Reviews with content warning for Ableism - Șoaptele

I’m gonna rate this how I did “The Push”, as I loved it just as much as her debut. The only thing keeping me from 5 stars is the both of them having very quick endings.

WOW!!! An incredibly fascinating second novel from Ashley Audrain. I was immediately invested in the deep tangle of suburban domesticity between the three families at the helm of this story, and even the fourth family’s insights sprinkled throughout. Audrain commands your attention with every page, every insane detail that feels hot in your hands, like juicy but disturbing neighborhood gossip you’re only so lucky to be privy too. Like you are one of the periphery moms, whispering about only the surface of the twisted, mangled iceberg.

This is as much a novel about marriages and parent-child relationships under pressure as it is a novel of suspense. Which is to say, this isn’t exactly a thriller, but very much so an intense domestic drama that leaves you clutching at your pearls, as they say, as the characters’ lives unravel. A child in a coma, due to mysterious circumstances. His parents, his neighbors, none of them quite who they seem. Rumors everywhere. Lies as abundant as a cup full of sugar.

I throughly enjoyed this one. I loved the intensity, the explicitness, the shock, every character interwoven into another in the most unexpected ways. This is a deliciously spiraling novel that makes you think a whole lot about the lives of those acquaintances around you that may be entirely different from what you only see from the end of the driveway. Or overheard from an open window…

Content Warnings

znvisser's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I was absolutely positive I would love this, because I devoured Audrains debut and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days after. Furthermore, I love multiple POVs and found the themes intriguing. However... This didn't work for me. Mostly because I found the characters *very* boring and the plot quite uneventful. While I can see some parallels with things I loved about The Push, the attempts to create tension and twists just didn't hit as hard in The Whispers. It's certainly not the case that I could predict all details, but the trails were easy to follow so I didn't turn out surprised by any of them either. Next time I'm getting excited about a sophomore novel I'll be trying to temper my enthusiasm, because I'd rather be persuaded than disappointed along the way.

Content Warnings

mysterymom40's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

valerie_roller's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

starrysteph's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This made my stomach churn from start to finish (complimentary!!). Ashley Audrain has done it again - she’s created a compelling, unsavory psychological drama that zeroes in on the most painful aspects of motherhood.

The Whispers centers around a group of women who neighbor each other in suburbia. Their lives are altered when a young boy falls from his bedroom window in the middle of the night and ends up fighting for his life in the hospital. Each narrator hides their own secrets & desires & uncomfortable truths - and they eventually have to confront their own roles leading up to the events of that tragic night.

It’s about the transformational power of motherhood, sacrifices made for partners and children, uncontrollable envy, and those intuitive ‘whispers’ that we often try to silence.

I would call the story both slow burn and character-driven, but I was reading FRENETICALLY. I couldn’t part from the book, even when it made me nauseated or horrified or furious. Audrain writes these perspectives so intimately, carefully, and compassionately that it’s hard not to place yourself in their shoes (and cross your fingers that you would make different choices).

None of these women can have it all - career-wise, love-wise, child-wise - and it breaks them one by one.

It’s messy and terrible and you may want to climb into the book and shake some of these women (Whitney, I’m looking you dead in the eyes). I felt raw after reading the final words.

CW: child death, child abuse, graphic miscarriages, pregnancy, infertility, infidelity, ableism, medical trauma, suicidal thoughts, grief, toxic friendship, bullying, sexual content

Follow me on TikTok for book recommendations!

(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

Content Warnings

More...