wanted to experience it for myself in the future...) and generational trauma. I'm not sure whether or not I liked the ending.

I had started to believe that Blythe was only projecting her trauma onto Violet. I suspect that was the author's intention, for even the readers to question Blythe's reliability and to side with everyone else who thought she was crazy...the ending was like a bitter "I told you so". I did feel validated for Blythe in a way, even though it's obviously a horrible thing for another child to get hurt.

It's been a while since I finished this and I didn't take down any notes, sadly, so I can't give a more insightful review. I liked it, overall!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Abortion, and Death of parent

coffiishot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting