I was feeling very meh about this book until the last line of the epilogue. And then it was awesome. 
IMPORTANT: note the content warnings. 

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

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

 I am not sure what possessed me to request an advance reader copy (ARC) of "The Whispers" by Ashley Audrain from NetGalley when an email offer popped into my inbox. I have, but have not read, her first novel, "The Push," which made a huge splash when it was published a year or two ago (and the author is Canadian). I do like a good thriller now & then, but this one promised (in the words of one reviewer) "A beautifully written hymn to the pain, love and fury of motherhood." Hmmm... As a non-mother (not by choice), I was wary... but I decided I'd try to keep an open mind.

Nevertheless, there was a LOT in this book that hit just a little too uncomfortably close to home.

The story focuses on four very different women, neighbours on the same rapidly gentrifying street, their relationships to motherhood, and to each other -- all of them with their own particular flaws and carefully guarded secrets. There's affluent professional couple Whitney and Jacob and their three children. There's uber-stay-at-home mom of one, Blair, who is obsessed (creepily so, at times) with Whitney and her life, so different from her own -- and obsessed with the suspicion that her husband Aiden is having an affair.

There's a childless couple: kid-magnet Ben and Rebecca, who is a trauma physician in a hospital emergency room. Needless to say, she's the character I identified with the most -- even as I cringed over the sometimes stereotypical way she was portrayed. (Although undoubtedly some moms reading this book will cringe over Blair & Whitney in much the same way...!) Audrain must have personal experience with infertility and pregnancy loss (or is very close to someone who has), because she hits every note here. (Graphic descriptions of pregnancy loss are included.)

Finally, there's elderly Mara, a longtime resident of the street, who knows and understands more than most people think -- and who has been keeping a few secrets of her own.

The plot shifts back & forth in time. It begins with a backyard birthday party, where Whitney loses her temper in a confrontation with her 10-year-old son, Xavier -- and not for the first time. Months later, the boy is in the hospital, fighting for his life. Little by little, as the tension builds, and there's one revelation after another, we learn the truth of what happened...

This is a very readable book -- but also very disturbing -- nasty in parts. Lots of secrets and lies. There are triggers galore, depending on your own personal situation and tolerance level -- including (but not limited to) infertility, pregnancy loss, children in peril, child loss, abuse, jealousy, sex, infidelity, betrayal, death, mothers vs non-mothers,. Consider yourselves forewarned!

I had a hard time figuring out how to rate this one. I settled on 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads. I had problems with the plot and disliked many (most?) of the very flawed characters. There were still a few plot points left ambiguously hanging at the end.

But it sure kept me turning the pages.

Publication date: June 6th.

Thank you to NetGalley (and the publisher) for my free copy in exchange for a review. This was my first experience with NetGalley and ARCs. Once I got some technical kinks worked out and was able to access and start reading the book, I enjoyed the experience, even if I had some reservations about this particular book.