Title: The Whispers
Author: Ashley Audrain
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: June 6, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Messy • Tense • Uncomfortable

📖 S Y N O P S I S

On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighbor­hood couples and their children gather for a barbecue as the summer winds down. Everything is fabulous until Whitney, the picture-perfect hostess, explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. Everyone at the party hears her exquisite veneer crack—loud and clear. Before long, that same young boy falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night. And then his mother can only sit by her son’s hospital bed, where his life hangs in the balance.

Over the course of a tense three days, the women of the neighborhood grapple with what led to that terrible night. People-pleasing Blair, Whitney’s best friend, suspects something isn’t as it seems. Rebecca, the ER doctor who helps treat Whit­ney’s son, has struggled to have a child of her own. And the all-knowing Mara, the older woman next door, watches everyone’s world unravel from her front porch.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I was not one of the people who loved Ashley Audrain's debut, The Push, however, after reading the synopsis for The Whispers I was intrigued and wanted to give this Canadian author a second chance. What I knew for sure was I'd get a plot that pushes the boundaries and delves deep into the darkest areas of the human psyche. And that it does!

Told from the perspective of four women, the entire story spans a week and touches on themes of motherhood and marriage, envy and desire, and womanhood and female friendship. It unearths the darkest and most disturbing thoughts, those little inklings many woman have, yet never actually voice. While none of the characters are very likeable, each perspective does offer something entirely different and allows the reader to contemplate their inner most thoughts and feelings. There is an underlying thread of mystery surrounding what truly happened to the boy running in background.

While nothing overly shocking occurs in The Whispers, it's filled with secrets and a whole host of twists and turns. It forces the reader to sit with some uncomfortable truths, which would make it an excellent book club selection. It worked for me so much better than The Push and while neither book was a favourite, I'll continue to follow Ashley's career and look forward to seeing what she'll write next.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• suburban thrillers
• adults behaving badly
• examining motherhood

⚠️ CW: child abuse, emotional abuse, injury/injury detail, bullying, death, child death, grief, infertility, infidelity, mental illness, pregnancy, miscarriage, toxic relationship, toxic friendship, blood, medical content, medical trauma, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, gaslighting, sexual content, cursing, alcohol

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"But this is the thing about miscarriage. It is not an event, something that once happened and has ended. Miscarriage goes on and on, follows a woman through her days and her dreams, and then she will have blissful split seconds when she forgets, when her brain can still feel the gratification of having that baby, until she remembers the baby is not hers anymore, and hasn’t been for days or even weeks."

"It’s amazing what you can learn about people when you’re more or less invisible. It’s the things they don’t want you to see that tell you the most." 

3.5 stars, rounded up

This is one of those "every marriage is awful in it's own way" kind of books. (Cannot relate.) I've labeled it as a mystery-thriller, but it's really more of a domestic drama with a little dash of whodunit to keep things interesting. I also read The Push by Ashley Audrain, and The Whispers feels like its spiritual successor. Audrain gives her characters such depth and nuance, even if they're "bad" people.

Just like The Push, this one also ends with a big "OMG" last sentence. I find this kind of ending lazy, but it's fun! 

Extreme trigger warnings for fertility issues, pregnancy loss, etc.

Way too brutal for me! But also couldn’t put it down.

This book was right up my alley. Mystery, deceit, twists, emotional roller coasters. I can say Mara, Rebecca, and Xavier were my favorite characters.

I ate this up. Would read again, would read another book by this author.

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…

A suburban drama at its finest! 

What’s said and done behind closed doors isn’t just your secret when you live in a closely housed community. 

It all starts with a fabulous party hosted by Whitney Loverly and her husband Jacob! The guest list includes a few neighbours like Blair and Aiden, Ben and Rebecca, Mara, other moms and many acquaintances. 

The party becomes a standstill when Whitney is overheard screaming atrocities at her son, Xavier. Her non so perfect life is revealed in a startling way. 

Nine month later and Xavier is found outside her bedroom window, as if he’d fallen out. 

Was it an accident? Could Whitney’s rage have gotten the better of her this time? 

It’s natural with any trauma that the family and those close to the family will be asked questions to ensure it was an accident. In a small closely housed community things will have been seen and heard, outside of the outburst that happened at the party… will anyone share what they’ve seen or heard? 

Blair is having difficulties of her own, her marriage isn’t great, her daughter Chloe is devastated about Xavier and she’s convincing herself that her husband is cheating on her with none other than Whitney. 

Rebecca and Ben have been trying desperately for a baby, and has suffered many miscarriages. Rebecca works at the hospital that Xavier was taken to and has kept a close eye on his case. She also knows about that night at the party… should she bring it up? 

She’s keeping a secret of her own right now, after Ben stating he was done trying for a baby. Around that time Ben started visiting Xavier, playing softball but keeping it from Rebecca. 

Mara lives right next door to the Loverly family and Xavier reminds her so much of her own son, with all his peculiar behaviours. They spend time together that’s peaceful and understanding. She gifts him with an old airplane that was once her sons, which Xavier treasures. 

Blair, Whitney, Rebecca and Mara are all neighbours but for the most part that’s the main tie to their relationships. Whitney and Blair are closer but Blair tends to keep her secrets close. 

With heavy character narrative the events surrounding Xavier’s accident are told in a week long timeline with some chapters from the past describing bits of the women’s lives that help the reader understand why they’ve become the way they are. 

Intense. Distressing. Character Driven.