Some of the promotional material for The Hush by Sara Foster describe it as a 'near-future thriller' which I must say, is incredibly apt.

And... wow, just wow. Foster has managed to reflect many of the issues of increasing concern in society today, in a way that seems both fantastically impossible and completely comprehensible at the same time.

It's an extremely clever book, with an inspired premise, though we're seeing more and more books with George Orwellian-type themes, such as Kate Mildenhall's The Mother Fault. Foster's confronting narrative is further strengthened by fabulous characters who felt very real, complex and engaging.

The best and worst thing about this book is how feasible it all seems. Foster writes about the government monitoring our every move via wristwatches and making decisions about women's bodies without consulting women themselves. Not to mention the fact that the dictatorship-like rules seem to keep changing so suspicion grows.

At the moment in Australia we have those who disagree with the use of compulsory check-in apps and vaccination statuses to minimise the spread and impact of Covid. And of course decisions are being made about women's bodies in the US that many are questioning. We like to think governments have our best interest at heart and trying to balance personal freedom while protecting its people and its future. But, of course it isn't always the case.

Emma and her daughter Lainey are delightful leads. They're struggling to communicate as the book opens. Emma - a midwife - is devastated by the rise of Intrapartum X babies (doll babies) that die the moment they give birth. No one seems to know why and there seems no commonality among those who survive.

Foster easily conveys the differing views in society through the attitude of Emma and Lainey's friends, colleagues and community leaders. Again something we see mirrored even today - the wedge being driven between those with different viewpoints. Black vs white with very little grey. We've long been challenged to accept those with differing values, but what do we do if we're sure they're putting lives at risk or blind to risks they themselves will face?

It's hard to talk much about this book without offering up the fact that Lainey becomes pregnant. She's faced with uncertainty about her mother's reaction and fear for what will come next given other young women have gone missing the moment they've bought a pregnancy test. 

I very much enjoyed almost everything about this book; the characters, including those who play minor roles, as well as the inspired and confronting plot. Foster's writing is exquisite. There's also some detail about genetics and the concept of eugenics, and Foster dips into the impacts of climate change as well as government corruption and networks of rebellion. All topical and pressing issues. 

The only thing I found slightly (ummm... maybe discombobulating) was how quickly the book drew to a close. I'd decided my iPad must not have downloaded it all when I saw how few pages were left and how much still needed to happen, but it wasn't the case. Of course many will appreciate that Foster respects readers enough to know we'll extrapolate from where she takes us to what comes next.

This is the fourth book I've read by Foster and they've all been quite different. She's certainly a talented writer and this is easily one of my favourite books (and possibly the most thought-provoking) of the year.

(4.5 stars)
“The system that supports you can also be used to control you, Emma don’t ever forget that, will you.” The Hush is the first book I have read that is set in a post-COVID-19 future. Rather than dealing with the pandemic directly, it speculates about what the experience of living with this global outbreak has done to us. Joining a growing collection of novels that investigate women's reproductive freedom, The Hush carves out a place on the shelf with books like The Handmaid's Tale, The Mother Fault, Fauna and Blue Ticket.

The Hush depicts a government ever ready to exploit people's fear and obedience to health related rules "to have more control on the rate of reproduction”. Riffing on the reaction to events like the Black Lives Matter protests, Foster postulates a different world, where "a citizen’s right to protest is not going to be a priority for much longer”. And the solution, as ever, is a feminist one that recognises the power between women. As the novel's feminist icon, Geraldine Fox points out: "women are set apart by the system, taught to compare and compete before they can even figure out who they are, and some of them ended up spending their whole lives climbing over one another to rise to the top of female righteousness.” So underlying the horror of watching a government that "enjoys keeping its citizens make and frightened” at a time when people have "spent most of the year scared out of their minds, with the endless new cycle force-feeding then the daily horrors of it” is a hopeful tale of women's resistance.

The Hush is fast-paced, well-written and very much set in the here-and-now of this unprecedented time period. It gets additional kudos for me never imagining reading the line: "Inserting the vial of her mother’s urine inside her like a tampon, just as they’d discussed” in a book. I found this book hard to put down.

‘Now, it’s more like I want the world to change. I feel sadness and frustration rather than fiery outrage when I consider what’s happening, watching humanity repeating the same flawed patterns over and over.’

Sara Foster does it again with The Hush! This is a fabulous futuristic dystopian thriller, set in a time not long after the pandemic of COVID-19. She has produced such a clever plot with credible twists and turns that can easily be considered as a result of our current world predicament - something we would not have contemplated two years ago.

‘It’s been clear for a while that the government would like to have more control on the rate of reproduction - and that’s not just here, it’s happening the world over, now there’s so much more stress on supplies and resources, and the planet is in such a precarious and unpredictable state.’

Sara has cleverly included realistic threads that make her story quite believable. There is a cast of solid characters and as they range from adolescent to grandparents, this book is sure to appeal to a wide ranging audience. As outlined in the synopsis, this is a multigenerational, female-led story with women who are strong, resilient and courageous. It is wonderful to have such strong female leads all prepared to take on a society that has lost its way.

There are a range of themes from adolescent and family issues, right up to senior government conspiracies and crucial environmental world issues. What Sara presents in this post-pandemic world, is a society with a government that has slowly mandated new laws in ‘community safety and well-being’ but is very much ‘big brother’ watching and monitoring you. Sara offers both a thoughtful and thought provoking scenario.

‘Listen, you might have been able to march like that a year ago, but it's not a good idea anymore. There are too many crises hitting us all at once. The government is determined to crack down on demonstrations. It’s a different world now than it was five or ten years ago.’

The Hush is certain to be the book people will be talking about in the last few months of this year and for quite some time. Women working together in a fast paced dystopian thriller that, scarily, would appear to be not that too far removed from our current reality. Highly recommend this book to readers who are partial to quality writing on creditable themes.

‘The system that supports you can also be used to control you, Emma. Don’t ever forget that, will you.’




This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Thrillers are wonderful escapist books to read.

Fuelled with adrenaline, powered by judiciously-placed reveals and always moving at something near to the speed of narrative light, they are a genre that is perfectly placed to take us on a wild journey that, happily in our famously loose end-addicted world where closure is often a dreamy myth, often comes with a nice, neat tidy ending.

They are, without a doubt, a great deal of vicarious fun to read, and you might wonder if there is any way to improve on a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” model.

Sara Foster has a found a way and it is dazzlingly, enrapturingly good.

Her new novel The Hush (which finds its way to bookstores this coming Wednesday in Australia) injects the idea of the thriller with a pulsing, beating heart, an incisive sense of timely social commentary and a thoughtfulness about the state of the world that is not content to settle for trite, inactively realised, platitudes.

Centred on a near-future Britain, where COVID, climate change and myriad other issues have taken a ragged toll on the national psyche, The Hush surveys a world which is rapidly tilting towards authoritarianism as opportunistic leaders realise that a rattled populace seems to be mostly happy to trade away freedom for some illusion of security.

It’s a seductive idea that you can simply switch off the bad things in the world with a draconian law and an undemocratic edict there, and while there’s certainly a complicit section of the population happy to play along, it may not be as uniformly accepted as repressive leader wannabes think it is.

Even so, there is a certainly enough of an appetite for someone high up to do something, anything, as increasing numbers of babies are being born who simply refuse to breathe at birth and die.

It’s a traumatic pandemic of still births that is gut wrenchingly horrifying for the parents, and alarming for the wider public who simply see yet another dark cloud on a horizon already full to bursting with them.

In a scared and worried UK then, it’s all too easy for the government to enact ever more restrictive laws, curtailing the rights of women particularly regarding their reproductive rights.

Against this backdrop, 17-year-old schoolgirl Lainey is struggling with the fact that her friend Ellis is missing, one of a growing number of pregnant teenage girls who have disappeared, often along with their parents, while her mother Emma, a midwife, is grappling with the growing emotional toll of parents leaving hospital empty handed and broken hearted.

It is terrifying enough for both of them, with front row seats to a society sliding perilously into authoritarian rule, to see this all happening but when Lainey herself gets in trouble, and Emma and her network of friends such as high-profile human rights lawyer Meena (mother of Lainey’s stalwart bestie Serena) have to rush to her aid, it suddenly becomes propulsively, nightmarishly real.

This is where The Hush, a nuanced novel that knows humanity counts for everything in these types of stories, really gets its thriller game on.

Much of the latter half of this engrossing book is devoted to fighting for Lainey and against the powers arrayed against her, and all of the UK really, who seek to impose a malevolent regime to their own nefarious ends.

That alone makes for gripping, highly readable narrative.

Where The Hush goes that bit engagingly and thoughtfully further is when it infuses this pell-mell rush to the thriller finish line with a carefully-wrought, nuanced rumination on the state of the world and how it is up to individuals to fight back when they see their governments taken a far too dramatic step to undemocratic rule.

This is a thriller with a brain, a heart and soul, never more on display that in the close knit relationship between Lainey and single Mum Emma who discover how much their mother-daughter really means when it is under palpable, towering threat and who come to understand the power of female friendship and kinship, especially when Emma reaches out to her well-connected estranged mother, Geraldine, a high-profile feminist who may be critically important to their success in taking the fight to the corrupted establishment which now threatens them.

They are not the only players of good and note in this brilliantly-told, highly-charged and intensely human story, but they are the three women around whom The Hush winningly revolves to powerful effect.

It’s the raw humanity in the end that makes The Hush.

That’s not to say it’s not doing brilliantly well on all other counts because it is a fine, fantastically detailed and richly told thriller and a meaningfully compelling treatise on the brokenness of the world and its possible shot at regeneration if we all give a damn, but it is the relationship between Emma, Lainey and Geraldine which gives the novel so much of its driving need to be read.

You care deeply about these three people, all of whom in their own way are fighting back against the idea that you should be complicit in nascent tyranny, that the only way to cope with looming dictatorship is to keep your head down and hope no one notices you.

These three brave women, each in their own way, come to appreciate that they must take a take a stand, that they must do something, and that it’s simply not enough to sit by and watch the world go destructively south because while you may not be in the firing line now, there’s a very good chance you will be later (which indeed comes to pass for all of them) and you can’t wait for that to happen.

It does happen, of course, we wouldn’t have a thrilling read if it hadn’t, and it’s reading about how ordinary people like Lainey and Emma in particular find a bravery and resourcefulness to fight for their own lives, for the rights and freedoms of friends and family, and for society as a whole, that makes The Hush such a powerfully nuanced novel.

While you may initially think the ending comes far too suddenly, upon reflection it ends precisely when it should, both in terms of job done and emotional connection restored, a final high note in a novel full of them

The Hush is one of those rare precious books that barely puts a foot wrong and which captures both the grinding sense that something is very wrong with the world, but thankfully also that hope is not futile and that you may be able to make real change happen even in the face of insurmountable obstacles.

The hush is like no book I have read before. Whilst I do not buy into conspiracy theories, Sara Foster as weaved what we use everyday into something sinister. Smartwatches have quite literally got smarter.

With covid not yet a distant memory Sara takes us on a journey into an future where our current climate changes the way we live and how a government control every fabric of life itself.

She portrays Lainey and Emma as nervous but feisty women who alongside Emma's mother Geraldine upset the status quo. Forever looking over their shoulders they find themselves in a network of good versus evil.

Gripping from start to finish, this book is difficult to put down but it does have some unfinished business, so I hope there is a sequel.

The Hush by Sara Foster is set in the south of the UK, in a near-future world recovering from the effects of COVID pandemics, food shortages, and then confronting the urgent challenge of climate change. This novel is timely, but I hope not prescient.

The task of tackling these problems permits an authoritarian government to take total control of lives in the name of community health and safety. The future looks more stable until babies start dying. These babies are referred to as ‘doll babies’ and Emma, a midwife, describes this tragedy as “all those never-to-be lives cradled in her hands, their infinite possibilities dispersing into the ether.” No one knows why these apparently perfect babies are still-born. Then pregnant teenagers start to disappear.

Told from two points of view, Emma and her teenage daughter Lainey, the narrative weaves seamlessly between the pair. The mother/daughter relationship and the female bond are dynamics of this story.

The themes explored are relevant now. How far will a government go to protect its people? The politics and politicians seem so realistic but maybe that reflects the general perception we have of politicians now - they certainly seem similar! Public protests are effectively banned. Everyone must wear a watch to ‘keep them safe’, but is it more about surveillance and tracking? But as Emma comments, the surveillance crept up on them and nobody really cares now. The government invokes ‘crises’ to trump human rights.

Crises also impact facts. Emma’s mother Geraldine is an outspoken feminist (and reminds me of someone rather famous). She refers to the battle to “separate and regain truth from perception and belief” – which neatly encapsulates some of the debates around COVID and vaccination and that “… because we all have access to information, everyone considers themselves an expert.”

It is true that “… women’s rights are always the first thing to go backwards in a crisis.”. Emma says to a policeman “… I have no intention of encouraging my daughter to be compliant just to give the people in charge an easy ride”. But the fact is, every time you challenge the status quo, you put your head above the parapet and that makes you a target. Lainey and Emma find this out for themselves, but they are not alone. Geraldine has known this for a long time.

The themes are interesting, well discussed and contextual but are relevant today. The best part is it is a wonderful story, told at a cracking pace, containing mystery, conspiracy, and courage in the face of unbeatable odds.

I love and highly recommend this book.

The Hush is the first ‘post-pandemic’ fiction that I have read. I have no doubt there will be more novels like this to come, those that deal with our post-pandemic world against a backdrop of environmental destruction with ongoing health crises. The Hush is set in the near future, hard to pinpoint exactly when, but Covid is a thing of the not so distant past, its effects very much still informing the present. Everyone is required to wear a watch that monitors your health, reports on your well-being, location and activity, allows you to receive up to the minute government communications, whilst also telling the time and allowing you to pay for things – basically a tracking and listening device with a couple of thrown in for good measure benefits. The society we see in The Hush is what happens when measures implemented to keep people safe morph into an abuse of power at the highest level.

It’s bold to write a novel such as this right now, when many countries are still in and out of lockdown and we are rapidly converting to a society that checks in everywhere with our smartphones, where the vaccinated are bearers of a ‘Covid passport’, entitling them to more freedoms than those who aren’t vaccinated. Some might say that dystopian fiction such as The Hush has the potential to add fuel to the fire being stoked by those who don’t want to be so monitored, who are repeatedly protesting lockdowns, restrictions, vaccinations, and mandatory masks. Yet, conversely, what The Hush shows with such effectiveness is that it’s not the safety measures put in place that are the problem: it’s what those in charge of monitoring them are doing with them that is the real issue. Society in The Hush is in the grips of a mysterious medical phenomenon, healthy babies who are alive all through the birth process are still born. It appears random and is rapidly increasing in occurrence. Under the pall of this emerging crisis, society is once again plunged into panic and protest at the increasing restrictions being enforced.

I found this novel utterly gripping from start to finish. It was terrifying, to be honest, to see how rapidly a person could lose all their rights, to be so completely at the mercy of the authorities as soon as another crisis reared its head. The plot was layered with a complexity that was both clever and all too plausible. The focus on the control of women’s reproductive rights was also a timely issue to weave into this story and I also liked the sub-focus on the rights of teenagers being infringed. Not quite adults but no longer children, they were in a vulnerable place that the government was all too willing to exploit for their own gain. Sara Foster demonstrated the shocking ease with which a society can strip a woman of all her rights under the guise of ‘keeping her safe and well’. I am aware that there are many countries around the world where this scenario is not dystopian, nor fictious at all, but an all too real and present danger. There is a lot within this novel to unpack and contemplate. I thought it was excellent. A brave and bold narrative that packs a punch in all the right ways.


Thanks is extended to the publisher for the review copy.

I found this book too close for comfort! It was a very realistic look at what our world could be like in the not too distant future, and was a bit unsettling. However, it was a good read, and held my attention throughout. I liked the characters, and the plot twists and turns were well done. Although it was a satisfying ending, I sincerely hope this book is not prophetic!

This is a fantastic book and really considering the times we are all living in a must read. Set in a post Covid world where government infringements of our freedom are out of control and women's reproductive rights are once again being manipulated and threatened.
This is a well paced thriller set in a world that is really not that hard to imagine. The books is well written and the emotions and the tension palpable. You will have no trouble believing it is reall.
he female leads in this book are smart, fearless and extremely likeable. This books is as much about female friendship and the strength and wisdom women bring to the table as it anything else. The book gives us a satisfying conclusion but Foster has left the door open for a follow-up novel I for one and hoping that we get that novel sooner rather than later.
In a flashback to the Handmaids tale there is underlining theme in this book that it would do us all well to remember. It is the small losses of freedom that we ignore that lead us to a real loss of freedom that once gone is really really hard to get back.
This book really is a must read for every woman out there and frankly every man as well.
Thanks to Netgalley the author and the publisher for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Hush by Sara Foster is gives us a glimpse of a future that seems eerily possible given the pandemic raging around the world.

In the not too distant future, the world is still feeling the effects of the global Covid pandemic. But now a new epidemic is emerging - babies are being born fully healthy but never taking their first breath. Fear is raging through the population as our most vulnerable are dying for no reason. The government has stepped in and has passed new laws that closely monitor pregnant women and young girls who become pregnant are vanishing without trace.

Lainey's friend Ellis is one of the teens that has gone missing. Lainey's mum Emma is a midwife at a large hospital who is determined to be there for the women in her care but is finding herself more and more removed from her daughter's life.

When Lainey also finds herself pregnant, Emma must take drastic measures to ensure her safety and make sure that Lainey is not the next girl to go missing.

This book is a real page=turner and seems scarily possible. We are all finding our lives changed and living in a world of new restrictions, and it is not too much of a stretch to think that there will be unexpected health issues that emerge in the near future that will again turn the world upside-down.

This highly recommended thriller is part dystopian, part mystery and part commentary on government corruption and abuse of power.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Australia for the advance readers copy of this book.

I was thoroughly invested in the intrigue within this book and I recommend it. Set around 7 years into a future Britain and the after-effects of Covid-19, the story revolves mainly on a schoolgirl, her mother and grandmother, as well as the government.

I finished it two days ago (thanks to NetGalley) and it is to be published early November 2021 so keep a note of it for sure!

The author Sara Foster was born and raised in the UK and moved to Western Australia in 2004 with her husband and young daughters. She is currently studying for her PhD, looking at maternal representation in fiction with young adult heroines. I look forward to reading her backlist.

This very morning I I was totally shocked on news of the assassination of a 69 year old English MP David Amess. My sympathy to his family, friends and colleagues.

Set in the near future this is a thriller that reflects a tendency to authoritarianism in governments in response to a crisis (with particularly sinister reasons here!). The crisis here is at birth, babies are dying before taking a breath and the numbers are increasing. The main characters are Emma, a midwife and her teenage daughter, Lainey. Everybody is monitored by a special watch for ID, payments, security, health checks etc. The story builds slowly establishing the characters and their friends and circumstances. From about half way through I really got into it and found it hard to put down. Missing young pregnant women, conspiracies, crackdown on protests, women’s rights disappearing, lots of issues and ideas to think about. A great read.

Let me catch my breath.

Well, if this novel does not get a TV adaptation or a sequel, then take away my liberties and hide me at Horcombe House.

The story is so visceral, intense and evocative. The subject matter is confronting. The championing of females and female friendship is second to none.

"The sense of danger around her is growing by the second. The walls are closing in".

The novel is set in the UK in a world recovered (but scarred) by the Covid-19 pandemic and suffering from significant climate catastrophes. These events have normalised the imposition of government surveillance and restrictions on personal liberties. It gives us a (somewhat terrifying) insight into what our lives might be post-pandemic. The novel opens with Emma, a midwife, doing a wireless swab check with the results being sent to the hospital through her government-supplied watch. I was floored!

However, the people of Britain now face a new crisis – otherwise healthy babies are stillborn upon birth. The rate of stillbirths are increasing and there is no public explanation of why it is happening. As a result, all pregnant women are being monitored. All pregnancy tests must be recorded and their results registered. Because, of course, it is the woman's fault and it is her burden to carry on behalf of everyone.

There are also rumours that expectant teenage mothers are disappearing. It is all utterly terrifying.

This intimidating socio-political backdrop is filtered through the perspective of Emma and her teenage daughter, Lainey. The narrative is broken down into short increments of time, with each section introduced with a time stamp. This keeps the momentum pressing forwards. Dates are not focused on because the characters' lives are turned upside down in a moment, and so the moment takes precedent – not the days or weeks. And the ball really start rolling when Lainey finds out she is pregnant…

What I loved about the novel was the representation of women – women in leadership roles, positions of power, mothers, daughters, feminists, teenagers, all perfectly imperfect and generally bad-ass. The image of the babushka doll within the story, and on the cover, is poignant and wonderfully on point. It is a generational story being told at a time when there is an immediate threat on women's reproductive capabilities.

I would say that at times I did feel like there was a lot going on, with the political, environmental and health crisis coexisting, together with a lot of characters. However, the narrative did streamline in the second third so that the reader's attention was focused on the threat at hand. It started to unravel again near the end with new groups and characters being introduced, but by this point you are already honed into the narrative and you can weather it.

And that ending. Wow. As Olivier Twist would say: "please miss, can I have some more?"

This review is published on Goodreads (@annaliseygirl) and will be posted on Instagram (@buddstreedbooks) later this week. Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins for an advanced copy of the novel.

Can I just start by saying this is NOT a book you want to read when your eldest daughter is going through labour with her first baby and you are miles away and cannot contact her! Had I read the blurb again I would have waited. Anyway its all good now, mum and bub are well, but this book put me through the shredder. Still it was great to have another EXCITING book hot on the heels of the previous exciting book.

I thought this was really well written. The pace was perfect and it got more dramatic as we closer to the end. Set in the near future it’s a slightly dystopian story about government overreach, the quest for power, a mad scientist, cover-ups and all sorts of corruption. Sounds like business as usual! It’s 7 years post COVID and the climate crisis has deepened and caused widespread flooding around the world. The UK is, however, also facing a threat of a different kind. Babies are are increasingly being stillborn. Yikes! At first it was about one in five cases which soon increased to one in three. Expecting mothers are increasingly nervous and citizens are being increasingly surveilled to supposedly ‘ensure their safety’ but it feels increasingly Orwellian.

This is the scenario in which we meet Laniey, a 17 year old high school student. She and her best friend Sereena plan to steal a pregnancy test from a pharmacy because Lainey suspects she is pregnant but there are rumours of teenage pregnant girls going missing and she’s scared. Her mum Emma works at the local hospital as a midwife and the work is increasingly getting her down. The infant deaths are demoralising. Of course Lainey is pregnant and you will be shocked at how far the authorities go to control all this. It is quite frightening - all the more so as it is also quite plausible. This creeping incrementalism of government control creeps up on you until you suddenly realise you have little control over your own life. While the government overreach is breathtaking it’s also quite concerning to compare what happens in the book to what is going on in some parts of the world, including democracies.

Well, Lainey and Emma and friends and family and underground resistance fight back. But the result is by no means guaranteed and there are casualties along the way. I don’t want to say any more about the plot but this was very smart writing with just the right mix of fiction, suspense and plausibility. I really enjoyed the book, although I was much happier after finally speaking to my daughter. Many thanks to Sara Foster via Netgalley for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly. 4.5 stars rounded up.

Wow, what thrill ride with a great catchy title. I read this book in one weekend. Once I was introduced to Lainey and Emma I could not wait to find out how they would navigate their lives in a dystopian post-covid Britain.
I was left thinking about this book for days afterwards.
This was my first Sara Foster book and I’ll be looking through her back catalogue.

Well titled fiction book The Hush, based in the near future regarding a new epidemic hitting England just a few years after Covid-19’s epidemic still in peoples minds. Travelling anywhere via buses or trains to work and school to which students, parents, teachers and workers line up at checkpoints as futuristic robots take their temperature and health checks to ensure they are healthy to enter their workplace and schools. Everyone is required to wear a special watch that keeps a check on their health. A new terrifying epidemic is increasing as it’s taking the lives of babies some are born healthy, stillborn and other’s not long after birth. This is on the minds of pregnant and birthing mothers, Emma a midwife is seeking answers for the epidemic just as young pregnant teenagers are going missing along with her pregnant teenage daughter Lainey. Certainly a page turner full of twists and turns keeping the reader on the edge of their seat wondering what is going to happen next. I noticed a slight cliffhanger ending which leaves a reader with unanswered questions and wanting to know what happens next to the young teenagers. Recommended for anyone who loves to read futuristic stories about epidemic, mysterious books.

Review run date 11 October 2021 on Netgalley. On 27 October 2021 review will be posted on Facebook blog, Amazon.com.au, goodreads, Barnes and Noble, kobo, googlebooks and iBooks.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from HarperCollins Publishers Australia via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#TheHush #NetGalley

The Hush had me hooked from the first page and I didn't want to put it down. I loved the way it was written with each section starting with the day and time, and the way it alternated from Emma and Lainey. Set in the near distant future, post COVID in the UK, there are plenty of disasters to deal with and everyone is monitored via their watches. Almost half the babies are stillborn and pregnant teenagers are going missing. No one knows who to trust. Gripping and thrilling - well worth the read!

"If this scenario was created by the government, where do we turn for protection?"

The Hush is a haunting near future dystopian thriller that hits uncomfortably close to home. In this post-COVID, climate change besieged Britain, a new crisis has emerged - drastically rising stillbirth levels that seem to have no cause. The result is increasingly invasive controls, especially of women - everyone must wear a special watch, you can't buy a pregnancy test without doing it on the premises and submitting your details, and now teenage girls are going missing...

The story focuses on Lainey, a teenage girl, and her mother Emma, a midwife, as they navigate this increasingly terrifying new reality, which is set to converge on them irrevocably...

Reading this book felt like driving past a car accident - the cloyingly compelling feeling of being increasingly uncomfortable and yet unable to look away. And I mean that in a good way, as testament to the close-hitting claustrophobia and desperation evoked, of a world gone topsy turvy and a population become complacent to the increasing controls placed over their lives. After all, if it's the government that's the problem, where can you turn?

"The system that supports you can also be used to control you, Emma. Don't ever forget that, will you."

Eerily, I was hallway through this book when an article appeared in my newsfeed about women in England being reported to social services if they didn't want to engage with postnatal "support services". In fact, I attended an author talk with Foster, where she spoke on the fact that she took pains to only use technologies and laws that either already exist somewhere in the world, or at least their precursors do. The terrifying thing about this book is how it feels both wild and yet not so far from possibility. It certainly doesn't feel as far fetched as it would have three years ago.

At the talk, the author also mentioned how her academic research had focused on the absent mother in YA dystopian fiction. She described her desire to write a story where generations of mothers were present for their daughters. I think this background knowledge adds another level of appreciation for this story - Emma is a very present, caring mother who would do anything for her daughter, and about halfway through, Emma's own absentee mother re-enters her life and becomes part of her story too. The nesting dolls on the cover of this book carry multilayered significance.

The Hush perfectly captures the suffocating distress of feeling increasingly controlled by forces that feel too big to tackle and not knowing how to regain the reins of your own freedom. But it's also about the women who refuse to sit down and take it. It also happens to be a compelling thriller that takes a wild turn in the final third and became increasingly hard to put down. I found this to be an incredibly well written book that moves beyond the thriller genre into compelling social commentary.

‘The babies demonstrate no signs of pain, and no will to stay in the world.’

Six months ago, in a post pandemic UK, a healthy newborn baby is stillborn. The first of many: close to 1 in 3 pregnancies is ending in stillbirth. Why? Expectant mothers are being closely monitored to see if a cause can be identified.

This is another challenge for the UK, still recovering from the effects of the pandemic and grappling with floods and rising sea levels because of climate change. The government’s response to these issues is to restrict individual freedoms. Citizens are required to wear smart watches, initially to monitor their health and wellbeing during the pandemic, but now the watches monitor an individual’s location, track their spending, and can record their conversations. All of this is supported by new laws passed by the government. And now young pregnant women are going missing. What is happening?

Emma is a midwife, trying to do her best in these difficult circumstances. She’s a single parent: her daughter Lainey is 17. And when Lainey finds herself pregnant, both women are in danger. Emma’s estranged mother Geraldine may be able to help but contacting her has its own risks.

Conspiracy theories abound and social unrest increases. The parents of the missing women are unable, unwilling, or afraid to speak out. And the stillbirths continue.

This is a fast-paced dystopian thriller in which a few heroic women work together to try to uncover the truth. Aspects of this novel are uncomfortably plausible in our current pandemic world, and Ms Foster brings her story to life through well-developed very human characters.

An uncomfortable, engrossing and thought-provoking read.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Thank you very much to Netgalley for providing a digital copy of this terrific book.

It's a story set in the future following the events of Covid 19. The concern on everyone's mind is whether a new pandemic is likely to emerge or whether a new terrorist strike has occurred. Despite having the best medical facilities, a growing number of stillbirths are being documented, and no one knows why.

This is one of the most gripping and captivating books I've ever read. All of the primary characters in this book are female, and each of them is brilliantly written. I don't have a favorite character because I enjoy all of them: Emma, Lainey, Geraldine, Meena, and Serena. Though it was brief, the relationship between Emma and Lainey, as well as Emma and Geraldine, was pure and poignant. Characters that are smart and fearless, with no bullshit or self-pity.

Despite being hardworking in their occupations, all of the female characters were tough, rebellious, resilient, calculative, and brilliant. Every character in this novel served a purpose and complemented one another. This novel kept me on edge the entire time I was reading it. The only thing I wish was that the conclusion had been more detailed; I was curious as to what would happen next.

This is a fast-paced book that I couldn't put down till the finish. It's without a doubt one of my favorite books.
I'd like to read more books by this author