The Whispers

I just finished The Whispers by Ashley Audrain and here is my review.

Being perfect in public is exhausting and Whitney, the hostess of the big summer BBQ of the neighborhood, needs her neighbors to see what she wants them to see... But during the party she loses her temper on her son and everyone hears. To make matters worse, her son falls from his bedroom window in the middle of the night and is now on life support.

Following the lives of Blair, Whitney's BFF, Rebecca the ER doctor working in the unit where Whitney's son is and Mara, their older neighbor, we get a glimpse of the three days post accident with all the cracks coming to light from their picture perfect neighborhood. The lies, deceit and darkness is more than any of these women can bear.

This was a really clever book. I don't usually enjoy books with so many POV but I understand how it was necessary to tie it all in together.

Firstly, the character development was so good that I hated Whitney from the get go. Even when her son fell, still hated her. Blair is my kind of person. I really felt sorry for her and Rebecca. The characters took on a life of their own and I dig that.

The plot.. I hate those cliquey groups. The snobby neighborhoods. I loved seeing the seedy underbelly of those HOA who use where they live as a reason to look down on others. There's some really interesting plot twists in the book too which were a nice surprise. The pace could have been better. I felt it dragged a bit in some areas.

I don't usually do TW but I know how traumatic miscarriages can be so please be aware of that in this book.

The ending was excellent though. I was quite cheered at how it closed to an end. I feel it was well deserved. Whitney's son deserves a better mother in my opinion.

All in all it was a solid read. If the pace had been better, it would have got 5 stars but it still managed to get 4 from me.

Thank you to @penguinrandomhouseca and @netgalley for my gifted copy

#penguinrandomhouseca #thewhispers #audreyaudrain #netgalley #bookreview #bookblogger #bookalorian #bookinfluencer #canadianbooklover