Ratings40
Average rating3.4
“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.
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read for the tarot readathon 2023: the tower
i really lovees this story and even though it is a slower drama, i really resonate with the themes and the writing. ashley audrain truly knows how to keep me engaged. i do think there were too many perspectives and if there were less this would have been a full 5 star.
Was so so so excited for this after The Push being one of my all-time favorites. This one was just as masterful in getting inside a mother's head. The women in this book were all dealing with a tragedy of some sort, and some of it was very heavy to read, particularly with infertility. I loved Rebecca and Blair's POVs, Whitney's I found boring but necessary, Mara's felt boring and unnecessary. Her chapters I did not enjoy in the slightest. I also had an issue with the story hopping around. I love different timelines but this one was confusing, jumping around even within chapters. This was very slow, but the last 75 pages pack a punch, and the last line of this book is so chilling, once again.
Strong content warning for miscarriage. If that is a triggering subject for you, I would suggest skipping this book.
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Sadly, this one did not live up to The Push, but I still look forward to reading more from Audrain in the future.