The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Audrain, Ashley. The Push: A Novel. Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, 2021.

The Push by Ashley Audrain began on Christmas Eve as Blythe watched Fox and Violet’s new family from the street outside their house. Blythe planned to give Fox a manuscript that shared her “side of the story” (4). It began with the start of her and Fox’s relationship in college. He proposed when they were 25 years old, and they decided to have a child two years later. Blythe was overly confident that she would be a better mother to her children than her own mother, Cecilia, was to her. Cecilia came from an abusive and suicidal mother, Etta, and abandoned Blythe and Seb when Blythe was 11 years old. Blythe became pregnant with Violet and felt a unique connection to her after she was born. But she struggled to care for Violet without much sleep in the weeks after her birth. She began socializing with other mothers, but they did not talk about the difficulties of motherhood. She was jealous that Violet responded better to Fox and believed she actively disliked her. Fox insisted that Violet was responding to Blythe’s stress.

Motherhood did not get easier for Blythe, and her marriage also began to suffer. Blythe began writing again seven months after Violet’s birth, neglecting the crying Violet for over an hour after her nap. At one year old, Violet’s strange behavior began to frighten Blythe. When Fox’s mother, Helen, visited, she witnessed Violet bite Blythe’s face during a tantrum. Violet’s teacher said that Violet exhibited intentionally harmful behavior when she was four years old. Around this time, Violet told Blythe that she would hurt a fellow classmate. Blythe found a fistful of the child’s hair in Violet’s pocket the next day. At the playground, Blythe thought she saw Violet intentionally trip a child off a structure, and he sustained fatal injuries.

The Connors moved into a new home, and Blythe wanted a second chance at motherhood. Sam was born, giving her the loving connection she and Violet lacked. Although Blythe believed Violet was warming to her, Fox insisted she needed more attention. One night, while Blythe held Sam late at night, she heard Violet from the darkness order her to put him down. Blythe began to worry about the danger Violet posed to Sam.

Violet lashed out on a family trip to the zoo, claiming that she hated Blythe. On a walk to the park the next day, Violet tugged on Blythe’s arm, causing her to spill her scalding tea. As Blythe let go of Sam’s stroller, she thought she saw Violet push it into oncoming traffic. No one believed Blythe’s story at the hospital. She avoided Fox and Violet as she grieved. Fox suggested that she go to a retreat, but by foregoing the counseling services there, she experienced a breakdown. Violet told Blythe that she wanted her to leave again when she returned. Fox insisted that Violet did not need counseling when Blythe suggested it, even after her teacher reported that she had been withdrawn. Blythe continued to believe that Violet was capable of malice.

After Fox claimed he resigned from his job, Blythe learned that he had been fired for a romance with his assistant, Gemma. Blythe asked him to move out after learning he lied about ending the relationship, agreeing upon shared custody. Violet ominously mentioned that Fox and Gemma had a secret, so Blythe followed Gemma from their apartment to a meeting for new mothers. Blythe disguised herself in a wig and presented herself as Anne, a single mother of one son, Sam. She soon learned that Gemma had become pregnant before Fox and Blythe had separated. They formed a friendship with Gemma over the weeks, and just when Blythe thought they were getting too close, Gemma insisted upon introducing her to Fox one night after a meeting.

When Gemma finally asked to meet again, she offered sympathy for Sam’s loss. But she rejected Blythe’s truth about Sam’s death. Soon, Blythe only saw Violet once a week. She spontaneously chaperoned one of Violet’s field trips and noticed that Violet was often excluded. Feeling more empathetic toward her, Blythe misjudged Violet when the latter used her to steal her razor blade, planning to give it to Jet. Blythe tried to convince Gemma that Violet was dangerous. Blythe revisited the intersection of Sam’s death and began to let go of her convictions, hoping to repair her relationship with Violet. She brought her to see an aging Mrs. Ellington, a neighbor from childhood who acted as Blythe’s mother figure. She wanted to show Violet that she could have a mother figure in her life no matter what. But Violet used it against her, claiming that she did not love her even though she was her mother.

Before the Christmas of the epigraph, Gemma returned Blythe’s beloved painting. While delivering it, Fox told Blythe that he knew Violet had cut up her wardrobe after Sam was born. When Blythe brought the manuscript to Fox’s home that night, she thought she saw Violet mouth the words, “I pushed him,” to her from a window (300). In the Epilogue, “A year and a half later,” Blythe received a phone call from a panicked Gemma claiming, “Something happened to Jet” (303).