rickjones's Reviews (1.66k)

I have to say I don't think I fully grasped what this story was attempting to express to me. It was disturbing, winding, and gleaming with visual detail, but I never felt fully engaged in what was going on because I was questioning it too much. There were also some lines that were unnecessarily offensive, namely the way the briefly introduced transgender woman was described as "a boy who thinks she's a girl". This is a weird, unique story but not one I feel especially strongly about or would recommend to other readers.

I tragically feel this book is Sager's weakest work that I've read so far, even thought I was highly anticipating it. An enormous amount of pages are dedicated to reiterating how much Casey drinks, to the point it almost felt exploitive. Sager's protagonists typically have a unique hobby that their personality revolves around, and Casey's is alcoholism. She really doesn't have many skills or strengths, besides teetering on the edge of drunkenness and withholding the truth, that are explored within the events of the book. The twist was also a disappointment to me.

At this point it's been long cliché to reveal the husband as the murderer, and I've liked how Sager's past work avoided using supernatural occurrences as the easy way to explain why something strange was happening. I did think it was interesting to make Casey an unreliable narrator, but I felt that was the only strength that was unique to this book.

When the book was not overly repetitive I was engaged in it, yet too much of the text reiterated ideas that I as a reader already understood and did not need to have restated. Reading those lines was irritating and felt almost like an insecurity was being expressed. Either Sager felt his ability to imply ideas to us was inadequate, or that we as readers weren't very sharp. There are many improvements that could have been made to this book, but the ending was decently rewarding and it was entertaining enough that I continued it despite its flaws. I wouldn't recommend this book to other readers because I feel Sager has written stronger books previously, but I still look forward to reading what he creates in the future.

I was a little reluctant to read this book because of the subject matter, but it really blew me away. This is not so much a thriller as it is a meditation on motherhood and how generations of people are haunted and harmed when domestic cruelty goes excused. Audrain's writing is direct, insightful and striking. She does not overtly tell the reader how to interpret her themes, but makes it impossible not to empathize with and understand  Blythe's decisions, fears, and grief. Even though many of the events in this book were harrowing, I stayed glued to the pages and deeply engaged in Blythe's life. The formatting of this novel, where Blythe's husband is referred to as "you", added an intimacy to the story that I had never experienced before. I was left thinking about the meaningful rage of this book for days afterwards, and will probably read it again so I can dwell on themes I missed the first time.

I would highly recommend The Push to others, especially those interested in child development and motherhood. Audrain excellently presents a mother who is flawed and feels antagonized by her child without resorting to excusing abusive behavior as some stories critiquing motherhood unfortunately do. Instead Audrain's work displays the reality of generational abuse, how it burrows into people who will never know their family's originally terrorizer, littering hurt and distance even through relationships where those involved are aiming not to make their parents' mistakes. This is an honest, gutting look at an intimate violence that when neglected, affects our society as a whole. 

While Rock Paper Scissors was an engaging thriller, I felt that it was difficult to suspend my disbelief at times. The likelihood of certain plot elements weaving together was so improbable that it was almost silly. At times I felt as if the creation of a solid, meaningful story was sacrificed for the sake of jamming in as many plot twists and mysterious one-liners as possible. I didn't grow attached to any of the characters either. To make the book work they all had to be secretive, manipulative people so it was difficult to feel drawn to them. However, this was entertaining to read and I did think that the suspense was done well. I would recommend it to people looking for something immersive to read that they don't need to take too seriously.