The Whispers: A Novel
“Expertly, subtly and powerfully rendered….[The Whispers] delivers a sucker-punch ending you’ll have to read twice to believe.”—The New York Times Book Review
“[An] electrifying…razor-sharp page-turner.” —Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After
Featured in summer reading recommendations by Good Morning America, TIME, ELLE, The Washington Post & more
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Push, a propulsive page-turner about four families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens—and what is lost when we give in to our own worst impulses
On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighborhood couples and their children gather for a catered barbecue as the summer winds down; drinks continue late into the night.
Everything is fabulous until the picture-perfect hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. Everyone at the party hears her exquisite veneer crack—loud and clear. Before long, that same young boy falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night. And then, his mother can only sit by her son’s hospital bed, where she refuses to speak to anyone, and his life hangs in the balance.
What happens next, over the course of a tense three days, as each of these women grapple with what led to that terrible night?
Exploring envy, women’s friendships, desire, and the intuitions that we silence, The Whispers is a chilling novel that marks Audrain as a major women's fiction talent.
“[An] electrifying…razor-sharp page-turner.” —Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After
Featured in summer reading recommendations by Good Morning America, TIME, ELLE, The Washington Post & more
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Push, a propulsive page-turner about four families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens—and what is lost when we give in to our own worst impulses
On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighborhood couples and their children gather for a catered barbecue as the summer winds down; drinks continue late into the night.
Everything is fabulous until the picture-perfect hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. Everyone at the party hears her exquisite veneer crack—loud and clear. Before long, that same young boy falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night. And then, his mother can only sit by her son’s hospital bed, where she refuses to speak to anyone, and his life hangs in the balance.
What happens next, over the course of a tense three days, as each of these women grapple with what led to that terrible night?
Exploring envy, women’s friendships, desire, and the intuitions that we silence, The Whispers is a chilling novel that marks Audrain as a major women's fiction talent.
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Community Reviews
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What’s it about?
This novel centers around four couples living in an affluent neighborhood in any city in the U.S. The couples are all married. Two of the couples have school age children, a third struggles with infertility, and one couple is much older. When Xavier (the 10-year-old son of one of the couples) falls from a third floor window and ends up on life-support, there are many questions to be answered. What exactly is going on in this neighborhood and how did Xavier fall?
What did it make me think about?
Motherhood.
Should I read it?
So this latest book from the author of “The Push” is a page turner for sure- but it just got to be a little too much for me. Each character was unlikable in their own unique way and they all had SO many issues. I am so glad I did not live in this neighborhood when my kids were small! If you really like a thriller with lots of twists then you will enjoy this novel. It just missed for me.
Quote-
“But these mothers are all busy, she knows. Too much going on and yet nothing going on at all, creating urgency where there is none, rushing their lives away. They don’t know how to just be. They make no time to think about what’s right there in front of them.”
What’s it about?
This novel centers around four couples living in an affluent neighborhood in any city in the U.S. The couples are all married. Two of the couples have school age children, a third struggles with infertility, and one couple is much older. When Xavier (the 10-year-old son of one of the couples) falls from a third floor window and ends up on life-support, there are many questions to be answered. What exactly is going on in this neighborhood and how did Xavier fall?
What did it make me think about?
Motherhood.
Should I read it?
So this latest book from the author of “The Push” is a page turner for sure- but it just got to be a little too much for me. Each character was unlikable in their own unique way and they all had SO many issues. I am so glad I did not live in this neighborhood when my kids were small! If you really like a thriller with lots of twists then you will enjoy this novel. It just missed for me.
Quote-
“But these mothers are all busy, she knows. Too much going on and yet nothing going on at all, creating urgency where there is none, rushing their lives away. They don’t know how to just be. They make no time to think about what’s right there in front of them.”
Ashley Audrain has a way with writing things that are so deeply uncomfortable, so disturbing, and it’s mostly things her characters are feeling rather than anything physically terrifying. I wanted to hide my face at parts of this book that were just so raw and disconcerting. Just like The Push, the characters are extremely well developed, and the sense of foreboding is palpable. There are observations about motherhood and marriage that are deeply uncomfortable to read but also, reflective of struggles mothers do go through. And then you have characters that you can’t relate to, are so unhinged, but reading their thoughts is just a crazy experience. And that ending line. I’m shaken!
3.5! Loved the drama. A few lines made me feel icky, but overall a super entertaining read. Reminded me of Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson.
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