Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Push by Ashley Audrain

72 reviews

nuh_thaan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

The deep dive into Blythe's psyche, childhood, and her mother's childhood really provide context to what goes through her mind. The concept of behaviors being passed down because of the bond that women have is always very interesting.  Violet has such a strong personality too, I'd be interested in exploring her thoughts more in depth as well.

Blythe doesn't connect with Violet, but she did connect with Sam. Violet pushed Sam into the street which caused him to die. Or at least that's what we're meant to believer. Blythe tries to be a good mother, Blythe tries to learn and befriend Gemma (in a roundabout way), Blythe tries to get Fox to understand what is happening. Blythe tries. Unfortunately, no one listens to her and the result is more chaos.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Car accident, Pregnancy, Grief, Child death, Gaslighting, and Death of parent

Moderate: Bullying and Miscarriage

saffronjw's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, and Suicide

nbreezy17's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, and Mental illness

thelibraryofanolive's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

THIS BOOK HAD ME CRAZED OMG IT WAS SO GOOD CANT EVEN PUT INTO WORDS HOW INVESTED I WAS

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Car accident, Child death, Infidelity, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Murder, Alcohol, Violence, Sexual content, Stalking, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Blood

Minor: Abortion, Addiction, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Dementia, and Confinement

emmajh91's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Child death, Violence, and Murder

sami_f_c's review against another edition

dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Self harm, Murder, Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, and Violence

lthumphrey's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

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

mellowreading's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

I couldn’t put this one down, and was filled with anger and tension the whole time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Abandonment, and Child death

carbs666's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

2.75

I did not really see the point of this book at all - it felt like the plot was a series of "and then this happened and I reacted this way and I don't know why I did" statements. I understand the devices at play here and the goals of the book, but I don't feel like the book was successful in delivering on them. 

I thought the choice of narration was interesting and had the potential to create a lot of tension for readers who could come to see Blythe as unreliable. However, the actions of her daughter were just so egregiously obvious that I never really felt like enough doubt was injected into the narrative to make readers wonder if Blythe was right or crazy. 

I'm curious to see how the book could have been different if it incorporated the themes of the psychological and physical horrors of motherhood with an exploration of what to do when your child turns out to be dangerous; I feel that could have made it more interesting for me. 

Anyways, the book wasn't bad enough to DNF so that's a point in its favour. The writing is technically solid and there are some evocative moments tucked in here. It's fine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

catarina_fernandes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Grief, Child death, Mental illness, and Murder