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A review by jjaylynny
The Push by Ashley Audrain
4.0
Yikes. I mean, YIKES. I'm not sure I can remember reading a good book such as this, that I wish I'd never read. For a debut it's well-written. The unreliable narrator is fleshed out and has a fully-realized inner life. I was moved to tears a few times by the author's observations about motherhood, about how horrible/wonderful it is. Her sketching of a marriage slowly crumbling is sobering. But still. Yikes.
I've been obsessed with The Bad Seed ever since unsupervised me saw the old movie at an inappropriately young age. It was just creepy and fascinating, and then later, when I saw it again and read the book, the family history angle (which is the point) also transfixed me. Why, I don't know. So this book resonated in that place where I'm drawn to this stuff but why? The idea that a child could be bad, maybe truly evil, but still you love her and still find moments of happiness; I think that is part of the ambivalence of motherhood writ large and, okay, nutso, but also sometimes plausible in those exhausting moments. Yeah. Yikes.
So, good book. Disturbing as hell. Frickin' yikes.
I've been obsessed with The Bad Seed ever since unsupervised me saw the old movie at an inappropriately young age. It was just creepy and fascinating, and then later, when I saw it again and read the book, the family history angle (which is the point) also transfixed me. Why, I don't know. So this book resonated in that place where I'm drawn to this stuff but why? The idea that a child could be bad, maybe truly evil, but still you love her and still find moments of happiness; I think that is part of the ambivalence of motherhood writ large and, okay, nutso, but also sometimes plausible in those exhausting moments. Yeah. Yikes.
So, good book. Disturbing as hell. Frickin' yikes.