3/5

This was very mediocre, especially after The Push. It seemed like we were constantly going in circles between affairs and miscarriages, and the characterization of the 3 main women was really lacking. This was also definitely not a thriller, so shouldn’t be advertised as such. Also, I get that she was going for shock value but the ending was way too abrupt and rushed.

Ashley Audrain creates incredible domestic drama/suspense books with controversial characters and deep psychology behind it, she explores very dark sides of human psyche and this book is not exception.
Actually, speaking about darkness - yes, a lot of things characters do in this book are quite unhinged but also the author is just not afraid to talk about difficult or quite ugly things and exploring things like envy and insecurities or if mother’s love is always so perfect and how far it could take it.


The book has a huge list of trigger warnings which also looks like a spoiler list, so basically if any topic regarding motherhood or relationship is triggering for you - then you should skip it.

If anyone watched the movie Antichrist by Lars von Trier - well, it has something in common with The Whispers.

It is listed usually in mystery/thriller section but the same like it was with The Push - it is not a traditional thriller, there is quite ambiguous ending and some questions which are left unanswered and opened to an interpretation. If you chose this book for a bookclub - you’ll definitely get quite a discussion about it. If you need 100% answers from a thriller - then it is not a book for you.

author of The Push was a reason I read this one

are you guilty of something?
are you always looking around corners?
Looking for a fright?

read this one ....it is filled with everything you want out a dark novel

I think I've realized this author just isn't for me. There were so many characters I found hard to keep track of until just over half of this was done. I was pretty bored up until about 80% in when everything started coming together. But when it did come together I did really enjoy the end!

Thank you netgalley for the earc in exchange for an honest review.

I found it a bit tricky to get engaged in this story (possibly due to my schedule), but once my interested was caught, I really started to be pulled into the story and drama that ensued. While I didn't enjoy some of the themes of the book, I appreciated the real and raw way in which the author portrayed The sites of these families. We hear from the perspective of the women but it would be interesting to hear more from the perspective of other characters in the book.

The story ended with frustration because I wanted more answers and maybe some vindication for Xavier. I had more questions than when we started.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Canada and the author for the advanced electronic copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I keep wondering when I will understand the hype for this author but I think that maybe maternal thrillers are not for me. I found the characters way too stereotypical for the "type" of mother they were meant to represent. And the ending was just gross. This will be the last I try from this author.

I really struggled with this book. I’d loved the authour’s debut and, honestly, that’s what got in the way of my experience with this book. This book felt contrived from the start, but I pushed through it going it would improve. Unfortunately, the cast of characters never developed to the point of investment for me and it all felt a bit flat. Even the ending, so clearly designed to shock, felt predictable and prescribed. It was disappointing and 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

My feelings about this book are very mixed. At times this domestic thriller is a good page turner and propulsive. However, at others, it gave me the icks and I felt very uncomfortable. It took me a solid 4 weeks to read this as I was continually putting it down due to my personal headspace and experiences relating to the long list of trigger warnings in this book.

This author does a good job of creating an atmospheric read and pushing the reader right to the edge with difficult topics. I think this will be a hit for many readers but, for me, certain parts were too vulnerable and close to home.

Last highlight goes to this twisted ending! It's a doozy!

This book is a stellar glimpse into motherhood and parenthood in all its forms. You will see yourself in some of the characters and you will judge - a lot. The author keeps us in suspense until the very last pages and then she leaves us without an epilogue! I found myself reading Goodreads reviews to see if others had the same understanding at the end. This book reminded me of Liane Moriarty’s masterpiece weavers of mom life in all its glory and ugliness.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger warning- pregnancy loss; hospitalization of a child; child abuse; marital affair.

. . . ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭒
Ashley Audrain has a knack for writing both the uncomfortable narrative and the unreliable narrator. When mixed together, it definitely kept me reading.

Told from multiple POVs of four women who are neighbors, both before and after one of their children falls from his bedroom window. A mix of whodunnit / didjadoit their secrets and intimacies are revealed. I was unsure of how it would end, which I always appreciate, and I do like a little cliffhanger moment, and it satisfies in this regard.

I did like the acknowledgment that motherhood does not come naturally or easily to every mother - that trying to balance work outside of the home and the work of being a mother is exhausting, and there is heavy judgment from others when mothering does not come first for some. This novel did give insight into the underbelly of those intrusive thoughts that come from exhaustion in seemingly taking care of everyone and everything within a family unit, which felt very raw and honest.

I didn’t think it was necessary to have this many people in the same single-block radius committing adultery, but perhaps infidelity is rampant in suburbia and maybe I missed the community newsletter. I did enjoy the insights and dynamics into the marriages, I just wasn’t expecting that much extramarital action.

Another solid read from this author, and I will definitely pick up her next novel as well.

~👩🏻‍🦰

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

Welcome to the suburbs. We follow the story of neighbours, Rebecca, Blair, Whitney and their elderly neighbour, Mara as there is an incident at one of the homes.. We see Whitney, a working Mom who is all about how she appears and cannot conect with her children, especially her oldest, Xavier; Blair who has left the corporate world to raise her daughter, but now feels trapped by the decision she made and Rebecca a nurse who is struggling with the realization of motherhood. The elderly neighbour, Mara, sees all and watches all, but keeps to herself.

These women are more intertwined than they realize and thwe story was well told, from one perspective to another. Some great twists and I enjoyed the ending. Great beach read.

Resentment, bitterness, loneliness, and insecurity are all things that I felt as a young mom of young children. I love my littles but felt like everyone else had their stuff together and no one spoke about the hard parts. Call it unkind, but a part of me wanted the folks who seemed to have their lives together to struggle a bit. The Whispers gave me a glimpse into that kind of destruction but on steroids!

This book tears away all of the pretense of perfection and gives us yet another look into lives that are far from the idealistic picture seen from the outside. It is dark and twisted and not at all hopeful. Most of the characters aren't very likeable and it kind of felt good in a voyeuristic way to watch their lives fall apart.

This was a bit of a slow burn for me and I found it harder to get into than The Push, and I didn't like it quite as much. I enjoy that there was no closure and the reader is left hanging once again. To me that's part of the appeal, which is strange because that isn't something I generally like. I'll be eagerly awaiting her next book!

Thank you to Ashley Audrain, Penguin Random House Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an ebook copy of The Whispers for me to read and review. What a roller coaster of a story! I found it a bit slow to start with a large cast of characters to keep track of, but once it picked up the twists and turns and unexpected events just kept coming! The characters pulled at my heartstrings then made me hate them and back and forth throughout the whole book. The ending wasn't super surprising, however there were some remaining loose threads that weren't tied up. I do wish that we had a bit more closure on some of the aspects and characters, but overall it was a compelling, excellent read.

A solid four stars for the latest from Ashley Audrain. I knew I needed to read this after reading her debut novel, The Push, and loving it. Like that one, I also really liked this one and found it be to dark in nature. Not exactly a thriller, but definitely a domestic drama following the lives of a group of women in a neighbourhood. Of course, lives are intertwined, secrets and lies are all around and drama ensues.

Much like The Push, this book once again explored motherhood, mostly the darker parts of it and the things people don't talk about as often. It got quite dark and it should be noted that there are heavy trigger warnings with this one, so go into it well aware of what they are. I will list them below.

I really like Ashley's writing style and I think she may become an auto buy author for me. While quite ominous on nature, her books are well written and keep me on edge to see where the story will go.

If you like domestic drama/suspense be sure to check this one out.

Content warnings:
Infertility, still birth, miscarriage (at times extremely graphic in description), infidelity, death of a spouse, death of a child, talk of suicide, harm to a child.

I requested this book because the description sounded so good.

But I have to admit that I was struggling to get into it and picked it up and put it down a few times. This time I pushed through and it was worth it. At about 20% it started picking up and I became invested in the characters. I needed to know the little secrets that every one seemed to have and that were slowly starting to come out.

I sped through this book. All the secrets were slowly starting to come out. All the characters were just horrible people, which is fine with me because I like books with characters that aren’t likeable.

But then all that, and THAT was the ending we got? There was no closure. So many things left open. Such a let down. I was very disappointed with this ending. I probably will not read this author again.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another fantastic book by Ashley Audrain. Thank you #netgalley for this arc. I didn’t think I could be drawn into this book more than the Push but I could not put this one down. Audrain has a way of tapping into intrusive thoughts and feelings that’s most parents feel uncomfortable sharing which makes her books even more interesting. It was fast paced and thrilling and although I did guess some of the plot twists they were still very clever.

I truly enjoyed this book. It had me engaged from the opening paragraph and never let my interest wander.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who is child-free by choice, I always enjoy a book with subversive views on motherhood, and The Whispers certainly delivered that. The Whispers tells the recent history of a group of families that are neighbors. Each family has their issues, but Whitney and her family are at the center of the story, whose son Xavier has fallen out of his bedroom window and is gravely injured. Whitney is not your stereotypical mother - she doesn't seem to enjoy spending time with her kids and appears to love her job and extracurricular activities more. All the families on their street are dealing with what it means to be a mother, and Ashley Audrain again does a great job exploring this theme. Added to that is the interconnectedness of the neighbors' lives and how we stumble along with the characters to try and figure out what happened the night Xavier fell out his window. The Whispers was compulsively readable, and I'm very thankful to NetGalley for the chance to read the eARC. My only complaint is that there were some errors with the author's name and the title of the book being interspersed throughout the text as I was reading. All of a sudden, "ashley audrain" would be there in the middle of a sentence, and then "the whispers" would be on another page. I understand that these are uncorrected proofs, but if you provide a copy for people to review, maybe ensure that these types of things aren't in the copy to take away from the story's overall flow.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada, and Ashley Audrain for this ARC!

"The Whispers" by Ashley Audrain is a powerful and chilling examination of the complexities of motherhood, unraveling the dark underbelly of the maternal experience. With its gripping narrative and psychological intensity, this novel delivers a thought-provoking exploration of maternal instinct and the profound impact of generational dynamics.

Ashley Audrain's writing is both elegant and haunting, immersing readers in the emotional turmoil of her characters. With her evocative prose, she captures the complexity of maternal emotions, delving into the feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and doubt that can plague a mother's mind. The author's ability to tap into these raw and vulnerable emotions creates a deeply empathetic connection between the reader and the characters.

Audrain masterfully builds tension throughout the story, keeping readers on edge as they grapple with the psychological twists and turns. The narrative's non-linear structure adds to the sense of mystery and heightens the impact of the revelations, making for an engrossing reading experience.

"The Whispers" is a compelling and unsettling novel that examines the complex and often harrowing nature of motherhood. Ashley Audrain's exploration of the dark undercurrents of maternal instinct is masterfully executed.

Overall, "The Whispers" is a gripping and emotionally charged read that will resonate with fans of psychological suspense. Ashley Audrain's ability to delve into the depths of human emotion and explore the intricate dynamics of motherhood sets this book apart. It serves as a testament to the author's skill in crafting a chilling narrative that lingers in the mind long after the final page.

Also, that final sentence… *insert applause emoji here*

Really enjoyed this one! Absolutely love this author. This book had me staying up all night and turning the pages.