Becky's Great Book Reviews The Whispers by Ashley Audrain

A neighborhood of young families. A terrible accident. Secrets that each person wants to keep safe for their own versions of self-preservation. "Whispers" refer to what our consciences try to tell us; what we already know deep down and the mothers in this book hear abundantly. Ashley Audrain's The Whispers is a stunning, page-turning drama highlighting the passion, exhaustion and insecurities attached to motherhood.

Whitney is a high earner and works long hours. She has little time or patience for her three children, let alone her oldest, Xavier, who is especially trying. She finds nurturing almost impossible and often rages at the ten-year-old's behavior. Whitney always wants more; nothing is ever enough. She takes part in risky sexual behaviors outside of her marriage to fill up the emptiness she feels inside and to fulfill her need for power.

Blair is a stay-at-home-mom of one who feels left behind by society and diminished. Some days she has the thought that her mundane responsibilities are all she has in life. She fantasizes about leaving her husband who she feels certain is cheating on her but hangs on to the security of staying. Blair has ignored red flags from the beginning of their relationship. She remembers hearing once in a podcast that "your partner should calm your nervous system". She never stopped thinking about this and how her husband's presence makes her hold her breath.

Rebecca is a physician who has suffered through multiple miscarriages and is consumed by the deep urge to have a child. The wanting she feels is painful. So is the soul crushing hope her husband has seemed to let go of, but she can't. After her fourth miscarriage, she feels numb during the D & C because she has "tried on the disappointment over and over so that she would be prepared. She had already lived the very moment she was in."

Mara is the elderly neighbor who watches all from her front porch. The younger mothers on the street don't really SEE her, only her age which acts to make her invisible. Harboring her own painful, yet resilient experience of motherhood, Mara lives out the rest of her days with a husband that she deeply resents while observing the comings and goings of her neighbors.

Each of the younger women in this novel makes assumptions and generalizations about the others; considering one "has it all" or the other is "ideal and perfect". The irony is not lost as tragedy hovers following a horrible event where each neighbor plays a part.

The novel avoids falling into stereotypes with the author's exquisite and sympathetic character development. Judgement over mothers is an unfortunate constant in our society. Ashley Audrain's depiction of motherhood in The Whispers is a masterful examination of that judgement.

Audrain's dedication reads: for every mom who is hanging on by a thread. And for those trying desperately trying to be one. These words perfectly capture the essence of motherhood while paying homage to its extreme tribulations. Calling to mind Liane Moriarty's books such as Big Little Lies, this story was chilling, heart-breaking at times, and absolutely captivating. I give Ashley Audrain's The Whispers a resounding five stars and will read anything and everything she writes going forward!