The Whispers

Ashley Audrian, 2023

I am a big fan of Audrain’s first novel, The Push, so I was eager to read this one and pleased that it has what I now consider to be Audrain’s signature twist on writing motherhood: the flawed mother.

In The Push, the narrator had trouble connecting with her first child, and felt a lot of guilt and anxiety about it. In this novel, there are four mothers featured. While they all had interesting stories, I think their characterization was a bit diluted, at least compared Blythe in The Push. In spite of this, I was fascinated to read the many different experiences of four mothers living on the same street. One is elderly, another is struggling with repeated miscarriages. Blair is the “perfect” mom who stayed at home with her daughter and is now struggling to find some purpose in her life, while Whitney went straight to work after the birth of her children and delegates most of her childcare. She doesn’t enjoy being a mother and wasn’t even sure she wanted to have children, until…

But soon after she turned thirty, it seemed as though everyone around her was pregnant. Even the friends who had been in child-free solidarity. Each of those new babies was treated like an accomplishment, and this had surprised her, that they considered motherhood that way. Their sudden air of superiority. It was around that time when she started to feel the tug.

That, and she didn’t want to regret not having a child.

The Whispers, p. 69

This is such a common refrain, to worry about regretting not having a child. It isn’t often that we talk about regretting having a children, but this is ultimately Whitney’s experience. Whitney recalls how her own mother was miserable; she kept a bus ticket hidden away so that she had the option to leave at any moment. She doesn’t; instead she suffers.

“No, it’s–sometimes I wish she had left, to be honest.”

“But Whit, that would have been traumatic. That would have changed your whole life.”

“And it would have changed hers…”

The Whispers, p.192

Overall the novel explores the veneer of motherhood, beneath which, at best, are conflicting feelings that do not diminish love for the child but indicate a loss of identity and maybe even happiness for the mother. At worst, it reveals the mother’s complete ambivalence or dislike for the child and the role.

Add in a mysterious traumatic event and a secret extra-marital affair, and you have a fun page-turner full of book club-worthy excitement and themes to explore. Three stars.