This wildly enthralling page turner took me on an emotional roller coaster that I was not prepared for. Following the existence of a few main characters and their families, I was shocked to see parts of myself, good and bad, in all of them. Being given an insiders view of these women's lives was so relatable. Ashley Audrain allows us to see the enviable front that women put on but also the self-doubt and feeling of inadequacy that can creep into our minds. We are taken on a journey with Blair, a doting and patient mom who suspects her husband is cheating. Whitney, a picture perfect woman who struggles with the 'task' of being a present mother, abd Rebecca, a doctor who struggles with carrying pregnancies to full term. As neighbours, their lives are intertwined and focused around one horrendous accident involving one of their children. Be prepared-this book kept me guessing the entire time while also questioning myself and what I would do in each scenario. It is not a 'pick-me-up' but it is definitely a 'can't-put-down.'

No doubt that women, mothers, wives feel this way. Each MC fighting some sort of inner battle with feeling like they can’t be it all to everyone. But under all of that is the jealously that runs rampant and the secrets they hold close.

I would be lying if I didn’t say this was a little too close for home for me. Strictly speaking on the desperate heartache that filled Rebecca’s days. The graphic descriptions had me putting the book down because I know these moments of obsession well. And it’s a painful part of my own journey to being a mother.

I’m not going there with this review except to say that the author does explain this in detail that will 💯 be hard for people to read. Perhaps if they’re lucky enough to have not experienced this pre term pain, then it will shed the light on what actually happens… BUT (and this is a huge but), if the reader has been in this moment, no matter how many times, or even just once, I think it may leave you in tears of the past.

It’s no secret on here that I’ve experience loss. Nor is it hidden that I said goodbye to a daughter in my second trimester. But what people don’t know is the details of that day. It’s not one I can share. And it’s one that took me years of therapy to deal with.

So I guess I’m not sure how to review this one. The Push had me captivated. And the premise behind this one made me want it, but I think, I just need to focus on making sure that others need to know there are major loss triggers in one storyline. Because it may be hard to read.

One small note I need to say is that I feel like the author must have some sort of experience with this, because of a line “you’re used to this stuff”…. It could have been taken from a comment someone made to me: “after this many, you must be used to it”. And I’m gonna say this very clearly, if you have to say anything at all to someone who has lost a child at any stage of growth, say nothing but “sorry. And how can I help”. Never give platitudes. Never say that you can try again. Never ever say you must be used to it. Full stop. The End.

So writing 4.5 stars
Subject was hard for me. 2stars
Ending with 3

Do you remember being a child and hearing your parents talk about neighbourhood gossip, or trying to listen in on party chatter, and just thinking "why do these grown-ups care so much about this stuff?" That's exactly the feeling The Whispers left me with. As an autistic lesbian, I think it's extremely clear that I am not the target audience for this book. I would have loved to believe that we've moved past plots like "I hate my stupid husband" and "I hate my stupid husband, but also I'm hot," but those seem to be the only real pillars of this book. And then to read other blurbs/reviews that are saying things like "Ashley Audrain understands the secret world of women"?? WHICH women??? Do they need help??? Blink twice if you want me to save you!!

Also, it would be irresponsible of me to not talk about Marcus and Xavier, two of the sons featured in this book. These boys were clearly meant to represent an autistic/neurodivergent experience, but not only were they written identically (down to having the same special interest?? Come on, did Audrain just google "what do autistics like" and go from there?), it seemed The Whole Point of them was to illustrate the horrors of motherhood. All Audrain achieved was demonstrating how miserable life can be when you're abused as the result of your neurodivergence. The final line of the book cements Xavier's status as A Problem instead of what he actually is: a terrified, horrifically abused 10-year-old child.

A miserable, dragging, plotless book that I would best summarize as "the straights are, in fact, not okay."

'She'd once heard them described as whispers - the moments that are trying to tell you something isn't right here.'

Audrain has written a very good thriller that kept me reading and engaged in an assortment of characters - many who were not at all likeable - yet I was invested in finding out their situation. . The neighbours all have whispers they are avoiding and Audrain has woven the different perspectives into a very good book. The book is well written and despite being full of some heavy topics the author does not glorify nor minimize them.

'She needs them to remind her that despite how much she wants it, becoming am other is the most foolish thing a woman can do. That a love like that will inevitably hurt her more than she could possibly imagine.'

'But there are risks people take when they want something badly enough. There are things they learn to ignore.'

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book exposes some of the most explicit, selfish, and dangerous thoughts women could have about their own shortcomings, their marriages, and their kids...I mean, wow. The author does not hold back. LOVE THIS!

I thought this book was a great kick off to the (almost) summer season! The author switches between narrators seamlessly and it keeps the reader constantly on their toes.

Then…the conclusion. That last sentence! Loved it!

I thought this was a great novel. I loved the Push , so I immediately jumped at the opportunity to read this.
I loved the raw look at women and motherhood and tragedy.
I thought it was thought provoking and edgy.
Highly recommend.

Audrain once again explores motherhood, this time in raw, tense, and emotional detail through the lens of four women, all living on the same street. The small moments and secrets that every neighbourhood has are clearly delineated and explored in this compelling thriller, and the characters will strike uncomfortable chords in each of us.

THE WHISPERS is a must read. I loved The Push so much so I knew this was going to be amazing. An honest, uncensored look at women and motherhood in the wake of a mysterious tragedy, incredible thriller.

Oh my gosh this was amazing. All three main characters were completely different, and some of them were objectively bad people, but the way they were written was so compelling that I couldn't stop myself from understanding their actions (while still condemning them!)

I am not yet a mother, but I'd be shocked if this didn't cut right to the true core of mothers' feelings.

MAJOR trigger warning for miscarriage!

This was disappointing :( I loved the Push because it had a mystery running through it and some great suspense, but the whole time I was reading this I was like "what is the point, I'm bored". I think there's a place for domestic dramas like this, but this was marketed as a thriller and didn't come close enough to the people who have nailed dramas like Lianne Moriarty. I like Audrain's style but this one just missed the mark for me!

I wasn't sure about this book when I first started. Because this starts at the party where Whitney yells at her son, we are introduced to every character, but they have nothing to tether them to the story. Once the story gets going, there are basically four storylines, and those nine characters introduced at the beginning start to fall into place, both within the story and within the family groups.

This is really a story about secrets, about fitting in (or not). About Whitney and Blair (primarily) do when they don't fit in. How Whitney especially tries to change the narrative and how people view her. She isn't the kind of person I would like if she was in my circle of peers. I'd be the one waiting for her facade to crack and the real person to show through. The one who wouldn't be surprised she yelled at Xavier. The one who would wonder what she actually did to him to make him fall from that window.

It is a good thing that there were those three other storylines. For they sympathy felt for Blair and Rebecca, or I wouldn't have enjoyed this story much (mostly because I didn't like Whitney at all). I would have read it mostly to find out if she got what she deserved in the end.

But this story turned out to be much more complex and much more enjoyable than I'd expected at the beginning and turned out to be a very satisfying read.

A neighbourhood drama that kept me glued to my seat. In the middle of the night, a ten-year-old boy falls out of his window and ends up in a coma. There is a mystery surrounding this possible accident. POV alternates between various people who live on the street and as the plot develops we learn the goings on in their lives. Eventually, they all touch with one another in some way.

The ending was fantastic and gave me a little chill. I loved the various characters; they had depth even those with small roles. There isn't too much plot as the story is character driven. I'll be back for more from this author.

When the email came in that this book was available, I never hit download so fast. I feel so fortunate that I was able to give this an early read.

This lady knows how to write and boy does she deliver! The way she can develop characters so well is a true art. My words will not be able to express my love for the way she writes and the storylines that are just so darn real and delivered with such fluidity. Give me more! I will just be here, waiting, not patiently, for the next release.

A hundred thanks to NetGalley, publisher and, of course, the very talented, Ashley Audrain, for this advanced digital copy. Note: I will be buying this book on release day as well!

I fear my review may not do the novel justice. Every word, every sentence is heavy - it creates it's own atmosphere, one that is thick with impending doom.

I'm conscious of spoilers so I'll try to be careful and speak generally but I want to acknowledge there is A LOT going on. After the catalyst (boy falls from window) the story unfolds in a series of alternating perspectives and time periods.

The first 50% - 60% of the book is context and backstory, the plot isn't moving forward but it's being enriched with each page. We get to know the core group of neighbors and slowly and started to build a picture of what may have happened.

About 2/3 into the novel it starts to reveal itself. We learn about the interwoven betrayals that exist between all the characters. There are some twists and surprises - some that are choreographed earlier on but executed so well.

This book is the very definition of one that peaked at the end. I was close to four stars throughout, slowly crept upwards and in the literal final sentence, clinched five stars.

It was intimate, provocative and graphic. There are a lot of scenes that will likely be triggering but wow, what a story.

Huge thank-you to Ashley Audrain, Netgalley, Penguin Random House Canada and Viking for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

When I was in my 20s, I briefly dated a woman named Whitney who had a five-year-old son. At some point in this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it relationship, we had a conversation predicated on the idea of who would Whitney rescue if me and her son were drowning. She said she would go after her son, no question, and leave me to fend for myself. Now, I’m not sure how this conversation came about, but I do remember being gravely hurt by her comments. However, age has granted me the wisdom to see from her point of view. Of course, she should go after her son first. After all, he spent nine months in her womb and she fashioned him from her loins, not to mention all the time that she spent looking after him and nursing him as he grew from being an infant to a toddler to a kindergartener. What does this anecdote have to do with Ashley Audrain’s new book, The Whispers? Well, its antagonist is named Whitney and she appears to be the exact opposite of the woman I had dated. Given a choice to save her offspring, this career woman will choose to let them perish. Or will she?

This novel — which is set in the near future to cover the fact that its characters need to act socially outside of the confines of the recent pandemic — starts with a children’s birthday party on a September afternoon. Everyone in the neighbourhood has been invited to the gig at Whitney and Jacob Loverly’s backyard (and that surname is seemingly used ironically because there’s not a lot of love to be had here if that’s not giving too much away). The party is for one of her children (we don’t know if it’s for the three-year-old twins she has or her 10-year-old son Xavier). Her eldest son is something of a difficult child — he is doing poorly in school, is being bullied, and has behavioural issues. Xavier acts up at the party and this leads Whitney to berate her son, and even though it’s behind closed doors inside, the guests are embarrassed for them. Flash forward nine months later, and Xavier is in the hospital in a coma suffering from a fall from his bedroom window. The question, to paraphrase Richard and Linda Thompson, is did he jump (after being called names at school by his best friend), or was he pushed (by Whitney in her usual flash of anger)? Whitney’s neighbours in the suburban neighbourhood spend the next three days trying to piece together what happened, including Rebecca, the nurse tending Xavier who has also been trying and failing to conceive with her husband Ben, and Blair, whose husband is seemingly having an affair with Whitney. Also in the mix is an elderly neighbour named Mara, who seethes at her husband Albert for his role in mistreating their autistic-like son, Marcus, who died as a teenager during the 1970s.

The Whispers is a challenging book — but this has nothing to do with vocabulary or the language used. It’s because, if you couldn’t already figure this out, the characters are not very likable. The beginning of the book is a bit of a trod, and it isn’t until halfway through the read that Audrain begins to tighten the screws and the tension begins to mount, turning a book that starts as a domestic crisis type book into an outright thriller that you can’t put down. There’s a sense of kitchen sink realism to this work — the type of book that features characters who could very well have doppelgangers in real life. And it’s apt that I’m publishing this review around Mother’s Day 2023 (even if the book won’t be released for another few weeks yet) because this is a novel about mothers and the bond that they have with their children — sometimes tenuously in the case of Whitney, as she’s anything but the selfless mom who will do anything for her kids. Instead, she wants it all — the adoring husband, the high-powered executive career, the magnificent house in the ‘burbs. And the thing with Whitney is that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants, no matter who stands in her way. Even, perhaps, if it turns out that that person might be her very own son. Maybe.

If you’re going to read The Whispers, this is a book that is going to require some level of patience on the part of the reader. I know this can come across as being a cliché in my reviews, but I’ll say it again as it pertains to this book: if you stick with it, it will yield rewards. The ending is quite just and devastating in its way, and there’s a bit of a plot twist (or two) that readers probably won’t see coming. Still, The Whispers can prove to be demanding, as most of the dialogue is internal — there aren’t a lot of spoken bits in this book. However, once the tension starts to ratchet up, this turns out to be a highly superlative work of psychological fiction from the point of view of women. As a result, this book winds up being about what it’s like to be a woman in modern society and the demands that motherhood — or, at least, the desire to be a mother in Rebecca’s case — places on families, sometimes causing them to shatter. In any event, this is a book that some women may find to be self-evident in terms of what it has to say. However, The Whispers is a book that we need, even if it sometimes feels that it might state the obvious for some people. At the end of the day, this is a tightly wound book that will keep you on your toes guessing to the very end. It’s by no means perfection, and it does take some time to warm up to but stick with this one and rescue it from your To Be Read pile. Think for yourself, and don’t want around for me thrashing in the water to pronounce my judgment. This book is younger than me, after all, and needs your attention first.

This was a great book hat kept me up at night! It centres around a tragic event, but is about so much more. I especially connected with Blair who is an overwhelmed mother who thinks her husband is having an affair. There are three main women in the story and a nosey old woman on the street, all with secrets and complicated feelings, regretted actions and interactions with each other. I felt each woman's personality was so believable and relatable and I loved how the story progressed and slowly revealed so many hidden truths.

Audrain takes us on a journey into the lives behind close doors of 4 families. All desiring what the others have. A horrific accident happens with a ten year old boy and all of their lives unravel. We are kept guessing until the end and beyond. A very thought provoking story.

For some reason I thought this was a sequel to Ashley Audrain's first novel, The Push, and that turned out to be incorrect however, The Whispers is a gripping domestic thriller/mystery that you will consume just as quickly as you did her first novel. You follow four women who all live in the same neighbourhood and who seem to really have it all together. As you could imagine, the intricacies of their relationships with their families and each other start to unravel alongside tragedy.

This book was incredible. Audrain is an auto-buy author for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

The Whispers by Ashley Audrain

It has taken me a day or two to compose my thoughts about this book, but I'm still reeling. I haven't been immediately obsessed with a book like this since I turned the final page on The Push. This author is an absolute powerhouse. The market is flooded with "okay" thrillers, but it is writing like this that sets the bar for the five-star read.

To be clear, The Whispers isn't a thriller, but more of a domestic drama. Don't let that make you think you won't like it the way you did with her first novel because I would be shocked if you didn't like this one even more. In less than 350 pages, the author has expertly crafted a neighbourhood filled with characters who are each created with so much depth that you're never confused about who is who. On the surface, everyone is friendly and caring toward each other, but nothing is ever as it seems. As you turn pages, you discover how each character hides their own secrets and insecurities which drive them forward through a story filled with betrayal, anger, sex and violence.

I preordered a copy of this book months ago, and then got the notification that Net Galley had approved my request for a digital ARC. I can't wait for my copy to come because I'll be lending it out and insisting my friends read it immediately. The Whispers publishes on June 5. You NEED this book!

The above review is entirely my own. Thank you Net Galley, Penguin Random House Canada and Ashley Audrain for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.