Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Length: 336 pages
First Published: 2023
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Rachael’s Review
In a well-off neighborhood, four families gather together for a pleasant summer barbecue but are thrown when Whitney, the perfect hostess, explodes at her son Xavier. Months later, Xavier falls out a bedroom window in the middle of the night. While he lies critically injured in the hospital, Whitney refuses to speak and the other women begin to wonder what really happened that night, knowing they all have secrets to hide.
The Whispers was a page-turning family drama that I could not put down, reading it in one evening. Each account of motherhood was different but contained such power, showing the strain that comes from the choices each woman makes. Unafraid to tackle hard subjects, Audrain tackles the dark side of motherhood in this intense suburban thriller.
Publisher’s Description
A propulsive page-turner about four families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens—and what is lost when we give in to our own worst impulses
On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighborhood couples and their children gather for a catered barbecue as the summer winds down; drinks continue late into the night.
Everything is fabulous until 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 she refuses to speak to anyone, and his life hangs in the balance.
What happens next, over the course of a tense three days, as each of these women grapple with what led to that terrible night?
Exploring envy, women’s friendships, desire, and the intuitions that we silence, The Whispers is a chilling novel that marks Audrain as a major women’s fiction talent.
About Ashley Audrain
Ashley Audrain is a former publicity director of Penguin Books Canada and author of The Push and The Whispers. She currently lives in Toronto. Visit the author’s website →
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